How to make a ballgown from a parachute
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How to make a ballgown from a parachute |
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Debbi Little was up early one morning at Bermondsey Market, when she saw an old parchute for sale. It has been in the stallholder’s shed for about 50 years – a remnant from World War II. ‘It reminded me of the Make Do and Mend war years,’ says Debbi. ‘They used to make them into wedding dresses because they were made out of silk.’ Applying her own DIY punk ethics, she bought the parachute and set about making her own dresses from it. She showed them at London Fashion Week and got a few good orders from America and she has been making parachute dresses ever since. She can make 10 to 12 garments from a single parachute, and although the white ones are increasingly rare, she has been known to receive an army truck from an army surplus depot, with a delivery of one hundred dark green, surplus parachutes at her Deptford studio. She has even sourced pink ones, which are for the SAS. ‘I’ve become a bit of a parachute bore,’ she says. There is something incredibly romantic about the idea of wearing a dress made out of a parachute. Debbi’s ball gowns scrunch up into little bags – utilitarian and glamorous at the same time. ‘I like the fact that I’m turning something with horrible connotations of war into something beautiful,’ she says. While the white ones are made of silk, during the war, they also started making parachutes out of rayon which is incredibly strong as well as light. ‘It’s never ending,’ says Debbi, who has so many parachutes she could operate
a small army. ‘One idea leads to another.’ She is planning on making her
parachutes into accessories – bags and umbrellas. ‘I’ve always been a bit punk
and a bit make do and mend and Blue Peter,’ she says. Before she discovered the
joys of parachutes, she had a successful line of old jeans that she cut up into
miniskirts and covered in jewels. They sold from Browns in London to Neiman
Marcos in LA. ‘From Canning Town dump to Beverly Hills,’ she laughs. Before
starting on her own, the St Martin’s graduate worked for Cerruti and Zandra
Rhodes. She has always had an interest in recycling and customisation, but it is
important that her customers are drawn to her clothes because they like them,
and only discover that they have a whole history of their own on closer
inspection. Because they are so time intensive, she can only make three hundred
per season. ‘It’s a hard slog, making them look beautiful. I think with recycled
things, you have to make even more of an effort.’ And she is happy that at least
two of the dresses that she knows of have been worn as wedding dresses, just as
they once were in the war. You can buy Debbi Little’s parachute dresses online at www.equaclothing.com Tamsin Blanchard This extract is a sneak preview from Tamsin's book Green is the New Black - How to change the world with style, to be published by Hodder in August 2007 |
Action for Sustainable Living, St Wilfrid's Enterprise Centre, Royce Road, Hulme, , M15 5BJ.Email: [email protected] Tel: 0845 634 4510 Fax: 0870 167 4655. |
