The Ready-To-Wear-Away Dress Collaboration with Sylvia Heisel & Paper No. 9

Fashion designer Sylvia Heisel might be best known for her clean modern lines and ultra chic sensibility when it comes to creating luxurious pieces, but this New-York based veteran of the industry has recently teamed up with industrial designer, Rebecca Cole Marshall of Paper No. 9, to craft a whole new story. Her latest 'Ready-To-Wear-Away Dress' is primed to shape itself with the shifting nature of your life and personal narrative. Exquisitely constructed out of Paper No. 9's leather-like, recycled kraft paper, Heisel artfully demonstrates yet again her total staying power and adaptive resourcefulness with this poetic sheath creation.

As some one who understands the appeal of clever re-invention, Heisel has paired herself with Paper No. 9 in a concerted effort to implement wearable sustainable design strategies into future projects and collections. The cool factor with the 'Ready-To-Wear- Away Dress' is that body heat and natural movement cause the outer skin to break down, revealing a series of hand-drawn inspirational quotes from writers, philosophers and artists – from Truman Capote to Ghandi to Tupac Shakur.

Front side of the Ready-To-Wear-Away Dress

Paper No. 9 was developed by Industrial Designer Rebecca Cole Marshall as an exploration of three emerging concepts prevailing in contemporary design: the ephemeral, the authentic, and the mundane. Rebecca's goal is to elevate the mundane (brown paper) to become precious, while exploiting its inherent ephemeral nature to create objects that become increasingly beautiful and personal as the wearer discovers the hidden layers beneath. 

Seems like a beautiful fusion of sustainable thinking, natural materials, and construction expertise – and what's not to love about a journey through time with some of the great voices and visionaries in history. Sylvia Heisel is just getting started on a whole new chapter in cutting-edge, contemporary fashion. I love that this new design slips the sustainability message in like a secret verse or lyrical prose. Total transparency of the intelligent variety.

* above photographs by Deborah Feingold

'Snake and Molting' Legwear by Camille Cortet

There is no doubt that February is the month when we begin fantasizing about shedding our layers and sloughing off winter skin in preparation for the warmer days ahead. 

Designer Camille Cortet wants to aid in this process with her Snake and Molting legwear, designed out of laser cut fabric that shows cumulative wear and tear based on the user's activity.

Snake and Molting legwear is part of Cortet's 'Transformations: Body Ornaments' series. 

The designer states, "By observing animals’ transformations we understand their behaviours, and ... thus start a process of transformation. My process is to (simulate) these animal inspired behaviours in 3 stages: copying, merging, and translating. The translation stage is about adapting these behaviours to our own culture. It is a way to create new gestures and a new body language within clothing and ornaments."

If biomimicry is what it takes to get you through the last stretch of winter, by all means slither around in some conceptual legwear that will not only be a conversation starter, but leave you feeling lighter as you snake your way into spring 2011.

via Dezeen