Making it work: Turning shopping bags into clothes

SINGAPORE - In the hit American TV show Project Runway, aspiring designers scramble to complete madcap fashion challenges in a stressfully short time frame. And the more memorable episodes almost always involve the use of unconventional materials, such as things found in a grocery store.

Fashion design students at Singapore's Raffles Design Institute (RDI) will get to tackle a similar project this year called Fashion Re-imagined, a Fashion Steps Out 2014 event.

They have been tasked to create 14 outfits from shopping bags from Paragon as well as six of its retailers - Adolfo Dominguez, G-Star Raw, Anteprima, Guess, Karen Millen and Pois. Their creations will be unveiled on May 5 and exhibited for two weeks at the mall.

Says Mr Jay Quek, one of the RDI lecturers in the fashion design department leading the project: "The different material and the different retailers involved will really encourage the students to think outside of the box, in terms of construction, innovation and finishing."

About 30 final-year students, who will be working in pairs, are now preparing design proposals during their school break.

Challenges they will face during the project include staying true to the brand's essence when designing the outfit, as well as making sure they consider commercial wearability while incorporating avant-garde creativity, says Mr Quek.

"After all, it's a fine line between costume and fashion design."

Adds Ms Madeleine Wong, another lecturer leading the project: "The students seem excited, but maybe a little worried as well. We'll step in to be sounding boards and we know a large part of the project may be trial and error to see what works."

To lead by example, fashion department head Professor Giuseppe Spinelli, Ms Wong and Mr Quek co-designed the first outfit, a dress made using 10 Paragon shopping bags.

The thick black paper has been laser cut into a flowing design, hole punched by hand, contoured and then stitched onto a swingy hot pink raw silk dress.

The Paragon logo was retained in the design, but at first glance, it would be difficult to tell that the pliable lace-like applique, which has been embellished with a light dusting of tiny pink sequins, once formed the components of a mundane shopping bag.

"We wanted to play with visual texture, but also show that the dress was wearable and could be commercialised," says Mr Quek.

The project, which is integrated into normal coursework, is not the first time RDI has taken on unusual tasks for the Orchard Road Business Association's Fashion Steps Out event.

Starting in 2010, students have taken on various unusual projects, ranging from designing neon art installations in the outline of famous fashion icons to coming up with new textile prints to wrap around Orchard Road trees.

Mr Ong Kai How, the vice president of South-east Asia operations for Raffles Education Corp, has seen the students respond with enthusiasm each year through the Fashion Steps Out projects.

"Beyond design, they get to tackle market research, time management and collaboration skills," he says, adding "Plus, it's their final year - it's good to break the mould of what they know with challenges like these."

This article was published on April 4 in Urban, The Straits Times.

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