DIY City Mag - New Orleans Issue coming July 15
Deconstructing Fashion
Lori Sandstedt
Recycling. It’s more than a buzz word. It’s no longer a trend. The idea derives from not only a sense of environmental responsibility, but also as a statement against uber consumerism. Recyclers and deconstructers use materials found in places like secondhand clothing stores or at organized clothing swaps. Fashion trends tend to put a timeclock on a garment and some people only want to wear that moment’s trend. Good quality second hand clothing is often worn once or twice and then discarded….even with years of life remaining.
There are many reasons why recycled clothing is good for the planet. These discarded garments don’t end up in landfills…the very same landfills that create serious environmental problems. Textiles make up approximately three percent of our household trash, which adds up to about a million tons thrown out every year. Additionally, once we’ve dumped them into landfills, many textiles don’t decompose and the chemicals within them can contribute to environmental pollution. Wool does decompose but then it produces methane, which contributes to global warming. By designing with thrift store finds or cast offs, recyclers, also known as “trashionistas”, save resources and that means less pollution, too.
Although there are lots of socially responsible reasons to purchase recycled designs, let’s not forget how wonderful it is to own a “one of a kind” garment. How refreshing to walk down the street and not run into yourself. Recyclers allow you to be uniquely you…and in today’s world of cookie cutter, mass produced fashion, that can be refreshing and freeing. By supporting recycling artists, we help eco design transition from fashion trend to an environmental support system.
Helen Carter, a Syracuse resident and known as “Secret Lentil” on Etsy, is one such environmentally conscious designer. She agreed to talk to DIY City mag about her work.
LS: Describe what you do:
HC: I’m a renegade designer and seamstress. Secret Lentil is my line of deconstructed and reconstructed one-off clothing.
LS: What is your earliest childhood art-making experience?
HC: I was a seamstress and interior designer for some very demanding trolls.
LS: What do you think it was that influenced you to do what you’re doing now?
HC: Curiosity, my own stubborn nature, dissatisfaction with corporate fashion, a love for machines and working with my hands, and a need to find work that is respectful to me and to others.
LS: Why is recycling important to you?
HC: Recycling is important to the process of my work but not necessarily the outcome. I don’t want a dress to yell “I am proper, Green and recycled, so love me.” Clothing is intimate and people have to desire it first because of how it looks and feels - ethics come next. I’m not so interested in motivation by guilt. I just want people to love the clothes I make.
For me a trip to the fabric store is a minor personal failure. As is cutting into a fresh new chunk of fabric: a failure spiritually, artistically, economically. It holds no spark for me. My design and construction pivots on working with what already exists and has history. All my materials come from thrift stores, flea markets and estate sales - places I enjoy spending time.
LS: When designing clothes, how do you get creative ideas flowing?
HC: The ideas are the easy part. I wake up twitchy every morning thinking of different ways things can fit together - shapes, colors, concepts. I spend time studying furniture, ceramics, shapes of flowers, shells and rocks, and remembering all the good bugs and creatures you find under a rotten log.
But to put those ideas to work I have to get out of my own way. I’m neurotic. Every morning I drink coffee while chanting “There are no mistakes. There are no mistakes.” If that doesn’t work I look at a quote from Mr. Lentil that I keep on my wall: “You don’t need to sew prog rock Helen, you just need to sew punk rock.” That almost always gets me started.
LS: Do you have a favorite designer(s)?
HC: I’m not interested in much that is mass produced. I like to watch the work of others who are on their own path. Desira Pesta, Lori Sandstedt, and Danny Mansmith are just a few of the folks who I know or “virtually” know whose work I follow. Mostly I feel proud to be in a group of peers doing reconstruction or just those doing the direct work of making things for people.
http://www.desirapesta.com/
http://www.lorimarsha.com/
http://scrap-dannymansmith.squarespace.com/
LS: Is your fashion style the same as it was when you were a teenager? What changed? What is the same?
HC: My fashion sense has wavered back and forth for decades from vintage dress with Cons to Random Earthy Co-op Shopper #3. I’ve always been a tomboy and not much of a clothes hound. I only own a few pairs of shoes. My style used to revolve around trying to appear uninvolved with my culture - just one of many inherently naive agendas I have pursued, without regret. I think that’s why the work I do now matters so much to me - if you can’t beat them, chop up what they toss aside and turn it into art.
LS: Do you read design magazines?
HC: No not much. I have a deeply ambivalent relationship with typography and graphic design. I can’t help but pick those magazines up then I throw them down, disgusted. Then I pick them up again. I do enjoy the UK textiles mag Selvedge. I’ve started reading more design blogs but I get tired looking at so many overly clean homes.
LS: Describe your “style”
HC: Right now, I’d say some freakish blend of Shaker and Punk with a dash of Dr. Suess.
LS: Any opinion about current fashion trends?
HC: Nothing polite. I feel nauseous when I see factory-made clothes trying to look indie or handmade so I just don’t look.
LS: Do you think about what kind of person wears your clothes?
HC: Oh yes, in two distinct groups.
There are the real people - artists, goat keepers, ballerina princesses, 40-something goths, boys in bands and others, lots of people I like.
Then the imaginary: I’m building a world in my head of people whom I’m dressing. They are thoughtful hard working people performing a surreal task that is new to them - maybe they are tending a vast snowflake garden. Its outcome is sketchy at best. They are as sincere as they are silly. I care for them very much and want to help prepare them for their lifework by dressing them in transformative comfortable clothes. It’s okay to laugh at me for saying this. I do.
LS: Do you use your designs to express any political or philosophical statements?
HC: Hmm. Not statements but maybe undercurrents. Of course the materials, process, and the simple direct act of “making things for people” has political connotations. I’m very interested in keeping my own labor and time to myself in service of my craft. Within my work I suppose my interpretations of what is and isn’t feminine might be political, but I don’t think about that too much. I make what I like.
LS: Is finding time for designing clothes an issue for you? How do you juggle that?
HC: This is my full time job. Hurray for that.
LS: Do you have a website?
HC: http://www.secretlentil.com
One Comment
I’ve always loved Secret Lentil’s work and now I see why…not only are her designs wonderful, she is a witty woman with a unique way of viewing the world!