The Cradle to Cradle® concept and Eco-friendly design plays a major role in my day to day. Therefore I could not pass up this opportunity to be part of a challenge and create a trendy garment out of reused umbrella fabric or parts.

The inspiration for my Garment came from a mixture between the Baroque and Grunge Look. The dress is made in its entirety from a magenta colored umbrella fabric. But it could be reproduced in any other color or pattern as long as it is taken from broken umbrellas. I chose a magenta color, since I tried to use colors popular in the baroque times, and I came across mostly pastels and colors deeply rich in saturation. The boots on the other hand remind of a modern and trendy Grunge style. The dress in its entirety is supposed to be based on the past but not from the past.

As to the construction of the dress, it is made out of umbrella fabric as well as the rods used in an umbrella. The top part is constructed as a corsett blouse, shaping the body's contours. The ruffles on the shoulders and three-quarter sleeves are reinforced with the help of rods taken from the umbrella. As to the balloon skirt, it is supposed to imitate the shape of an open umbrella, which is also achieved by using the umbrella's wires. The belt and buckle are as well constructed out of the umbrella fabric and rods, by bending them into the desired shape and wrapping them with the umbrella fabric. The only components of the dress not consisting of umbrella material, but out of reused material are the buttons on the blouse. Even the boots are made out of umbrella fabric, and held up above the knee with umbrella rods.

When I first read about the competition and what the Challenge was about, the first thing that came to my mind was imitating an umbrella. I believe I achieved using the concept of an umbrella with a modern touch a by infusing a couple of trendy details and thus creating a concept to perfectly reuse an umbrella in the couture world.

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