What happens to our recycled clothes?

What a great tee-shirt! It puts the message across about recycling!

I have always wanted to know what actually happens to our clothes that we put in the big recycle bins at the recycle unit.

I give my old clothes to charity so someone else can get a good use out of them whether

they want to cut them up and use them as a dog blanket or actually wear them.

The clothes that have stains on them or are ripped and no charity shop would thank you for dropping them at their door I put in the recycle unit. Its always crosses my mind when I drop them in, are they actually going to get put to good use or having a stain on them does that qualify them to go to the land fill.

Each item has to be looked at and checked for the faults, if there reusable they get a tag put on them and then put in large bins where they are then sent off.

If the clothes are totally ruined they get put in a pile where they get cut up and used for rags for cleaning.

This is great and it shows that we really are trying to recycle and help the planet and our wallets, but where do these clothes go once they have been sorted through and separated from the good and the bad. Do they go to our charity shops or do they get sent abroad. I think either way is a great thing because everything has more than one use, but i have never been told.

On the side of the bin where i recycle my old clothes and shoes it never says what the next steps are, and if what i'm doing is actually going to make a difference to someone.

I would like it to be made clearer for people what can be recycled within clothing, whether an old cleaning cloth can be put in and it would make a difference if something is torn to pieces, is that waisting the peoples time who are having to sort through it all or is it actually going to make a difference.

On the side of our domestic recycle bins it states what you can and cant put in so why not do it for clothes, why not tell people who don't already know what a difference putting it in the recycle bin would make to someone else's life.

Why not do adverts on television and make people aware that it is possible to recycle clothes because i certainly know that not everyone knows it is possible to recycle clothes and the possibilities that could come from this.

Fashion Illustration - my ultimate selection

I am having a bit of an identity crisis trying to find my own style with fashion illustration.

It's not something that comes to me naturally. I keep trying force myself to try new styles but none of them so far feel natural, I just think i haven't found my style yet which sounds simple enough but i'm finding it hard to find that missing ingredient. I have done a bit of searching on the web to find fashion illustrators that inspire me to find new techniques and here are a few that i have found along the way, that really excite me and get me motivated to try and take certain qualities from there wor

k and

add them to mine to see if that is what my fashion illustration is missing.

These are illustrations done by a company based in Berlin called Wacker Eins.

what i love about these illustrations is that the garment is the focus of the attention but there is so much m

ore going on in the background and your eyes just move from one bit of detail to another, this is an image that would never get boring to stare at.

Tobie Giddio

She has worked for clients such as Apple and Tiffany & Co and to the present day works within the fashion industry.

Her work to me is inspiring each picture just exudes movement and life within the abstract illustration.

Each image looks like it is moving almost like the model is striding down the runway and i think that is a great quality in

her work.

These are just a few of her images if you fancy having a look at more inspiring pieces of art have a look at her website (Hopefully the link works)

http://tobiegiddio.com/

Tina Berning

When i discovered Tina Berning on my quest for inspiration i was inspired by the variation with her work and how two images did not look the same.

This interested me because i felt like an accomplished artist like herself didn't really have a set style so does that mean we all can experiment on each different illustration and we don't need a set style for someone to recognizes us by.

There are hundred of her images on the web but her website is really interesting and shows the variation of her work.

http://www.tinaberning.online.de/new.php

Make do and mend the revival

I have decided to look into made do and mend for my first module as I feel it is very current even now, especially with the credit crunch, it seems to have done a full circle.

I am very much into recycling and not waisting things so this seemed right up my street.

In the 1940s people had no other choice as they were given coupons to buy clothes with so they could not exceed their quota, but now people are choosing to go to vintage fairs and charity shops for those second hand bargains. What is better than getting something for so cheap that you wont see 20 other people wearing.

Vivienne Westwood has even been giving advice on current make do and mend tips for the hard times, making your on jewellery and clothes.

clothes now are getting so cheap it sometimes its cheaper to buy a new t from a high street shop rather than heading off to a charity shop or a vintage fair, for those bits to repair or update but people are considering where its been made and who has been making it, after Primark were caught out allowing their clothes to be made in slums by extremely poor people for next to nothing and as usual the company was making a massive mark up at their expense. people are now considering what actually goes on behind fashion house doors.