An unusual catwalk
Fashion design student Martin Appelt had pretty precise ideas regarding the location where the photo-shooting for his new collection was to take place: against the backdrop of a mountain of waste paper. What sounds at first like a very unorthodox idea is a concept for his semester project that has been thought through into the last detail. This is because, like the design for the clothing, the task in the project examination is also to come up with the right way to present the designs. The 23-year-old featured his work under the rubric of “resources and recycling”. And REMONDIS supplied the fitting stage for the Haute Couture.
All eyes focused on old paper
Thomas Tölle, branch manager of the REMONDIS recycling facility in Düsseldorf, made his sacred halls available for the photo-shooting on a Sunday morning in January. Because operations are shut down at 2.00 p.m. on weekends, Martin Appelt and his three-person team were able to arrange the set in peace and quiet without any hazards. While the mask designer was still putting make-up on the model, Martin together with the photographer looked for an appropriate place, projecting floodlights on them. The most important tool is already present in massive quantities: waste paper. The mountain was properly mixed and stacked up high by REMONDIS staff Friday afternoon to prepare for the shooting.
Fashion design student Martin Appelt and his model Saskia Negro
“Using waste paper made out of the most influential fashion magazine in the world creates the ideal connection between the two topics of fashion and recycling.”
Martin Appelt, fashion design student at the AMD (Akademie Mode und Design) at Fresenius University in Düsseldorf
Fashion with an environmental message
An eye-catching scene: a mountain of waste paper was used as the backdrop to the catwalk
Then it was time for the show: model Saskia Negro posed in the fashion designed by Martin surrounding the topic “recycling and resources”. The individual articles are a combination of plastic, denim material and waste paper. In this case, it is not just any waste paper, but rather handpicked pages from the magazine Vogue, which adorn the inner sides of both costumes and the coat. Its selection is well thought-out: “Using waste paper made out of the most influential fashion magazine in the world creates the ideal connection between the two topics of fashion and recycling,” explains the fashion design student attending AMD (Akademie Mode und Design) at Fresenius University in Düsseldorf. He is not planning on selling the collection afterwards, which is not necessarily designed for everyday life, anyway. Instead he wants to draw attention to the way society wastes resources. “We support this message one hundred per cent. That is why we did not hesitate for one second when we received the enquiry about the photo-shooting,” explains Thomas Tölle.
The collection is just the beginning
Even though Martin, a native resident of Düsseldorf, will only be completing his fashion design studies in two years, he already places high demands on himself at present. Martin will also be submitting his project in line with this concept: he would like to submit the results of the photo-shooting, his analysis of trends and the concept in printed, bound form and in the same format as a fashion magazine, to his examiners. “Both the graphics and the art as well stand at the forefront,” he relates with confidence. That is what is called: “thought through to the end”.
Image credits: @Remondis
