Olivia Rubens is an upcoming fashion designer focusing on bringing sustainability to the world of fashion, specifically knitwear. Ruben’s focus of her work is sustainable, eccentric, playful pieces that cause her audience to evoke emotion when looking at her collections. She describes her work as dark and playful in a colorful way.
Rubens fell in love with upcycling while getting her Masters at the London College of Fashion. She loves using discarded pieces to make something new and creative. For example, during her master, she was tasked with using old jeans to make a hand-knit sweater. In her current work, Rubens partners with mainly sustainable brands and only uses highly certified yarns and fabrics. Her creative process is that of upcycling and shredding materials to be able to knit them. Rubens will often take old clothing and shred them into their basic fabric form and then knit them into something new. When Rubens is not able to acquire enough fabric from old clothing she partners with brands who can get her the most environmentally conscious materials.
She is inspired by many fashion designers who have held to their sustainable nature and wants to be able to prove to herself that it is possible to work with old materials that were once used by someone else. It is inspiring for her when her audience finds joy in her pieces that have been repurposed. Collaboration is important for Rubens, she loves working with other brands who will encourage her to have new ideas and to stay sustainable.
Rubens is intrinsically motivated by herself. She is in constant competition with herself to do better, to make better quality pieces, and to continue to reach her full potential. Rubens also loves fashion and creating and would do so even if she was not getting recognition for it. But Rubens also has some extrinsic motivation. Rubens wants the world of fashion to be more sustainable and something people can take responsibility for. She states that it is not possible to be fully sustainable 100% of the time and being able to acknowledge that and ask yourself what you can do better is a big part of sustainability.
Sources:
https://fashionmagazine.com/style/olivia-rubens-workshop/
https://fashionista.com/2021/01/new-future-sustainable-fashion-clothing-designers
I have a ton of family who likes to knit, so I always grew up with a lot of knit garments. I love the handmade aesthetic and how durable they are. Upcycling old material into knitted garments is really cool, and I think that the acknowledgement that it isn't possible to ever be completely sustainable is really poignant. Her self reflection and focusing on where it is possible to improve sustainability is really cool, and something that is not nearly as integral to a lot of clothing manufacture.
ReplyDeleteOh this is so interesting! I love finding artists who work with recycled garments, and as someone who just learned to knit in the last year, recycled knitwear is particularly interesting to me! Her work looks so neat, I'm glad you shared this!
ReplyDeleteThis post is truly with the times. With thrifting on the rise, and fast fashion being ever under the microscope, the post shows us an alternative to the system.
ReplyDeleteWow her work is amazing! Rubens must be incredibly talented to be able to work with such different materials and to be able to knit with them nonetheless. Her acknowledgment that it is impossible to be 100% sustainable all the time is very important. The pressure to be sustainable all the time often causes people to have unrealistic expectations for themselves. Instead, we should all reflect on our roles in sustainability and look to improve instead of getting dragged down by not feeling good enough.
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