Students, Dow join forces to turn plastics into fashion

Düsseldorf, Germany — When 15 models strut their stuff in one corner of a hall at the K show, it is all about the designs. But this is also about so much more than fashion.

For Lily Thompson, it is a chance to prove people wrong.

For Sharon Lloyd, it is a chance to see her students grow and learn.

And for Dow Chemical Co., it is an opportunity to not only promote plastics and provide a learning experience, but also gain something in return.

Every weekday at K 2016, except for the last day, Dow is hosting a fashion show featuring designs made from plastics created by students at Southampton Solent University in England.

Students worked for months conceptualizing and creating garments from all types of plastics provided by Dow with the idea that a fashion show would be one of the focal points of the company's display (Hall 8/K48-1) this year.

Thompson and fellow student Charlotte Logue teamed up to create four garments in the show, including maybe the most detailed piece on display, a dress made from an estimated 5,000 white acrylic pieces cut into the shape of scales.

“Trusting yourself was key because the scaled one that we made, everybody told us it wouldn't work. And they basically set us up to fail. And we did it, and we proved them wrong,” Thompson said. “It was hard, but we pulled it off. Seeing it there was amazing.”

The students spent about a month sewing each of the individual white scales, cut from sheets by a laser cutter, on the dress.

Both students are studying makeup and hair, so this was their first opportunity to design clothing.

“I think it was a thing of where [because] we never made garments before, we had this idea of making something incredibly ornate. And then we kind of ran with the idea. Because we hadn't done it before, we didn't know what were our limits. So we just went to the maximum and pulled it off,” Logue said.

Creating a collaboration with the university to stage the show was the idea of Virginie Wengler, communications manager in Europe for Dow Consumer Care.

“We need to revalue plastics,” she said just minutes after the show on the first day of K. “With our theme,” she said, of collaboration, innovation and sustainability, “it was the right way to express that.

“I think people need to realize that plastic can be reused, and in a high-fashion way. Fashion is for everybody, every time. Be confident in who you are. Plastic is not just something that is waste. You can recreate something out of it, even that you can wear and wear every day, but you can wear for high-design fashion.”

As course leader for makeup, hair and design for the School of Art, Design and Fashion at the university, Lloyd oversaw the students who created the plastic fashions.

“Oh my gosh. Right from the very beginning, it was really, really exciting. How often to you get the opportunity to work with a company like Dow and to have them say to you, ‘go play.' It just doesn't happen. That was the thing that makes this exciting,” Lloyd said.

“The students hadn't worked with plastics in the past. And plastic isn't a material that's usually used in fashion. And there's lots of issues with bonding and stitching materials together,” she said. “A normal sewing machine for most materials didn't work.

“We sat there and looked at lots of materials, how they were bonded and linked together. So we had to come up with a whole series of solutions,” she remembered. “There were a few materials that were bonded with different layers. We had to literally sit there and pull things apart. We literally ripped them apart, and we had to think about how they were put together and then we applied heat, pressure, glue. We used links.”

Working with plastics pushed students out of their comfort zone, an important step in their development, Lloyd said.

“Actually for the students, listening to them talk, they could be ambassadors. Listening to them talk about plastics, it's really interesting. And I didn't say anything; I just stand back,” Lloyd said. “They really do launch into a whole spiel about plastics and the future of it and what it means to them. It's really exciting.”

Dow gave the university and its students an opportunity to learn and participate in a unique project. But Wengler said the company certainly gained something in return.

“I think for me, personally, we have seen the evolution of the project form January until now it has been tremendous learning exchange. We have grown together. We really developed this field and the partnership for a good way on how you show plastics,” she said.

“This creates something to be proud of in the company itself with your coworkers,” Wengler said.