Garbage Chic

​A Very Trashy Dress
by Maximilien Marton

Artist Statement
When I think of statements like "Go Green," I think of a fashion statement. I realize that it is terribly pessimistic of me, but today, it would seem that when one says they are "green", it is almost like they are saying that they just bought that expensive pair of jeans everyone wishes they had. I constantly see celebrities on the news talking about what they have done for the environment.
Observing this unfortunate reality, I perceived an idea for an art project. I figured that if I take this hypothetical fashion statement, and turned it into an actual fashion statement, I could turn the negative to a positive. This is why I decided to create a dress out of a recyclable materials. I chose garbage bags as my medium, simply because they are black. I can't tell you how many times I've heard the phrase "green is the new black", and because of that phrase, I coined my own, stating that "black is the new green".

Unfortunately, I was unable to finish my dress. It took me a very long time to figure out a design, but eventually I settled on a v-neck dress with cascading newspaper along one seam. Around the later days of my process, after cutting, gluing (I still have some burns), and assembling the dress, I realized that I didn't have enough time to finish. When I realized this, I found out another horrible truth. My mother's boyfriend was looking for a trash bag, and picked up my dress. attempting to open the "bag", he tore the art by both seams. That was about four weeks worth of work, down the drain. You can imagine how livid I was with him.


Pictures
Sketches
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The Dress So Far and the Dress Form That I Made (Duct Tape)
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Bottle Cap Poster
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The inspiration for my poster was resources being wasted, as you can see, the pepsi bottle is being emptied and wasted. Thus the slogan for the poster, "DON'T WASTE!"
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