Overheard a wild conversation at the fabric store in Austin

I was grabbing some muslin at Joann's last week and these two students were arguing about whether you could make a functional jacket out of nothing but old seatbelt webbing. One of them, a guy named Leo, was dead serious and had sketches. It got me thinking about unconventional materials and how far you can push 'wearable' before it's just a sculpture, lol. Has anyone here actually tried making a garment from something totally weird like that?

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barbara47mo ago

Seriously, a seatbelt jacket? That sounds like a hot, stiff nightmare to actually wear. It's a fun art project maybe, but calling it functional fashion is a stretch. Some ideas are better left in the sketchbook.

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the_hannah7mo ago

Actually, the material can be surprisingly flexible... and it's a cool way to reuse stuff that would just get thrown out.

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eva6666mo ago

That seatbelt jacket idea reminds me of a student show I saw in Chicago. Someone made a whole vest from recycled bicycle inner tubes, and it actually moved with the model. The trick was cutting the tubes into thin strips and connecting them with elastic thread. It looked heavy but moved like a knit sweater. You can make some wild stuff work if you focus on how the pieces connect.

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