Imagine having nothing in your wardrobe but one dress for a whole year. One dress for 365 days. Well, since May fashion designer Sheena Matheiken has had this challenge to face, but why one dress?
Sheena is proving that you can look fashionable everyday with just one outfit, which both raises awareness for sustainable fashion and money for the Children's charity the Akanksha foundation.
The non-profit organisation is putting funds into the Indian education system, beginning with the slums. As Sheena grew up in India, she witnessed first-hand the “infectious spirit and resilience of children in the slums thriving through inopportune circumstances,” says Sheena.
The Indian government spends on average $360 on each child’s school year, and Sheena pledges to spend the equivalent on each child in the slums to give them a better start in life.
The dress was designed by creative partner Eliza Starbuck. The inspiration came from one of Sheena’s dresses, altered to make it durable, breathable and seasonally versatile. The dress has also been designed so that it can be worn both ways, front and back. The accessories that have been matched up for these daily outfits have been donated by independent designers, and are all handmade, vintage or pre-owned, fitting in with the sustainable nature of the outfit.
The idea for the project came from when Sheena lived in India where uniform was mandatory.
“Kids always found a way to bend the rules and flaunt a little personality. Boys rolled up their sleeves, wore over-sized swatches, and hiked up their pants to show off their high-tops. Girls obsessed over bangles, bindis and bad hairdos,” says Sheena.
Sheena continued, “Peaking through the sea of uniforms were the idiosyncrasies of teen style and individual flare. I now want to put the same rules to test again, only this time I'm trading in the catholic school fervour for an eBay addiction and relocating the school walls to this wonderful place called the internet.”
Fashion is one of the most influential markets in the global media.
“Fashion is such a visual and subjective medium, it offered an intrinsic draw. I consider style very much a part of self-expression and wanted to take the daily act of dressing up and make it part of something bigger, something more consequential.”
The project has already been a huge success with almost $30,000 of donations in just 6 months. Not only has it raised money for the Akanksha foundation, but this has also been a platform for independent and sustainable designers to show off what they can do.
Alongside this The Uniform Project has been a huge eye-opener for people who rely on disposable fashion. The multi-million pound global industry has taken over; it is in the high streets, in our supermarkets and all over the internet. A point not missed by the fashion press, the Times reporting earlier this year how creative you can be with one simple dress, when it said: "Matheiken is standing up to today’s culture of fast fashion."
To boost donations the project will be auctioning the dress and accessories on the site. In addition to this, publishers are already interested in turning the year long challenge into a design book.
If you would like to contribute to the cause or donate accessories then you can do through the website www.theuniformproject.com
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