At first glance, you’d think these dresses were Kasdan spent five months working on the 1950s costumes from an old Doris Day movie. In actuality, outfit, using almost 400 bags. The blue haute you’re looking at hundreds of plastic bags. couture dress took two months and 200 bags.
These two 1950s-style outfits were hand-knit by Kasdan knit not only the dresses, but also all the Cathy Kasdan, a full-time art teacher and master’s coordinating accessories, including a pillbox hat, student in textiles at Kent State University in Ohio. flower hat, purses, and accompanying shawl. She explored the theme of consumer culture for Using plastic bags as yarn definitely had its difficult her final thesis by using plastic grocery bags as her moments. “The bags’ lightweight and static nature medium for knitting. The stunning results make up were the main challenges,” says Kasdan. “Trying to Kasdan’s Transforming Consumer Culture ensemble. cut an entire bag into one continuous strip while it’s
Photograph by Cathy Kasdan
“The 1950s homemaker outfit and blue Haute Cul- floating up or sticking to itself can take a long time. ture dress hearken back to a society that embraced Some evenings I spent hours just cutting the bags. the Plastic Age without reservation for the possible I found that knitting a single layer of plastic worked ramifications of consumerism,” Kasdan explains. better for me than doubling up the layers by attach-
A knitter for only two years, she’s drawn to reusing ing loops made of bags to each other.” materials; she started the project with her own plas- Research suggests that 500 billion to 1 trillion tic bag stash saved from trips to the grocery store. plastic bags are consumed worldwide each year.
“I’ve always looked for interesting materials and Kasdan’s plastic ensemble brings to light the notion methods for expression, following the same guide- that innovations of the past don’t always end up lines of using available resources,” Kasdan says. Once being progress today. —Natalie Zee Drieu word of her project spread, she ended up receiving thousands of bags from friends and acquaintances.
References:
Archives