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Out of Garbage – Fashion Project, March 2020

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10-04-2020

Making-of photo shooting

Due to the corona crisis schools also closed in Sri Lanka and we had to interrupt our project. We thank a lot the photographer Sasindu Pramuditha and our model Methuli Thesara Wijesekara for their spontaneous availability for a photo shooting to document the first finished costumes made of leaves, plastic bags, cellulose and plastic nets, plastic bottles, aluminium cans and plastic straws. We want to continue our work as soon as possible and present the results at a fashion show on the 25 years jubilee event of the one world foundation, which is currently planned for 27th of August 2020. The works shall inspire our consciousness and ability to communicate. Working together with creativity can serve to design a better future. Every individual can contribute with his or her lifestyle, habits and attitudes to combat the insanity of our throw-away culture. Out of plastic and back to nature. And every individual can contribute to a more human society. Out of the ego and back to the unity of all mankind.

03-04-2020

Photo shooting with the photography teacher of the one world college Sasindu Pramuditha and the model Methuli Thesara Wijesekara.

20-03-2020

Impressions of the workshop

Turtle sculpture / garbage bin at the beach of Ahungalla

Found footage mannequin

13-03-2020

Since many years one world foundation has been laying a focus on environmental protection awareness, supported as a cross-cutting theme at various levels: waste separation, collection of waste from beaches, special exam and essay topics as well as other initiatives at our school. I am very happy about the wonderful fashion project “Out of Garbage” from Bettina Reichl and Irma Denk at our Women’s Cooperation. The project goes far beyond creating awareness by showing techniques to upcycle the garbage materials and to make creative use of them. one world foundation is much inspired by the concept of the Social Sculpture by the artist Joseph Beuys. The question of how we shape the world in which we live is one of the most relevant questions of our times. “Out of Garbage” shows one way of how we can make use of our creativity for positive change, and the project is also a strong contribution to the programmes of one world foundation which aim at female empowerment.

Kathrin Messner, founder and director of one world foundation

Sri Lanka has a magical attraction to me. I love its beautiful landscapes, spiritual people and manifold cultures. The intense power of nature learns you respect and leads easily to the recognition of unity with all beings. Many oceanic animals are harmed by thrown away plastics: Fish, turtles, sea birds and whales are entangled in bags or mistake small plastic items as food, but also animals on land, who eat straw ball nettings or plastics from garbage heaps. My work for “Out of Garbage / Waste to dress” is dedicated to my beloved cat, who died through a hormonal disease caused by substances coming out of plastics. We have to create a safer world for our animals. It is in our responsibility to protect the beauty of our Planet Earth and the wellbeing of all creatures!

Bettina Reichl, fashion and packaging designer and curator of “Out of Garbage / Waste to dress”

one world foundation has been offering educational programs and activities in Sri Lanka to strengthen the living standard through education over the past twenty four years. The Women’s Cooperation is a one of the most successful units, which provides training courses for the mothers of our pupils in order to develop their skills with the aim of supporting them finding work and being able to generate an income of their own.
The concept “Out of Garbage / Waste to dress” was introduced by Bettina Reichl and Irma Denk to the Women’s Cooperation of one world foundation with the objective to promote alternative, eco-sensitive fashion concepts. The packaging industry is experiencing a radical transformation as the global demographic growth, digitalization, the scarcity of resources and the accelerating climate change challenge the current business models to become more innovative and sustainable in order to create a safer world for all of us. I firmly believe that this will be a new trend and an important undertake for every society of this one world.

Prabath Wijesekara, principal of one world foundation

“Out of Garbage” addresses an absolutely serious topic and is at the same time a call for action. I like how creative and playful the approach of this project is. I worked as director of the Viennese Children’s Museum ZOOM for many years and in this job, I learned that things you do playfully and with joy go much deeper into your consciousness than things that are only explained to you by words. When we collect waste at the beach or near our own house, we start to think about why it is there, who throws these things away and how we can avoid this in the future. When we collect waste in order to produce dresses, we look much more carefully at the objects we find and analyse their material, qualities and possibilities. From these qualities and possibilities we can create beautiful, crazy, attractive, impossible costumes and dresses using only our phantasy and skills. I think phantasy is a strong power. We need this strong power to create a more sustainable world for us and our children. They have the right to live in a clean and healthy environment! Let us start now!

Elisabeth Menasse, project coordinator of one world foundation

12-03-2020

In Sri Lanka’s daily life still a lot of beauiful natural packagings can be found. Many different net bags made of multi-used plastics are used for the transport of fruits and vegetables. At the catwalk we will show you dresses made out of these packaging-materials.

10-03-2020

New beginning! A first look at the materials. Kathrin Messner, founder and director of the one world foundation together with Prabath Wijesekara, the principal of the one world foundation college and his team, Elisabeth Menasse, coordinator of the one world foundation as well as the women of the Women’s Cooperation tailoring workshop, Bettina Reichl and Irma Denk, the fashion designers from Austria.

Looking for accessory materials in the village Ambolangoda.

10-02-2020

8 million tonnes of plastics leak into the ocean each year.
1 million plastic bags are used globally every minute.
26% of the total plastics volume is used in packaging.
Only 14% of all plastic is being recycled.

„Be the change that you wish to see in the world.“ Gandhi

04-02-2020

Out of Garbage / Waste to Dress, Fashion Project, One World Foundation, Ahungalla, Sri Lanka, 02 – 27-03-2020

Plastic bags, cups, straws, fast-food packaging, nets, aluminium cans, bottles and stoppers that have washed up on the beaches as well as leaves that have fallen from trees in the tropical rainforests and gardens replace conventional clothing materials. The theme of the project is the transience and immutability of materials as well as the need to return to a sustainable packaging and textile industry that protects resources. Along with some 40 women who were trained in the tailoring workshop of the one world foundation school, Bettina Reichl (fashion and packaging designer) and Irma Denk (founder of Slow Fashion and Feldenkrais Practicioner) produce styles in a 1-month workshop that will be presented in a final fashion show.

More information: https://owf.at/out-of-garbage/?lang=en

One Comment

Birgid Uccia May 6th, 2020

Waste has become one of the most pressing issues of our time, cutting across social strata, gender, and politics. Waste also transcends national borders, bringing us closer in view of this tremendous challenge of global extent. It is in this vein that the remarkable project ‘Out of Garbage’ / ‘Waste to Dress’ has been started at the Women’s Corporation of the one world foundation. It skilfully demonstrates how waste can be transformed into a valuable resource. Inserting a variety of discarded materials into the cycle of cultural production, the two designers have invited the Women’s Corporation to experiment with these materials, digging deep into the creativity and imagination of the women. It is an aesthetic delight to see the already completed dresses and accessories, each of them breathing the spirit of unbridled invention and versatility. The dresses couldn’t be more contemporary and fashionable. In fact, they are setting the trend. Redefining our ideal of beauty, the project reassigns value to something that would normally end its life on the garbage dump. Congratulations to all those who have been engaged in this project, it is paving the way to a new awareness that will shape our future!

Birgid Uccia, founder of ACFA Asian Contemporary Fine Arts Mumbai, curator of the project „Waste Land“, https://acfacontemporary.com