Meet Padina Bondar─Winner Of The Sustainable Fashion/Textiles Prize At The ARTSTHREAD Global Design Graduate Show 2022
New Nature - Padina Bondar
Specialism: Sustainable Fashion/Textiles, Textile Innovation/Textile Art, Textiles: Fashion/Interiors.
University/School: Parsons School of Design
I am a Toronto-based fashion designer with a design degree from Ryerson University and a Fine Arts diploma from the Arts York program.
I started my journey as an entrepreneur making custom wedding dresses; now, I work mostly on couture style gowns that are inspired by, or represent, social and ethical issues.
I advance my skills as a maker by practicing couture techniques while also engaging my Iranian, cultural roots through both the designs and statements of my pieces.
I strive to push boundaries, make the familiar strange, and illuminate and elevate marginalized narratives.
For my thesis project, I developed a sustainable yarn called "New Nature" through a proprietary process focused on upcycling discarded low-density polyethylene.
LDPE is often used in single-use plastic products such as garbage bags.
It is soft, stretchy, and both water & air-proof, qualities with dire environmental consequences that can conversely become advantageous when the material is upcycled into textiles.
The textiles that I create using New Nature yarns are durable, easy to clean, comfortable, versatile, and malleable.
In this circular system, used plastic bags are collected and spun in an energy-efficient process that drastically reduces secondary pollution.
While the tools used are engineered specifically for this procedure, the techniques used are inspired by traditional yarn and textile-making crafts.
This monofilament yarn is available in a wide range of plies and gauges, allowing it to be knit, woven, sewn, embroidered, crocheted, and made into lace by hand or machine.
The waste and off-cuts from this process are heat pressed into sheets and used to produce sequins, beads, and other embellishments.
My mission as a designer and maker is to contribute to a sustainable planet and challenge the disposal of single-use plastics.
I see potential in the things destined for landfills, dumpster diving to reveal unseen potential by turning trash into treasures.
