UNLEASHING

Utilizing a derelict  running track at Teachers College, And The World Will Be As One introduces a revolutionary vision for the future of fashion, one that reexamines textiles and garments as tools for amplifying our impact on nurturing earth. Olmedo has engineered a 100% biodegradable hydroponic textile, a textile that grows fresh plants from which he constructs an extraordinary line of clothing.

The garments and plant strip around the parameter of the track, celebrate stages of life - from sprouting to growth and then dying, echoing Olmedo’s vision of a tender relationship between humans and nature. For this installation, Olmedo took into consideration all elements of the site, letting the plants take their natural course in the environment they are in, letting the track become part of the garments’ process of growth. The projected videos tell the story of the garments’ elaborate construction process and feature Columbia University students and alumni modeling the clothes in action.

For Unleashing, Olmedo developed for the first time a pair of hydroponic pants. This presented a particular challenge to the designer such as how will his special materials last with the friction generated by walking, where to best position the plants to allow for sitting, and how to accommodate the way the body moves when wearing pants.