We’re all for designers who make clothes from recycled materials and the latest designer goes a step further than using polyester and cotton—Alexandra Sipa’s designs feature discarded wires. The 23-year-old designer creates corset tops, ruffled dresses, and rings from discarded wires. Her designs are as much futuristic as they are couture.
Like many great ideas, Sipa’s started by accident after her headphones broke and she noticed the amazing colors inside, “I was researching for my sustainability project for school, and my headphones broke.” “I noticed the wires inside were so colorful. It was also the fifth time I broke my headphones that year, so I wanted to find a way to reuse them and thought about creating a fabric out of them,” she told Vogue.
At the time, she was in her second year at Central Saint Martins in London, and she worked on the concept, before incorporating it into her graduate collection this year. Part of the collection included an A-line dress that took over 1,000 hours to make.
Although the clothes have a futuristic-vibe, Sipa’s inspiration comes from her Romanian mother, a lingerie designer. There are actually a lot of historical and cultural references in her collection, especially when it comes to the color palette which mimics the elaborate, feminine garments worn by Romanian women in Bucharest. The fabrics she uses have a “Romanian attitude” and they’re “very nonchalant, humorous, and adaptable,” according to the designer.
She’s also inspired by her grandmother who she credits for teaching her the art of recycling and she says her grandmother is able to make anything look expensive, regardless of where it came from.
We expect Alexandra Sipa’s to blow up soon and we can’t wait to see them on the runway in the future. What do you think of her discarded wires collection?
