‘Fashion with a purpose’
Scrappy designer creates ‘waste couture’ from discarded items
Valerie Cousens is wearing a skirt created from a broken umbrella.
The Hamilton-based artist and clothing designer rescued it from a landfill fate and transformed it into a work of wearable art, one of several in her line of ’50s-style circle skirts, all made from the same wet weather discards.
“They’re also waterproof if you get caught in the rain,” laughs Cousens, whose Green Dress Designs clothing line consists entirely of upcycled pieces. “You don’t get wet.”
She calls it “waste couture” and describes her designs as “fashion with a purpose.” But while the avid community activist and volunteer has always been involved in pro-environmental projects like bringing a car-sharing service to Hamilton and being an ambassador for the Hamilton ECO Film & Arts Festival, she admits that growing up, she was never much of a fashion buff. So why become a clothing designer?
“I was painting abstract and I wanted to have my art on clothing so people could wear it,” says Cousens, who has also been volunteering at the Art Gallery of Hamilton for 12 years. “The environment and environmental things are very important to me and I wanted to recycle pieces so they wouldn’t go into landfill. Fashion and art (are) very creative and I have a very creative brain, so I like to make things with other things.”
Drawn to colour and texture in fashion, art and nature, Cousens uses a variety of materials for her pieces, from the mundane to the unlikely — broken umbrellas, shopping bags, scraps of fabric; even discarded neckties become wrist cuffs. If it’s destined for a landfill, she just might give it a second life.
She describes her personal style as colourful, eclectic and unique. And when she’s not turning heads with one of her own designs, she will often be found kicking back in a pair of black jeans, pink Converse shoes and a thrifted tee.
Here Cousens wears an upcycled, thrifted wrap blouse with her bottle green ’50s-style umbrella skirt and crinoline. She accessorizes with a necktie wrist cuff that she designed and a pair of turquoise Victorianstyle, lace-up boots she found at Value Village. A pair of vintage black rhinestone earrings and a quartz pendant finish her look.
You can find Green Dress Designs on Instagram at green_dress_designs, on Facebook or at raddhouse.wordpress.com. Her upcycled art mosaics are featured in the April issue of Emboss Magazine and she will be showing them as part of RAW Kitchener-Waterloo’s VERSE showcase on May 25. Most eye-catching piece: My New York City umbrella skirt. It’s an umbrella that I bought in Manhattan and I used it for about three years and then it broke. I put it away and saved it because I liked the fabric because it’s got (an illustration of ) Times Square on it. And so one day I found it when I was cleaning up and I was like, ‘Oh I forgot that I had this.’ And that’s how I came up with the umbrella skirt idea … I was going to make it into a lampshade — I took it off the umbrella cage and I made the big hole in the middle and it was sitting on the floor and my brain just went, I can wear that! So I figured out how to make it into a skirt ...
I was nominated for a Hamilton Arts award in the community category, a couple of years ago … so I made a dress out of a 99-cent shopping bag … it’s got a picture of James Street South on it and I made the bag into a corset top and then I made the bottom out of just used lining and I put all kinds of ruffles around the bottom. Quirkiest wardrobe item: Anything that I made. Everything I make is quirky and one-of-akind. I have a Batman apron which is pretty cool … the bottom part of the apron is made out of a pillow sham and the top part, the bib, is a piece of black T-shirt and it’s got the Batman logo on it … and then the belt and the part that goes around your neck is made out of a necktie. It’s very cool. Wardrobe must-have: A great-fitting pair of black jeans and cool-looking, comfortable boots. Best purchase: My turquoise boots or my black leather cowboy boots. And I got both at Value Village. Regrets buying: Nothing. Or, not related to wardrobe, knick-knacks. Loves to shop at: Thrift stores and consignment shops: Plato’s closet, Value Village, Talize. A friend of mine has a place called Kiki’s Closet, which is second-hand. Ridding her closet of: Boring clothes. Things that are plain, they’re not comfortable, they don’t fit well — those things usually get cut up and made into something else or donated. Splurges on: Hats and shoes. I have lots of hats. They’re all different. I have a green army cap and … then I have another one that’s like a tweed with a little peak. But I also have a silver grey kind of satin one that’s got a big brim with a bow on the side. I just love hats. I wish hats were popular in this day and age.
Beauty product she can’t live without:
Lipstick, and my hair straightener. No specific brand. Usually a berry colour toward the red side, but not red.