NERA ETVA - Distributed Design Platform

Useful information

Team members: Armin ?osi?
Country: Bosnia and Herzegovina
Keywords: fashion design recycling plastic handmade sequin dress environmental protection

Short Description

This project is about recycling plastic in fashion and environmental protection of the water.

Detailed Description

NERA ETVA, a fashion design project with a message on environmental protection, inspired by the Neretva river (Bosnia and Herzegovina), makes a question: Will Neretva become a river of plastic? Its main element is a garment (dress) made out using the sequin technique in placing small plastic capsules cut out from PET (1) plastic bottles, by hand, to present an alternative process in producing sequin disks from plastic (PET) that already exists on our planet, and not by producing new sheets of plastic. It is produced by hand, cutting oval shapes from plastic bottles and placing them in repetitive parallel lines just like using the sequin technique described in fashion system.

Project Details

Does your design take social and cultural challenges and human wellbeing into consideration?: Yes, it does. It takes care of the planet and water by recycling PET plastic from our environment, and it prevents the production of new plastic for creating plastic disks for the sequin technique.

Does your design support sustainable production, embodying circular or regenerative design practices?: Of course. Creating a circular system of selecting and cutting PET plastic bottles, it shares an idea or concept of using existing plastic on our planet to avoid new plastic production.

Does your design promote awareness of responsible design and consumption?: Yes, it does. Following the conclusion that "bottled water companies sell plastic bottles and not water" this design, and fashion editorial through photography, promotes taking care of our planet by avoiding plastic in everyday consumption.

Images

Video

Project Website

www.armincosic.com/nera-etva

Social Media Accounts

www.instagram.com/armcosic

www.facebook.com/armcosic

Useful information

Team members: Armin ?osi?
Country: Bosnia and Herzegovina
Keywords: fashion design recycling plastic handmade sequin dress environmental protection

Short Description

This project is about recycling plastic in fashion and environmental protection of the water.

Detailed Description

NERA ETVA, a fashion design project with an aim of raising awareness on environmental protection, inspired by the Neretva river (Bosnia and Herzegovina) and its unique color, makes a question: Will Neretva become a river of plastic? Its main element is a garment (dress) made out using the sequin technique in placing small plastic capsules cut out from PET (1) plastic bottles, by hand. It shows an alternative process in producing sequin disks from plastic (PET) that already exists on our planet, and not by producing new sheets of plastic. It is produced by hand, cutting oval shapes from plastic bottles and placing them in repetitive parallel rows (lines) just like while using the sequin technique as described in fashion system. An industrial approach in producing plastic disks would be supported by cutting machines that would cut oval plastic capsules (disks) out of PET bottles or separated parts of PET plastic, following the 2D graphic sheet of capsule shapes.

Project Details

Does your design take social and cultural challenges and human wellbeing into consideration?: Yes, it does. According to REUTERS Graphics' report "Drowning in plastic" by Simon Scarr and Marco Hernandez, "8.3 billion tons of plastic was produced from 1950 to 2015. Most was single-use plastic, now discarded, and only 6% of the cumulative total has been recycled". This project raises awareness about the plastic pollution of our planet and shows how waste from human environment can be reused and treated as a new source of material in designing an alternative concept of creating sequins. Recycling plastic PET bottles should be and already has been a developing design and cultural challenge in creating wearable products by humans for humans. Just like humans designed the first leather jacket, using the material from their environment; it's time to reuse existing materials from our environment, or to stop using them - that's the showing point of this project.

Does your design support sustainable production, embodying circular or regenerative design practices?: Yes, partially. It shows how the same amount of material (plastic waste) can be reshaped, reused by hand, in creating fashionable dresses.

Does your design promote awareness of responsible design and consumption?: Yes, it does. Through an online campaign (fashion editorial) under the theme of environmental protection, different photos promote awareness of human responsibility in everyday consumption of plastic and protecting the Planet.