Stephen Wong and Kirk Pickersgill, the design duo behind the Canadian fashion label Greta Constantine, revel in using textiles that Pickersgill describes as “foreign yet functional.” But although they enjoy the challenge of taking materials out of their original context, cleaving seat belts to the female form wasn’t too much of a mental leap.
“When you think the process of building a seat belt,” Pickersgill tells Ecouterre, “it’s to save our lives. It’s a type of armor.” The results of their experiments, which were unveiled for Fall/Winter 2009, are stunning, featuring angular, origami-like ruching that recalls insect carapaces, as well as a moody gun-metal sheen that resides somewhere between noir and sci-fi.
In a word: Yowza.
These are utterly amazing sculpural pieces. I am wondering if they are upcycled i.e. made from post manufacture waste or are they just made from the industrial textiles used for seatbelts?
having used seat belts in 1994 to win the irish leg of the smirnoff fashion awards i can tell these are not recycled belts as they are in too good condition,its really not that original anymore as the same idea was recently used on an american fashion college program aired on tv,however what has been done with ther belts is very cool .