Edible Fashion X Oonagh O’Hagan

This work is situated between themes of ‘The social, ethical and aesthetic dimensions to practice in fashion and textile contexts’ and ‘Technological innovations in fashion and textile practices’. We aim to highlight the importance speculation has in the context of fashion through investigating innovations in textiles and exploring the can play the role in widening our scope of aspiration 

‘When did we stop being so ambitious?’ Oonagh’s question is the basis of her PhD research she has been conducting in investigating the models of the fashion system currently at play and how unambitious we have become with envisioning the future of fashion. Concepts she is interested in include ‘Incentive Aesthetics’ which is an exploration of changeable fabrics and movable pigments and. The materials that I investigate include seaweed, crab shell waste and plants as a source of colour. I use these materials to create bio-lace, embroidery thread and embellishments. All of the materials I work with are food sources and non-toxic which is how the conversation between myself and Oonagh was proposed. Applying her speculative design vision to my materials we propose a thought-provoking world where our textiles are grown as dual-crops, providing a food source as well as clothing for our bodies.

We hosted 2 live presentations of this work and presented our findings during WOVEN 2021 conference.