Clothes anyone?

The journey of this blog started more or less with this article on Shareable about Detroit. The fact that a lot of people moved away from Detroit and as a result supermarkets moved out meant that there was a surplus of land and a need of food which combined resulted in large shared vegetable gardens.

Reading the article lead me to the question: What do we, human beings, need and which surplus do we have to fulfill that need? One of our needs is to have clothing that suits the climate we live in. The dividing line between the need and the want for clothes is thin, combined with heavily marketing by the clothing companies gives us a surplus of items. Clothes are more often thrown out than mended these days and the thriftshops are well-stocked with a wide range of items. Will pointed out in his comment on the post Doing more that it is a good idea to have diverse skill-sets. This made me examine my own ability to make clothes. I am able to knit a warm sweater, scarf, hat and with some tinkering a set of gloves but that is all. My sewing machine is still standing in its original box, oeps. So today I have some inspiration for all of us on how to use the surplus of vintage clothes.

Courtesy of Junky Styling

The dress of Livia Guiggioli is made of one of the suits of her husband Colin Firth. Maybe you have no need for a fancy dress like this but a sturdy apron or some kids clothes like this.

If you are in need of more inspiration I recommand you visit Melanie. Although she disappeared out of the blogosphere in november 2009, her legacy for us to see are tons of ideas on her blog and flickr-account.

Enough inspiration for me to start working.

Elizabeth