CBlends
From MediaExperiment.org Wiki
cBlends is a project to remix and reuse clothes by blending different cultures through the intermediary of fashion. The projects is a re-newed aesthetic that is disruptive, sometimes mismatched and pseudo-utilitarian. All the clothes are produced by combining and remixing re-used name-brand clothes and inexpensive brands that are collected from around the world. Initially the clothes are from China and the United States with styles ranging from street Hip-hop clothes, military uniforms, and business suits all modified in accordance with basic rules for clothes blending. Post-blend, the renewed style is hybrid, yet distinctive from first-run expensive designs.
This project also posits a new model of fashion production and marketing. The southern Chinese city of Guangzhou has one of the largest clothes wholesale markets in the Pearl River Delta that supplies the clothing market domestically and internationally. There is large percentage of clothes that are professionally manufactured knock-off name-brand fashions in these wholesale markets. The hundreds of booths selling clothes in wholesale markets, no matter how small the square footage a vendor occupies, are supported by their own factories due to the large population in China, amongst other factors.
Interestingly, unlike in Europe and the United States, the used-clothes market in China barely exists. cBlends specifically reuses and builds-upon two types of products: used and inexpensive clothes to form renewed clothes designs with a custom manufacturing process, thus adding markup in the process. And, while cBlends does not endorse unfair labor practices, the value of cBlends comes not from using inexpensive goods, but from empowering individuals locally to customize and reuse their own clothes, rather than have to purchase more generic expensive clothes.
Currently, this project is taking place in Guangzhou and San Francisco by four collaborators: Han Yan, Bibi, Deer Fang and Jon Phillips. We are proposing a fashion release show in May 2007 to feature this new line of clothes. Meanwhile we are also seeking more participants to remake and remix clothes.
Contents |
People
- Deer Fang
- Jon Phillips
- Han Yan
- bibi
Series
- hiphop knockoff + used clothes hip-hop 水货 ＋ 旧衫
- military uniform + blue jeans 军装 ＋ 牛仔服
- Qipao + western wedding dress 旗袍＋婚纱
- business clothes + athletic wear
DIY Step by Step
50/50 Vertical Hard Cut between Military desert camouflage jacket + Army Green Shirt
- Select a military desert camouflage jacket and an army green shirt from your closet, local thrift store, or inexpensive no-name brand store (emphasis on keeping this cheap, since they will be cut apart)
- Take a photo of each piece of clothing
- Import the photos to your computer
- Then, open the images in a photo editing software like Gimp.org (free) or photoshop (expensive).
- Isolate each shirt from the background of the image. It's better to clean out the background of the clothes in the picture first.
- Cut and sew based upon your sketch.
- (ALTERNATIVE) If you don't like sewing, print out the image from photoshop and take it to a friend who has sewing machine at home, or take it to an inexpensive tailor.
- Save parts that are cut off from the original clothes to make new ones.
- Make sure to document your creation on your website or on http://mediaexperiment.org/cblends so that others learn of your creation.
Examples
50/50 Mismatch Style
The original prototype finished in Guangzhou in January 2007.
Mismatch Work + Leisure
The second jacket finished in Guangzhou on Feb 10, 2007.
Casual Military
Casual Millitary #1
Feb 15, 2007
Casual Military #2
March 5, 2007
Casual Military #3
March 5, 2007
Sport-Business
March7, 2007
This one is made in San Francisco. Both parts of the jacket were purchased in Community Threft store in the Mission. The sport jacket cost $7 and the suit cost $10. The work of the jacket was done in a tailor store in Chinatown by a Chinese lady named Fang Yi Qing. And it cost $10 for the labor.
April, 07
This jacket is combining a "I climbed the Great Wall" jacket with a business suite. I just started learning some sewing machine technique, and so this one is not very solid.
With the help of Emi Fujita, we created another sport-business jacket in our apartment in San Francisco. That night I cooked dinner. We couldn't have wine because we had sewing mission. Emi came up the idea of having the sport jacket sleeve comeout from the suit.
Casual Military #4
March 28, 2007. #4 Military jacket by Lu Jun and Han Yan. This one reverses half of the jacket. The result is half interior of the jacket exposed next to it's exterior. Brilliant!
Mock-ups of Future Designs
Sketch1
Sketch2
links
Cool designers
