Fur & Fashion

Name: Christelle Tran-Thiet
Country of Residence: France
University: La Chambre Syndicale de la Couture Parisienne
Inspiration: The inspiration for my REMIX collection centres the evolution of humanity, our responsibility to the planet and the awareness of both. My goal is to show the evolution of human responsibility through my clothes in a sustainable way. I use 100% recycled materials like vintage fur and upcycled furniture fabrics, while re-using leftover and unused pieces from past collections of international fashion houses like Sprung Frères and Yves Salomon. Not only does this highlight how I am a responsible designer, doing the most I can to prevent and minimize the waste in the fashion industry, which is on an unprecedented scale, it also shows how we can use fur and all the parts of the skin to produce conceptual, innovative and beautiful clothing.
 
The combination of fur and silk in my garments represents the different stages of evolution the human mind passes through: first ‘innocence childhood’, second ‘reality stroke’, and third ‘self-realisation’. The first look, ‘Innocence Childhood’, features a mix of 100% recycled mink and alpaca fur, and silk organza designed to represent a cocoon – a symbol of the protected and dream-like stage of human understanding at this stage.
 
The second look, ‘Reality Stroke’, represents the transformation from a dream-state to reality. This is translated though my design where the right half of the garment is in construction while the left part is standardized. To achieve this, I included a mix of responsible materials, like recycled furniture fabrics and vintage mink, fox, astrakhan, Tibetan lamb and alpaca. My choice to use responsible materials meant fabrics which would otherwise be wasted were not, extending their life-cycle and strengthening human responsibility to waste less.
 
The third look, Self-Realization, signifies rebirth. The materials show the garment as a realization of ourselves achieved by my use of only responsible and recycled materials such as silk, mink and astrakhan in a modern way: waffled overlap, devoured effect, 3D bands and shoelace insert details. From an ecological perspective, the production took place, in Paris. Reducing carbon emissions during production means my designs, through their entire supply chain, are responsible.