‘Was nooit weg.’

A stain that won’t come out completely, a jumper that’s been washed too many times, a label that’s itchy and gets cut off straight away. Washing happens almost automatically. Often without stopping to think about what that daily ritual actually means for our clothes, our habits and the environment. This project stems from those familiar actions.

For this project, I create garments from tumble dryer lint collected in laundrettes in Ghent. A material that normally disappears straight away, but is actually full of traces of our daily lives: fibres, colours, hairs, remnants of garments that we wear, wash and eventually wear out. Through material research, I explore how this ephemeral waste material can be transformed into something that can be worn again, and what it reveals when it becomes part of a garment.

The designs feature visible labels and washing symbols that become part of the garment itself. They refer to our culture of hygiene, the excessive washing of clothes and the close relationship between the laundry industry and fast fashion. What is usually hidden, cut away or ignored is given renewed attention here.

With this project, I want to encourage people to look at a daily task as washing in a different light. Perhaps next time you’ll think twice before cutting off a care label, trying to wash out a stain, or throwing a T-shirt into the laundry basket for the umpteenth time.