5/27/08
Designer FIJI Water Dress Sparkles at San Francisco Fashion Show
On April 26th, St. Vincent de Paul Society of San Francisco held the “Discarded to Divine” gala, an eco-friendly fashion show and charity fundraiser. Kim, our Northern California events coordinator, recruited designers Elaine O”Malley and Lisa Anne Fullerton to create a dress made from 100% recycled and reused materials, including FIJI Water packaging, for a model to wear throughout the evening.
Here, Elaine and Lisa explain the amazing creative process that led to the design of the dress:
Creating the FIJI Water dress was a great creative experiment for both of us. When we were approached by FIJI Water, we were extremely excited to take on such a remarkable challenge, and especially inspired by FIJI Water’s commitment to the environment, and our own part in bringing this fantastic idea to life!
We began coming up with different design concepts early on, creating sketches and idea boards, based on the current trends in fashion, and our own imagination of how we could transform plastic water bottles into a wearable garment. Everything changed when we received our first shipment of raw materials from Fiji, and one concept sketch stood out as the most viable way to use our newly discovered creative tools.
We began opening boxes and simply experimenting. There were rolls of labeling stickers, bottle caps, plastic shrink wrap, even bags of plastic resins that they melt down to create the actual FIJI bottle! We had also been drinking FIJI Water quite liberally at the time, and had acquired quite a collection of empty bottles to play with. Ideas flowed as we toyed with pleating the rolls of labeling, and cutting circular sequin shapes out of our leftover plastic bottles, and the FIJI Water dress was born.
In addition to the raw materials provided by FIJI Water, we also used two innovative textiles to help create the base of our garment. PET (polyethylene terephthalate) is a textile made from 100% plastic PET bottles, which has the potential to keep almost three billion plastic PET bottles out of the world”s landfills each year and provide a great alternative to contribute to a healthier environment. We also used a new innovation of polyester, which has been recycled from old polyester clothing that is broken down and then re-woven into new fabric. Between these two amazing recycled textile resources and the raw materials from Fiji, we were able to recycle and reuse in new and unusual ways to create a fantastic and fun garment.
We created the garment in less than two weeks, with very few solid hours of work time, as we are both working designers. However, our collective inspiration and fabulous teamwork was enough to get us through the bumpy road of sewing through plastic and renegade pattern-drafting techniques, and our end result was a flirty, fun, one-of-a-kind, “enviro-tastic” FIJI Water dress!!!
Kathryn Hayes says:
June 7th, 2008 at 4:19 pm
I agree that recycling is a good thing. My concern is safety of the materials. PCB’s and ptalates are something I don’t want to eat or drink. I doubt that wearing them is a whole lot safer, given the absorbing nature of the skin.
Good ideas for green may not be good ideas for health. I wish Fiji water came in a glass bottle, rather than a plastic one. I know it is not considered as green, but plastic is forever and is clogging a large area of the currents in the North Pacific. (Yes, plastic is often disposed of improperly,to the dismay of fish and other sea life. You can sell it, but you can’t controll where it goes after that.) I do not think it is healthy to eat or drink from plastic. I seek out glass, ceramic, even unscratched stainless steel containers which I gladly reuse.
I do recall the days when we returned our glass bottles to the store for a refund knowing they would go back to the manufacturer for reuse. How’s that for green? Even children would collect them and take them back for the refund money. How’s that for incentive?
Forward is sometimes not the opposite of backward. Using gasoline to make plastics instead of sending it to the gas pumps means we will use up the oil on this planet that much sooner. Claiming that plastic is good because it can be recycled does not mean that it will be recycled. (Certainly I try to stay away from recycled plastic products because of health concerns.)
When I was a child I went to the beach and I found the bottom part of an old Coca-Cola bottle in the sand. I thought it would be sharp and cut me when I picked it up, but it had been ground smooth by the action of the water and sand washing over it. Which leads me to the next statement. Glass can be recycled. Glass is not forever even if it is not recycled. It will eventually break down and rejoin the harmless part of the environment.
I truly believe that plastic is not a good thing. (So do my friends the birds, the turtles and the fish.)
FIJI Green Gal says:
June 9th, 2008 at 2:19 pm
Kathryn, neither PBCs nor phthalates are used in PET or other food grade plastic materials, so you can rest assured that those are not an issue in FIJI Water bottles.
Recycled PET can be put to a wide variety of uses, including containers, carpets, and “polar fleece” fabric. And honestly I don’t think you need to be afraid of walking on carpet barefoot or wearing fleece.
As you said, glass, like plastic, can be recycled, but it presents many more challenges. To recycle glass most effectively, it needs to be sorted by color. However, in single-stream curbside recycling (the most common mode of consumer recycling), the different colors are commingled, lowering the value of the materials and making them more difficult to recycle. Mixed glass materials, if recycled, are ultimately crushed into small pieces and utilized for road paint’s reflective properties, ground back into sand for sand blasting materials, or made into fiberglass.
And contrary to myth, glass isn’t biodegradable and isn’t going to otherwise disappear into the ether, as demonstrated by the glass artifacts from ancient civilizations on display in museums around the world.
Finally, keep in mind manufacturing glass requires more energy – sand doesn’t like to be turned into glass without a fight! Liter for liter, PET bottles require 24% less energy to produce, generate 40% less solid waste, and emit 46% less carbon during shipping than glass bottles.
Mr. Sustainable says:
June 9th, 2008 at 2:58 pm
The eco fashion show at the Green Earth Expo was a smash hit. People are very interested in green fashion. Keep spreading the word!
FIJI Green Gal says:
June 10th, 2008 at 3:18 pm
Mr. Sustainable, we definitely love fashion around here, and eco-friendly fashion is even better. It’s fabulous when you can look great and be good for the Earth too. Thanks for the update!
Cali says:
July 18th, 2008 at 8:34 pm
I love Fiji Water! I love how much Fiji helps/donates to a varitey of causes. This dress is such a good idea to inform people about the helping the Earth, and its pretty cute too!
Radomir says:
March 12th, 2009 at 2:53 pm
Appreciate the info guys, thanks