Sorry for the disappearance. Here in Singapore, we have just lost our founding father Mr. Lee Kuan Yew, leaving Singapore shrouded in grief and darkness.

Seeing the colour black almost everywhere from retail stores, social media, the news, no doubt it’s kinda depressing. But at the same time, black is appropriate. It provides information, depth and sets a very powerful atmosphere and tone. Which got me thinking about many designers like Rick Owens and Gareth Pugh who uses a lot of black in their collection to convey many ideas they had.

In particular, Gareth Pugh’s fall/ winter collection in 2013, had a total of 11 looks made entirely from trash bags bought from his nearby one-pound shop. Weave, drape, ruffle, cut, twist, every possible technique was given to the plastic fantastic. Never has a trash bag been put to more dramatic and romantic use than in this collection’s finale looks. Specially chosen for their very cheapness—the texture was almost raffialike—they were carefully crafted, woven into astonishing dresses that had an extravagant feel of topiary. Indeed, Pugh’s conceptual ideas seems a little extreme or out there to be glorifying the garbage bags. It seems a little more absurd to be making the bags high fashion when Pugh could have use other black materials like silk, organza, leather, fur etc. In contrary, I feel no matter what material he has chosen, it will be the same as this. They are 1001 ways to convey an idea and make it work, but what is most important is how Pugh sees the materials and the meaning he has given upon to it.

Image Credits: style.com