Painted in plastic, framed as sustainability. This piece sits in the contradiction – questioning the narratives we’re sold & the systems we continue to participate in.
This project is a contradiction.
I was asked to create a sustainable outcome by painting an entire garment in acrylic house paint. Mono-colour. No additives. No adjustments.
The reference point? Maison Margiela – white-painted denim, elevated through editorial imagery & the fashion system’s ability to turn anything into concept, value, & desire. But let’s call it what it is. Paint is plastic. So what exactly are we doing here? Because when a luxury house does it, it becomes innovation. When it’s framed within education, it becomes exploration. But strip it back, & it’s still the same material reality. This is where I start to question the narrative.
There’s a lot of talk about sustainability in fashion right now, & a lot of it is carefully packaged fiction. Greenwashing has become standard practice. Aesthetic gestures stand in for meaningful change. Materials are rebranded, processes are reframed, & the illusion is sold back to us as progress.
Sometimes it doesn’t even feel like greenwashing anymore. It feels like whitewashing. Covering over the problem just enough to make it palatable.
Fast fashion gets the blame, & sure, it deserves it. But the big design houses? They’re not outside the system. They are the system. Multiple seasons. Endless output. Recycled ideas sold as new. Scale disguised as exclusivity. It’s all part of the same machine. I’m not interested in feeding it.
This garment reflects that tension. A second-hand top from Encants market, saturated in paint until it became heavy, sealed, almost suffocated. I cut sections of it for another project, so I reworked what remained. Pleats reshaped it. Salvaged tulle filled the gaps, extended the form, softened the edges.
It became something else. Not resolved. Not clean. Not ‘sustainable’, but honest. Because sustainability isn’t about pretending everything we make is good. It’s about being accountable for what isn’t. I’m not here to follow trends. I’m not here to produce collections for the sake of producing. I’m not here to replicate what already exists in slightly different colours each season.
I’m here to work with what’s available. To use salvaged materials. To explore biodegradable alternatives, while being real about how far they still have to go, & to make pieces that actually mean something.
Not scalable. Not mass-produced. Not designed to disappear into the noise.
This piece isn’t an answer. It’s a question. Something I want to wear as part of a performance. A conversation. A disruption. To ask: What does sustainability actually mean to you? Where do you draw the line? What are you willing to ignore in order to keep consuming?
Because the truth is – most of us are complicit. Including me. I’d rather make work that acknowledges that… than pretend I’m solving it.
Larissa Sarina BAGLIERI 