3. Circular Open Source Fashion¶
Research & Ideation¶
Collage Moodboard Baye Faal of Mouridism
The Baye Faal Of Senegal¶
The Baye Faal are a religious sect. (Mouridism) in Senegal who practice circular fashion as part of their faith. Recognisable by their garments made from patch work of waste fabric known as ’ndokets’ worn by men, women and children.
Ndokets worn by the Baye Faal - pintrest
The Baye faal believe that the ndoket is a symbol of embracing hardship with dignity and embracing the none linear path to enlightenment. Nothing wasted everything renewed.
I once had the chance to visit the Baye Faal in the holy city of Touba in Senegal and at the time I hadn’t discovered the topic of Circular Fashion.
For this week my Inspiration is based on the Baye Faal Patchwork, the zigzag, and contrasting expression of fashion they have through faith and how we can all reuse scraps and make beautiful creations.
Shapes and colors¶
As the Ndoket signifies renewal; there are no rules to how the patch work is assembled. However strips, squares and triangles are most common. African cultural wear holds colour and print in high importance; the trick is in the contrast, because of this many Ndokets are also in black and white as a sign of balance between light and dark in the search of wholeness.
Examples of Ndokets and the shapes used - pintrest
I was imspired to build a combination of shapes using triangles and strips. My goal was to maintain the spirit of “using what’s available” and “wasting nothing” so I set out to try out a couple of shapes on paper.
Step 1¶
Paper Prototyping¶
Paper Prototyping shape 1
I wasn’t too pleased with this result, the shapes were not entirely working in the best possible way.
Paper Prototyping shape 2
This attempt turned out a lot better than the first. Locking in nicely and feeling durable. Through this stage of prototyping I was beginning to decide on the Female and Male parts; as well as what shapes would be best for connections and also to minimise waste with the laser cutter.
finally decided on the combination shape below and separate connection pieces in the shape of triangles and strips.
illustrator
My thrid attempt My third attempt yielded exciting results where many combinations would be possible and beautiful shapes and contrast could be achieved organically.
Paper Prototyping shape 3
Step 2¶
Material Prototyping¶
I decided on using leftover scraps of neoprene for my materials testing. I chose this fabric because it has some structure and thickness to it. I believed that it might help with a locking system that stayed secure.
Material Prototyping reversable neoprene
As I didn’t have access to a laser cutting machine, I made my pieces relatively larger so I could cut by hand. I had envisioned the larger size to work well with Neoprene but found it was a bit too loose for the structure I was hoping for.
Step 3¶
Testing Multiple Materials¶
In my next prototyping exercise I tried multiple materials, these included vinyl, suede, faux leather, velvet and fleece. Some of these materials are not ideal for a laser cutter; as I was working by hand I wanted to experiment and see what the results yielded.
Material Prototyping Vinyl, Velvet, Suede, Fleece Sraps
Proposed Laser Cuttting¶
Proposed Shapes and laser cutting