Young designer Olivia Rubens has collaborated with London-based concept store Machine-A for a collection that turns clothes into actual living organisms.
Photosynthesize, that’s the name of the collection, focuses on morality and the bonds developed in the aftermath of a pandemic. Rubens examines the unintended consequences resulting from the greed and ignorance of past generations, using trash and randomly found objects to put together a collection that finds beauty in what seems mundane but really isn’t at all.Â
Inspired by Kintsugi, the collection was made using ethical alpaca wool, Tencel, organic wool and linen, and GOTS organic cotton, mixed with vintage crocheted lace tablecloths, old ceramic kitchen utensils, empty shampoo bottles, and household cleaners. Upon closer inspection, you can see remnants of the past lives of these recycled materials, from bar codes to instruction stickers, each fused into hand-molded trimmings.
Graduating from London College of Fashion in 2020 with an MA in Fashion Design Technology Womenswear, Rubens draws inspiration from 18th century fashion and rococo aesthetics to create her collections. Her “positive knitwear” was featured at Helsinki Fashion Week and is designed to be predominantly gender-free.
Olivia Rubens represents every woman who has struggled to honor herself to the fullest, overcoming obstacles and ostracism. Her work is meant to be provocative, often through black humor, fostering important conversations about human behavior. This is how the designer also approaches her social justice initiatives, working to help women, children and communities in both Canada and England.
For the Photosynthesize collection, Rubens also collaborated with Post Carbon Lab to make items live and breathe just as plants do. The clothes emit oxygen and absorb carbon dioxide by exposing them to indirect sunlight and misting them on a regular basis.
About the project, Rubens stated: “IOur overall goal for this project is to redefine the meaning of our relationships with our garments, and to empower people with individual agency in climate change solutions. By caring for these photosynthesizing pieces like plants, and displaying them in homes like objects, we hope the nurturing nature of this relationship will strengthen bonds between people and their pieces, watching them transform and thrive over time, while sequestering carbon from the atmosphere”.
Il fondatore di Machine-A, Stavros Karelis, ha poi aggiunto: “At Machine-A, we always aim to support and showcase emerging designers that apart from their creative talent, their proposition to the future of our industry is such that creates new ways for everyone to think, to be inspired and to bring positive change. Photosynthesize, a project by Olivia with the support of the Post Carbon Lab, is the scientific result of transforming garments [into] living organisms and how do we keep them alive in the environment we are in with our care. It’s a project that elongates the life duration of a garment and offers us a better understanding of the fundamental circular relationship between the environment, us, and our clothes”.
