DECONSTRUCTION AND DECOLONIZING OF FASHION

By: Katherine Soucie

Fashion is a form of cultural production based on a system of collaborative processes. It is a language that communicates and embodies the ability to express identity through its transformative qualities, and provides the shape to our daily social experience. From this framework, which is deeply embedded within a social tradition, I view this space as an opportunity to shift this narrative and expand my role as a designer into an area where I operate as the observer, researcher, explorer, and interpreter of fashion through a textile deconstructivist practice.

I believe that in order to decolonize fashion, we must begin by shifting the collaborative processes and methods used in the making of textiles. The collaborative nature between materials, resources, and technologies requires a complete decolonisation from its past.

It is from this positioning that I seek to alter the perception and value structure of the materials, tools, and technologies I explore in my research and practice by orchestrating a series of experimental zero-waste deconstructivist methods with the waste hosiery (pantyhose) I work with using a set of constructed situations. I purposely administer a series of disruptions to the order and modes of communication we often associate with women’s hosiery along with its history and traditional use by shifting it off the legs of women into other territories so that this material can be experienced on and off the body. I have been able to generate new applications and an association with hosiery by showcasing the valuable role that waste textiles has to offer as a creative material resource and tool for research.

The modes of production used to transform this waste resource include the use of craft applications with obsolete sewing/textile machinery in collaboration with digital technology to produce zero-waste textiles. This hybrid system of applications resulted in the development of an industrial method of upcycling that then supported the creation of an alternate design system and business model. The implementation of deconstructivist methods through a zero-waste philosophy using waste materials has spearheaded a series of individual and collective collaborative processes, impacting my understanding of the importance of material identity in the making of fashion.

The field of textiles is complex. The evolution of the industry and its history is one that reflects our human history - socially, politically, economically, culturally, etc. Each piece of textile, whether it is handmade or mass manufactured, represents an identity, which is a powerful communication tool that contributes to the performance and identity of garments, accessories, or 3D form it will eventually take.

Since 2002, I have been exploring the use of pre-consumer waste hosiery (castoffs from the manufacturing process) in my research and practice. I developed this concept of working with pre-consumer waste while I was a textile student, motivated by this waste resource because I was looking to create a new sustainable approach by reimagining the role of craft in the manufacturing and making of textiles in the 21st century. With the encouragement of my professors and grant funding, my concept became a reality, and I established my zero-waste textile and design studio Sans Soucie in Vancouver in 2003.

My initial research explored the use of signature hosiery textiles as clothing and accessories. As my

Sans Soucie hosiery transformation process - dyed waste hosiery using metal free, low impact dyes and a zero waste dye process, 2009. Photo by Ian Sheh

material research expanded along with my partnerships with hosiery mills in Canada and the US, I found that my deconstructivist methods and my modes of production could be translated into other areas of use and experience outside of fashion and the body. Through international design residencies and collaborations outside of the field of fashion I could reflect upon the literal undoing of waste materials along with the tools and processes associated with their making. My deconstructivist approach to making textiles liberated my understanding of the form and function of how a garment operates and communicates. I reflected upon how fashion is a time capsule, and that the relationship between the textile and the garment serves as the text from which it has the capacity to transform its identity, presence, and form over time. When there is an awareness by the wearer or fashion user of their collaborative role and contribution to the transformative qualities of the identity of the cloth, the end result is an embodied relationship or connection with that garment. When we are able to establish a bond and connection to our clothing, we begin to experience and share that story.

When there is an awareness by the wearer or fashion user of their collaborative role and contribution to the transformative qualities of the identity of the cloth, the end result is an embodied relationship or connection with that garment. When we are able to establish a bond and connection

If a designer chooses to awaken the identity of the cloth through the process of garment making by harvesting from existing materials such as pre- and post consumer waste using hybrid methods that include methods of deconstruction, they are recontextualizing this material’s structure and partaking in the initiation of the decolonisation process. The role of the designer today has transformed itself from its traditional role of being a cultural producer to one that becomes that of a shepherd or guide, instigating a series of transformative processes that honours the history of the cloth, its authenticity, and identity.

Deconstructivism in fashion and design has had a massive influence on fashion from the late 1980s to present day, including the work of designers like Martin Margiela, Rei Kawakubo, Yohji Yamamoto, Dries Van Noten, Ann Demeulemeester, Victor and Rolf, and many others.

Jacques Derrida claimed that deconstruction theory should not be linked to a negative critique of society, but rather serve as an introduction into the way we view the working of social codes.

Jacques Derrida claimed that deconstruction theory should not be linked to a negative critique of society, but rather serve as an introduction into the way we view the working of social codes.

In revealing the instability of meaning in words and phrases, the breakdown of the conventions and normal boundaries begins to establish itself. Deconstruction can be described as a kind of interpretation of texts with an aim to reveal hidden meanings, in order to provide old texts with the opportunity to be reviewed as new, through a set of new meanings and interpretations. For example, a deconstructivist fashion practitioner’s aesthetic can be identified through an examination of formal elements found in how they reimagined their textiles along with their treatment of details in the garments construction. The most identifiable elements of deconstruction in fashion are that the seams, hems, linings, etc. are situated on the outside of the garment, rather than on the inside. This reversal removes any sense of convention associated with the traditional practices of making textiles and fashion. The Surrealists also played with this concept of revealing the inside/

outside; however, stylistic forms as well as systems of value and desire exhibited by the Surrealists serve in contrast to the deconstructivist forms produced by practitioners in art and design over the last 30 years.

When I began my material research into working with waste hosiery, I was based in Vancouver, away from the centres of fashion in Europe, Japan, and NYC, where fashion deconstruction was still reviewed as “anti-fashion.” But I wasn’t interested in being “anti-fashion.” I chose to work with waste textiles early on in my design training in the 1990s, and was told by my professors that it was an impossible direction, and that there was no market for it. But visiting massive landfills and gravesites of this material in southern Ontario, Canada and Michigan, US, motivated my belief that it was possible, and that I had a responsibility as to what I put out into the world. I understood that if I was going to be a designer, I needed to know more about textiles and how they were made. When I began to further my studies of textiles, I chose to focus on pre-consumer waste textiles as my supply chain and material resource. In doing so, I had to undertake research and development, without pre-existing business models or other designers to compare to. There were some independent designers upcycling post-consumer waste on a small scale, but I wasn’t just upcycling old clothes into new clothing. I immersed myself into new textile research.

The initial prototypes reflected a combination of surface design techniques that assisted in stabilising the hosiery structure, which prevented it from running and pilling. The dyeing and printing methods used were completely zero-waste. Water was used and reused, no dye entered the environment. The printing ink that passed through the fine hosiery cloth was captured and reused onto other cloth that was later transformed into other design materials and objects. The making of the new cloth into yardage during the textile transformation process showcased not only the vibrant colour and print I combined together, but it featured a series of fine lines into the facade of the fabric, structurally making it functional and easy to care for. The seaming that was implemented was deliberate and is part of the signature detailing of the textile. I chose to use the seaming detail produced from a decommissioned hosiery finishing machine on the outside of the cloth rather than hide on the inside because I wanted to showcase the processes used to transform this material resource. I wanted it to tell the story of its transformation and how we can reimagine the role and use of industrial tools from one use in the production process into another.

When I first established my deconstructivist material practice, I wasn’t aware of Derrida and deconstruction theory. I was purely motivated by a desire to create fashion, to create a cultural textile out of waste, where I was able to honour its history along with the resources, materials, tools, and people involved in the making of it. I believe we must learn to evolve and unravel existing forms and systems that aren’t working.

This includes how we approach teaching fashion education today. We need to look at deconstruction as a living critique and acknowledge it as a sustainable research method and not just as an “anti-fashion” movement or aesthetic. Deconstruction has the ability to uncover certain truths that often get missed, hidden, or forgotten. If there is one thing that I have learned throughout the evolution of my research is that we as designers have the ability to produce social change and that deconstruction leads to decolonization.

Sans Soucie Arlechino + Pierrot Collection, 2015, London Fashion Week. Photo by Shimon Karmel

Bio:

Katherine Soucie is a Canadian/UK award winning designer and educator who specialises in zero-waste textile research and has dedicated the past 20 years of her practice transforming textile industry waste into new textiles, clothing and sculptural forms. She studied Fashion Design in London and Toronto, before furthering her studies in Textiles and Visual Art in Vancouver. Her experimental zero-waste studio studio and label Sans Soucie was instrumental in developing a signature line of textiles and clothing out of pre-consumer waste hosiery using an industrial method of upcycling. Her work has been exhibited and sold internationally. She is currently a lecturer at the London College of Contemporary Arts.