I was happily surprised to learn that I saved 5 cents at Target for using my re-useable bag instead of plastic. I think incentives can help reduce the amount of plastic bags that people use, but it will take some time for people to fully convert to re-useable bags in place of double bags for…
Tag: love
Snow inspires creativity
This is another fashion illustration that represents how I feel in the snow: playful, in anticipation, and feeling like someone should be with me in case I need help getting up after falling. This again ties into “tabula rasa” and seeing the snow as a blank slate for imagination and creativity.Drawing these illustrations has led…
Commonality between people and nature
Youth advocate and social entrepreneur Wes Moore visited Cornell to commemorate Martin Luther King. He conveyed how we can contribute to our community by envisioning equality as a person’s potential rather their physical or socio-economic characteristics. This relates to nature because nature also has equal potential; however, anthropocentric ideologies of people’s power over nature have…
Inspired by nature in the town
I was walking down Buffalo St. on Sunday. The snow was melting and it was very wet and slushy outside. I looked up and saw how beautiful the leafless trees looked with the snow propped on top of them. The hues of browns, greens, and grays was really inspirational and led me to create this…
Knitting local!
I created my first hand-knitted seamless sweater as another approach to zero-waste fashion design! I learned how to knit when I was 18 from a book, how to do purl, stockinette, and ribbing stitches while I was at UC Davis, but I only knew how to do simple scarves. I considered myself a beginner knitter…
“Constructed” no waste fashions
Zero-waste is a branch of sustainable fashion that eliminates textile waste from the production stage. The entire length and width of fabrics are used. I created this collection as part of my design honors thesis at the University of California Davis (January-May 2012). I was extremely inspired by the work of Timo Rissanen, Holly McQuillan, Mark…
Local discoveries for sustainable fashion design
In conducting preliminary research for my Masters thesis in Apparel Design, I was excited to find that there are several local fiber farms in Tompkins county. I found farms in Ithaca, Groton, and Prattsburg NY that produce yarns from the soft, fluffy hairs of sheep, goats, and alpaca (ie “exotic” animals). Learning about these local…
HELEN TREJO 