In our final Episode for Plastic Free July, Clare interviews American visual artist Marina DeBris. Marina calls herself a “trashion” designer, as well as an environmental activist, and anti-plastics campaigner. She makes her "Beach Couture" collections from rubbish she finds washed up on beaches.

There’s a history of fashion designers referencing refuse. John Galliano's controversial Couture 2000 collection for Christian Dior featured newspaper prints inspired by homeless people’s makeshift blankets. Vivienne Westwood has also dabbled in derelicte chic (like Mugatu in Zoolander). Jean Paul Gaultier once made a frock out of a bin liner – he named it his “rubbish bag dress” (in French). Jeremy Scott’s Autumn '17 Moschino collection was inspired by cardboard packaging. But these designers used luxurious fabrics to render the garbage theme gorgeous.

Marina comes from a very different place. She doesn’t want her work to be considered chic, fabulous or fashionable. She wants it to shock you.

So there’s a bustier embellished with discarded plastic utensils. A gown fashioned from the flimsy, floaty remnants of old white plastic carrier bags. She’s made dresses from polystyrene containers, old nappies, bed springs, even dead bird’s wings.

In this Episode we talk about why she makes her work, how she does it, and what sort of reactions she gets. Fashion can be a conduit for cultural conversation, so why not hijack it and use as a frame of reference for political art? That’s what Marina does with her provocative, confronting project trashion. Can you wear it? IF YOU DARE!

The WARDROBE CRISIS show notes unpack the issues addressed in each Episode. Way more than just links, it's like a mini magazine! 

Head over to www.clarepress.com/ to read yours and #bethechange

Music is by Montaigne http://www.montaignemusic.com.au/ 

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