Projects by HSE Art and Design School Students at New UNIQLO Store

The HSE Art and Design School continues to collaborate with the UNIQLO clothing brand. Fashion majors will showcase their upcycle projects at UNIQLO MOSCOW, Evropeisky mall—the brand’s biggest store in Russia and Europe.

The concept of the new store, ‘Time for New Things’, which has been developed exclusively for the Russian market, reflects the key values of the brand and urban residents: simplicity, comfort, and a conscious approach to clothing. UNIQLO helps set priorities, maintain harmony, and care about important things both in one’s clothing and in life.

The ‘New Life for Old Things’ zone has been set aside on the first floor of the store for creative upcycle projects by HSE Art and Design School students. In their projects, the students use clothes that are brought by customers as part of RE.UNIQLO initiative but that are not suitable for being delivered to people in need due to their condition. Student projects will be exhibited at the store for three months, with the display changing monthly.

Liza Mogilyanskaya, fourth-year Fashion student:

‘Pollution is a pressing problem today. The project is dedicated to sustainable design, conscious consumption and ways to recycle. The items were created based on our study of clothing deconstruction methods and mastering the technologies to recycle textile industry products. Only Uniqlo clothing was used in the collection without any new fabrics. The idea behind the concept is to decrease industry waste. This can help find a new, greener approach to production.’

Yulia Tsvetkova, a fourth-year student of Fashion, is presenting a dress project during the first month of UNIQLO exhibition, and two more looks—a shirt dress and a skirt with a top—during the following month.

Yulia Tsvetkova, fourth-year student of Fashion:

‘The project took shape as follows: when we first talked about the environment, I remembered the stories my dad told me when I was a child. He lived on the Kuril Islands, right across the channel from Japan, and the sea always brought various items, which he collected and created new things from. For example, he found three lighters, took the working parts and put together one ‘new’ lighter; he collected fishing nets and lines and waved rings or chains. I embraced this technology to create my own fabric. I cut t-shirts, created a new fabric from them and integrated it into my styles. The print resembles my father’s collection of over 100 Japanese chewing gum wrappers, which were also brought by the sea.’

Anna Pavlova, third-year Fashion student:

‘In my work on the project, I wanted to invent a new assembly method and to achieve the effect of something precious. I tried to recycle all the items completely in order to minimize the waste. I put together the parts manually and formed a gradient fabric. I used a sewing machine at the assembling stage, a method which is similar to patchwork.’

Project participants: Sasha Gashutina, Tanya Bravicheva, Angelina Posokhova, Daria Sizonova, Yulia Tsvetkova, Ekaterina Strukova, Liza Mogilyanskaya, Ruslan Nasyrov, Anna Pavlova, Elizaveta Chaplinskaya, Maria Nazarenko.

The exhibition of upcycle projects by HSE Art and Design School students is on display at Evropeisky mall on the first floor of UNIQLO store in the ‘New Life of Old Things’ zone.