New SCONCHO Ponchos

This one is featuring a dog leash as a belt.

This pink-rose-salmon-dream is made from very soft scarfs and has a hood.

#12 Sweater TOLAPU made from potholders

#11 Scarfs MASCHA Made From Painter Sheet Covers

Painter sheet covers are very thick and dense so they are warm and the wind won't get through. On the inside the MASCHAs are lined with soft scarfs to add some comfort.

The purple one has warm purple gloves attached to it.

 

 

 The last two feature a pocket on the outside. It's made from a shoulder pad and can be closed with a zipper.

WARNING! This Might Contain Traces of Honesty

THE MARKET EXPERIENCE

WARNING! This blog post doesn’t follow the design blog formula “many pictures, little text, not too much information”. Plus it might contain traces of honesty. Writing this is not recommended by any brand marketing expert. Don’t try this at home. 

Click here for the undemanding version.

After my participation in another market last Saturday I asked myself why it is always so frustrating for me to participate in designer markets. Here’s a guess. 

I am disappointed at people’s lack of interest to take the time to find out what’s behind the clothes, stop and look and actually read what I wrote. I took all the copies of my program back home unread. It would have been better to burn them on the spot. 

I am fed up with the lameness of life nowadays. The political correctness of people, the monotonous "cool" electronic music. The blogging about nothing. It's all surface.

I feel misunderstood when people - especially the ones that should know me better - pity me for not selling things. Selling is not my priority. It would be far more rewarding to have interesting conversations about my work/upcycling/the world/whatever. Money is a necessary evil everyone needs more or less of in this society. But human interaction and spreading ideas does give me something.

It’s also frustrating when people pity me for transporting the stuff with a bicycle wagon. They assume I have to do it because I don’t have a car and they offer to borrow me one. I do not have a car for many reasons and I intend to keep it that way. Transporting stuff by bike is satisfying to me. I don’t add more exhaust to the city, I don’t use gas that people fight in wars over, I only use my physical strength, I stay fit. It’s a challenge and it’s fun. Obviously not many people share that type of fun.

Many people went to that market mainly to quickly find some Christmas presents; because they feel obliged to do so; preferably cheap ones. That's frustrating. Why presents, why Christmas, why material things, why the pressure? 

Yeah, it was a market with small businesses, no mass production, a lot of upcycling, some good stuff to discover. But that seems to be less important to people than the act of buying stuff; and if they do buy from small businesses and/or upcycled products, then how many are actually aware about the impact of their actions, how many do it for idealistic reasons and how many because it’s fashionable? And how many do it without even knowing/being aware or just because the product they like happens to be produced like that?

I became aware that I do expect too much and I am too optimistic. I always think next time will be different; a different type of market, different types of people; my message will be clearer and therefore it will be heard and so on. But essentially it’s always the same thing in a slightly different setting. I have to find better ways to get my message across.

Voodoo Market Pictures

Here are some impressions from the Voodoo Market yesterday.
It was a great market with lots of interesting products and a special type of atmosphere.

Program for the Voodoo Market tomorrow

More SCONCHOs

Out now!

 

 SCHANCHO's simple cut and soft material allows many forms of use

Use it also as a blanket / pillow / to sit on etc. It comes very handy on travels.
Check it out next Saturday at Voodoo Market

#10 Ponchos SCONCHO

made from five fabulous scarfs of various sizes, colors and patters

here are some examples

four scarfs build the main part

one additionally attached scarf goes around the neck like a real scarf back in the days did

SCHANCHO also includes a matching belt to tighten the poncho around your waist

 and the best is that it comes with a hidden inside pocket to keep your hands warm

Substantielles Minimum goes VOODOO!

I am going to participate in the Voodoo Market and I would be glad to see you there at the 7th of December! 

I'm gonna bring all the shoulder pad bags and a lot of cozy warm ponchos plus pieces of my collection "The Secret Liberation of Clothes". 

I'm still trying to figure out how to best put everything in my booth, what kind of decoration to use and all that stuff. So be surprised.

Here goes the official invitation by the Voodoo People:

VOODOO XMAS MARKET N°11

Join VOODOO MARKET for a special Christmas edition!

Want to find a cool and extraordinary present? Want to find the best outfit for new year's eve? Or maybe get a new look thanks to our beauty corner. And what about chilling all day, eating and drinking Glühwein with good music?! 

And if it wasn't enough, the Lieblingsmensch e.V. tombola returns for its second edition. Come by, get a ticket, do good and you might end up with one of our amazing prices in return.

We are happy to present to you our selection of designers, carefully chosen to offer you the best designer market in the city.

- clothes
- accessories
- jewelry
- design object
- vintage Salon
- art
- delicious food corner and bar
- DJs and Music
- beauty corner with tattoo, hairdresser and nail art
- charity tombola
- wrapping gift station
- tarot reading to see what 2014 will bring you!
- and more surprise to be announced...


*Urban Spree*
Revalerstr corner of Warschauer Strasse
U-Bahn and S-Bahn Warschauer Strasse

Saturday 7th of december

From 11am to 7pm
cozy indoor market
entrance: 1€ – free for kids
accessible for wheelchair and strollers

THIS IT NOT YOUR ORDINARY XMAS MARKET - THIS IS VOODOO!

Even more SCHUPTA Shoulder Pad Bags

Substantielles Minimum goes Fairnopoly

I just put my first article on the new platform/online store Fairnopoly.

It's cooperatively organised, there's no fee for posting articles and 1% of each sold item is donated to initiatives that fight against corruption. Besides they donate part of their profit to non-profit organizations and support fair and sustainable products with better advertisement and less fees.
AND you can use the platform to give away things too.
Sounds a bit over the top almost.. But if you wanna buy something online, Fairnopoly beats the rest!

New Items Part II

SCHUPTA-K orange
 






 SCHUPTA-K black

New Items on Etsy

I just posted two new items. More will follow soon.
Check them out here:

 SCHUPTA-K

SCHUPTA-L

#9 SCHUPTA-L Bag with Integrated Charging Cable

I found out that my camera's charging cable has the perfect length to make a shoulder strap for a SCHUPTA bag made from shoulder pads. The camera fits in the bag perfectly too.

To charge it, you just have to connect the camera to one end of the cable and pull out the other end to connect it to the computer / outlet.
It must feel like pulling yourself up by your bootstraps in a way.
This works for mobile phones or mp3 players too of course. If you have a device you want such a bag for, then I'll be glad to make that for you. Just give me the measurements of the charging cable first, so we can figure out how it works.

#8 MATA-V Hairband / Belt Made From Sleeves

Here are two examples of MATA-V. The former sleeves are joined by the cuffs. Then the cuffs are closed on the sides to make a bag about the size of a tobacco bag.

MATA-V can be worn as a belt including a belt bag. It can also be worn as a hairband, or any other way you can think of.

#7 BRAG Shoulder Bag

 

This here fellow is made from an old bra which gives it a nice spherical shape and a sensual touch.

Bras come in so many shapes, colors, patterns and sizes that they offer innumerable possibilities for reuse.

THE SECRET LIBERATION OF CLOTHES goes movie!

Music by Miss Natasha Enquist
Pictures by Tonio Mundry
Model Christine Charlotte Iwaniuk
Styling Sarah Jolitz

THANK YOU!

SCHUPTAs close-up

nice thick padding, chocolate brown, shoe lace strap, zipper

oval, taupe, smooth, yellow cable strap, zipper

half-round, flower pattern, brown jersey strap, zipper

round shape, belt closure, beige with brown belt straps

 

 oval, dark purple, shoe lace straps with wider part for the shoulder, open on top for inserting your beer bottle

Please Send me Pictures for THE ARCHIVE OF THE LIBERATED CLOTHES

Here's the plan.
I would like to have a memory of the clothes I make, since most of the materials are truly unique and so are the resulting items. That makes it hard for me to part from them, so I'm trying to collect pictures of them in their new homes.

Consti with RENG in Shanghai

I wanna do that for the next couple of years and I bet it will become a wonderful mosaic of people, colors, places and clothes.
So if you happen to own one of my pieces, please send me a picture! Wear it wherever you like, however you like. Come as you are.
Please let me know if you allow me to publish your picture in the future. I won't publish anything without your permission.
For now it's just a private recollection of vanishing memories..

#6 Shoulder Bag SCHUPTA

I'm happy to introduce to you: SCHUPTA - little shoulder bags and purses made from shoulder pads.

They come in all kinds of shapes and colors, so it never gets old.
The thick ones are perfect for protecting cameras, mobile phones etc.

Lately I'm using old cables as shoulder straps. They are strong, endurable, come in all kinds of colors and are being thrown away in abundance. A perfect material.

Unwanted shoulder pads are a perfect material too.
They would truly end up in the trash and they often do.
Once I started using them for all kinds of purposes, it's hard to understand that someone would throw away such precious things.

If you have any, don't throw - let me know !

Fashion Show / Volunteers Wanted!

 

I wanna have a fashion show!

But I don't want a typical fashion show, with skinny models walking stoically up and down a catwalk. Yawn.
I wanna make a statement.
I want a huge variety of people: all sizes, heights, ages, genders, and races. The more variations, the more interesting it would be.
I wanna send a message against normalcy, against beauty ideals, against gender roles, against mass-production, and against inactive consuming.
I wanna show people how many things they can make themselves without money.

I'm planning to sew new things during the winter and then have that fashion-show-of-sorts somewhere outside in the springtime. Maybe I will use bicycles too.

So I'm looking for strong personalities out there who share my struggle.
If you are a musician/dancer/performer or feel like one, then even better for our purpose.

If you are interested in participating in any way, not even necessarily as a model, then go ahead and let me know!