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This project investigates a new universe, in which humans aren’t superior to other species, plants or minerals. A Post-humanistic world where fashion nourishes the ground and it is mostly plant based. The materials used for this collection were: Seaweed, Olive Pit and Wool. Always having in mind a symbiotic relationship with nature.
Since my family owns an olive tree plantation in Andalucia, I decided to use olive pits as a residue. Gathering information about the maintenance I discovered very interesting qualities about the olive plantations. They act as a carbon sink, capturing and storing large quantities of atmospheric carbon dioxide Its diverse habitats, home to a rich variety of plant and animal life, and management of all waste and by-products to ensure that they do not end up in landfills.
A way of incorporating food-waste into materials is creating biomaterials with bio-binders. These polymers can be found in nature, since I focused my investigation to be plant based, I ended up using a seaweed polymers called Alginate. This polymer has its own properties such as: Capacity of encapsulating, needs Calcium in order to solidify and depending on the measurements you can obtain very different results.
One of the issues with alginate bio-materials is its strength, with a little cut it splits completely, and this is a big issue when trying to make garments, a solution that I found was adding fibres. Since most of my inspiration came from symbiotic relationships, I imagined a symbiotic relationship with sheep, since they need their hair to be cut and wool is a very versatile fibre. Also locally sourced and with CCPAE Certificate (Consell Català de la Producció Agrària Ecològica)
The combination of these three raw materials gave me infinite possibilities. Depending on the amount of each ingredient I could obtain very different results, from plastic looking materials to hard rock solids. Since these materials could be so versatile, I decided I would use all three of them in all the garments of the collection, at least as a base recipe.
Inspired by La Señora Cao from ancient Peru, I started to speculate about a future where humans and plants can coexist in a symbiotic relationship. Drawing on my connection to olive trees, I envision a world where we exchange vital nutrients, creating a new form of existence.
In this post-humanistic world, I imagine that fashion would undergo a radical transformation. The emphasis on status, luxury, and self-expression would be gone. Instead, clothing would serve primarily as functional tools, designed to protect and adapt to different environments. The production of these garments would be sustainable, relying on plant-based materials and circular economy principles.
I believe that this vision of a future where human beings live in harmony with nature is essential for our survival. By valuing sustainability and functionality over superficiality and consumerism, we can create a more just and equitable world for all.
In order to develop the collection designs and as a result of all my research and speculation, I imagined that hidden species, who were scared from human behaviour, would come out from their hideout. So I got inspired by Tolkien’s Legendarium and his character development.
Tolkien was an English writer, poet, philologist and linguist, but specially well known for creating Arda, a fictional world inspired by northern Europe mythology and folklore. Arda had two main continents, Aman and Middle-Earth. All the events and species that I have gotten inspiration from are in Middle-Earth. In middle earth different species coexist together, but I got inspiration from four of them: orcs, elfs, maiars and ents.
In order to develop the collection, each outfit was design specially for each specie. Since each character has its own qualities and differences I tried to embrace it and get inspiration from it. Orcs for example have a fascinating inspirational skin texture.
