The Cherie dress

The move away from disposable fashion requires a return to quality design and value in clothing, looking to local knowledge and skill and mirroring age-old indigenous techniques

The Cherie is a full length single seam column dress with knot detail. The straps are detachable and it comes with a loop stole. It has been designed and made for Ms. Cherie Nusalim on the event of the THK Forum marking the G20 in Bali, Indonesia November 2022 and was worn to the State Leaders’ Dinner.

THE DRESS for the Exhibit:
Showcasing change

The fabric cuttings on the right are the entire offcuts (unused material) left over from creating these zero-waste dresses and tops. Clothing design typically wastes large quantities of fabric in offcuts. Zero waste aims for minimal to no waste.

Typical dress making process

  • Growing natural fibres uses monoculture agriculture, heavy irrigation, and pesticides

  • Spinning manmade fibres typically creates virgin polymers with the use of chemicals

  • Dyes use chemical pollutants and most of the dye mixture is unused and discarded  in the process

  • Fabric manufacturing is resource heavy and creates more than needed

  • Clothing manufacture employs a huge number of people, for increasingly little pay to match the demand for low cost clothing. The tragedy in  Rana Plaza in Bangladesh is a harrowing example of workers chained to their desks and being used as forced labour to create clothes for big western brands.

  • More clothes are created than are required, which are burned or sent to landfill. Customers are encouraged to buy regularly for low quality, and then to discard quickly, with little knowledge of how to adapt or reuse.

The Fabric

This fabric was created by Tapestries of the Sea, inspired by Team Healthy Planet’s project for the Happy Digital X course at United in Diversity Foundation, Bali. Harmful waste fishing nets were salvaged from the sea, and the shredded plastic woven to create a new fabric with artistic value.

The fabric is made from recycled polyester and abandoned fishing nets salvaged from the sea.  Fishing nets shed micro plastics and endanger marine life and biodiversity - it is unknown how much netting is in the sea, but the size and ubiquitousness of fishing nets found polluting the ocean create a major problem. Tapestries of the Sea, under Candace Johnson, used satellite technology to locate drift netting, and local fishermen were paid to collect it.

By removing plastic waste from the sea, we can mitigate pollution and convert a waste product into a valuable and lasting resource.  Making this piece into a heritage piece we further ensure its longevity, defying fashion seasonality and disposability.  Being made from 100% polyester - at the end of this dress's  life, it can be recycled once more and become something else.  Eventually, the drive is to move away from using plastic all together, and rely on biodegradable products and dyes that are made with low-impact/low-energy processes.

The fabric print was designed by Marcos Kueh and Isaac Raine.