Sunday, May 17, 2009

Repurposing in an urban setting


I started thinking about the compact challenge and how I applied it's concept before I was introduced to it by this class. So I recalled how I used to repurpose my shoes when they became unwearable to my eye. And by unwearable I mean the white soles turn yellow, or they are overly creassed, or perhaps even scuffed. According to Kawamura's Fashion-ology novelty is a crucial, highly-valued aspect of fashion (6). The cheapest way to achieve this novelty is with a bit of repurposing. So what I did for one particular project is create a pair of denim dunks. My project aimed around replicating the look of the shoes pictured above.
So to get the denim for this project I used an old Rocawear jacket I didn't use anymore. I'm sorry Rocawear fans, it just isn't that tight anymore. Anyway, I cut out large squares from this jacket particularly from the lower back and unrolled sleeves. Then using super glue I attached the jeans to shoe. Any excess denmis was cut away with a razor blade and scissor. This meticulous work took about 3 hours to finish both shoes. I wish I could show you pictures of it but unfortunately, I sold them to someone for $50. That's basically how I started customing shoes.
Here's a little something just in case you're interested:
Cyril Torado #3

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