Course Description
For absolute beginners to skilled fiber artists, this hands-on course will begin with the deconstruction of fast fashion garments, in practice, tracing the materials and embedded labor underwriting the environmental and economic damage of fast fashion. Understanding necessary construction and material sourcing, students will then begin the project of creating their own sustainable, biotextile fashion line, designing objects and garments constructed using only natural fibers, biomaterials and 3D printed accessories and ancillaries, made with sugar (PLA). Sourcing fleece and fiber from farms at the NYS Sheep and Wool Show, students will spin, knit, crochet, and sew piecework working from their own digitally imaged designs and culminating in a final project featuring either a) a finished object or garment, -or- b) a digitally rendered line in prototype with knit or crocheted swatches and 3D printed ancillaries. Finally, students will create a digital marketing plan for their line emphasizing biotextiles as the necessary and exciting future of fashion.