An avant-garde collection inspired by the global water crisis: recycling waste to aesthetic garments

The purpose of the chapter was to develop an avant-garde clothing collection of dresses inspired by the global water crisis, the pollution emitted by water containers, and a fear of water espoused by natural disasters like tsunamis. This chapter was initiated to express the potential value of recyclable water-related materials such as polyethylene terephthalate (PET), high-density polyethylene (HDPE), and plastic drinking straws. Avant-garde clothing collection was developed from mainly reusable plastic materials, such as plastic water bottles, drinking straws, fishing wire, light-emitting diode (LED) and fabric with a solar charging system. A theoretical conceptual framework Functional, Expressive, and Aesthetic (FEA) Consumer Need Model was adopted as ground theory to assess the garments and ground the chapter in theory.1 The FEA Consumer Need Model was also used to analyze the design collection. The avant-garde collection developed will contribute to consumers' awareness of issues related to the global water crisis while providing examples of how fashion designers and the fashion industry professionals more generally can express and create beautiful and aesthetic clothing with discarded materials or non-apparel materials. There is no existing guide on how to use unconventional materials. This chapter offers a practical guide to how to manipulate non-fabric materials into beautiful, wearable, investible art. Future research could explore other environmental issues through fashion collections using materials, such as rubber, paper, water bottle cap, plastic bags, and so on.