Unfolding Fashion: From Waste to Wear

The Artwork and Conceptual Meaning: Sustainable Expressions

Created within the framework of the European Week for Waste Reduction (EWWR), this sculptural installation stems from a strong commitment to sustainability and circular economy within the school environment. Rather than discarding the posters created by students during the previous academic year—under the ENEC project Democracy and Political Institutions—the teacher and students envisioned a new life for them, repurposing the paper into a creative raw material.

Guided by ecological awareness and a more sustainable vision of the textile and fashion world, the original posters were folded into origami “snap dragons” (fortune tellers). These individual pieces were then joined together and draped over fashion mannequins to form conceptual dresses designed to decorate the Fashion Design department display window.

The artwork thus arises from the polychromy and semiotic profusion of repurposed paper. It frees itself from the two-dimensional solemnity of the original medium to embrace playfulness and upcycling. The sculptural object and the act of shaping become universal bridges, crossing all cultures of the Western and globalized world—celebrating diversity, the POP universe, and chromatic profusion. Here, color effects are not mere ornaments, but stimuli designed to trigger deep cognitive perceptions and emotional responses in the viewer.

What began as a reflection on law, justice, conflict, and Camilian literature (following educational visits to the exhibition Camilo: O Juízo Final and the Museum of Conflict) now gains a second life: transforming into play, form, color, environmental awareness, and pure globalized emotion.

• Authors: 3rd-Year Students — Class 3DCG (Graphic Communication Design Technician)

• Context: Integration Area Discipline (Área de Integração) | European Week for Waste Reduction

• Module: M5 — Globalizations

• Project Lead: Prof. Alexandra Tinoco