Post Consumer: Extending the Life of Waste Garments

For Samantha Hodgins' Honours project, she posed the research question: “How can I extend the life cycle of obsolete New Zealand Post uniform garments through deconstruction and reconstruction textile processes to create a sustainable textile model?” By deconstructing garments supplied by the Space Between initiative back into their basic components, such as fibers or yarns, and reconstructing them using both ancient and contemporary textile processes, she is creating a rich variety of textile samples that will educate and inspire consumers to re-purpose their unwanted garments.

Currently, Samantha is trying to sample a variety of processes whilst researching and writing the research proposal. She will be sampling with the intention of creating a final collection of apparel based textiles. It was designed to be a model for ways to create variety from a limited source of waste that other designers and craftspersons can be inspired by and apply to the waste that they have on hand.