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REVWEAR
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by
Felicia Mancini
March 4 - 10, 2010 |
 For the past seven years, a group of highly skilled artists and designers have turned trash into treasure; tailored treasure, that is. Revolution Wear creates not only clothing but also conversation, and they take up a challenge to reuse and reconstruct. The RevWear designers – under the banner of Revolution Wear – have visited youth groups, classrooms, camps, eco symposiums and teachers’ conferences to spread their message. They also create an annual a night of fashion, performance, installations, multi–media, music and dance. Solely using reused and configured materials from cigarette butts and fast food litter to consignment clothing, Rev Wear breaks down any preconceived notions attached to the wearability of second hand materials.
“Western consumer culture has taught us to chase an impossibility as we are expected to accumulate the next best thing, the hottest new look, that has been factory assembled someplace else by someone else’s children and dehumanized workforce,” says Revolution Wear’s Sapphire Singh. “This drive to keep up is fueled by the promise of completeness, status, respect, identity and ultimately happiness. Instead, we are left with a closet full of meaningless shells that reflect nothing of the wearer’s unique self or regional nuances. We celebrate originality, the handmade, and the re– and deconstruction of ready made cookie cutter clothing.”
The 2010 RevWear show’s theme, the brain child of designer and set coordinator Marya Folinsbee, is set in a world weathered by climate change, mass extinction and war that has inevitably altered the planet. The fashion show uses the image of a post crash world to create a transformation. The group of talented designers, all with their own style and materials, fuse couture and street wear, but the sentiment remains the same.
“We are Hamilton’s largest fashion art event and the only one to offer people the chance to play the role of a designer and say something powerful. We aren’t looking for credentials; we are looking for passion,” says Singh. “No two productions have been alike, mostly because every year a fresh team of coordinators, designers, models, choreographers and creative minds tell their story and interpret the RevWear slogan – “Create Change. Reuse Everything” – in a unique way.”
With this year’s show being directed by McMaster student Nezy Lacdao, the focus is on the fashion, but it will tell a story through spoken word, dance, and of course the catwalk. In a first–time collaboration with RevWear, local dancer and choreographer Rose Gowling will incorporate her own style into the moves and models. Through storytelling style techniques, the RevWear collection takes inspiration from the late Lee McQueen of the Alexander McQueen fashion house.
“McQueen was interested in giving is audience something of a metaphorical slap in the face. He challenged the rules by empowering the object or spectacle with a voice and at times an identity that made the spectator feel physically uncomfortable. He used symbols of violence to comment on an industry that discards people as fast at they do clothes. RevWear uses fashion to comment on the same type of negative behavior perpetuated within a capitalist culture.”
The slew of talented volunteers, artists and performers will be using not only their time but also talents to paint a post apocalyptic world in the middle of a fashion show and art event to instigate change. Not change in the not so distance years away but tomorrow. Actually, starting March 6, to be exact.
FELICIA MANCINI
RevWear Fashion/ Art Show
Saturday March 6, 8–10 pm
Former BMO Space, Jackson Square Mall
3 King St. W.
Tickets $10(includes free after party entrance at Candy Bar in Hess Village)
or PWYC at the door or in advance
@ Deja Vu Used & New Clothing Accessories (262 King St. W.)
Starting from Scratch Art Exhibit
Opening Reception Friday March 12,7–10 pm
Loose Canon Gallery
150 James St. N.
Designer Meet & Greet,
Live Models & Refreshments
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Information missing in the article: Dress made from recycled telephone books...Design by Aimee Archer.
Photo Courtesy of Nicole VanderHeide of NV Photography (nvphotography.ca)
Posted by Nicole VanderHeide on March 07, 2010 at 2:34pm | Report this comment
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