VESTI x Junk Not! : of Purpose and Ingenuity
The VESTI x JUNK NOT! collaboration is a celebration of form and function with sustainability in mind. It aims to remind and inspire everyone on how to be more pro-active in dealing with our environment. The star of this collaboration is the creative upcycling use of plastic trash woven and braided into a new material sturdy for home and novelty products. Junk Not! has been a great leader in this field and has since created beautiful pieces. As this is the first venture of VESTI into furniture and home products, may you enjoy and feel like royalty sitting - as you should be.
Martha Rodriguez, CEO of VESTI, has this to say about the collaboration and Junk Not’s creative director Willie S. Garcia :
‘We first saw the pieces of Wille and Junk Not! at a bazaar back in 2018 and instantly amazed by their ingenious use of plastic waste into different novelty and home products.
Naturally, we are drawn and inspired to hopefully work with them sometime in the future - and that time is here. Our collaboration is a celebration of form and functionality with sustainability in mind.
We paired their signature plastic weaving with the Inaul fabric from Maguindanao tribe and create a chair stool reminiscent of our signature VESTI Jetsetter bags with studs and rivets.
It was truly a pleasure working with Willie and the team of Junk Not! as they have great spirits, team players, humble, and just all-around relaxed and chill - reminding me to let go and just do as needed.
We hope you’d like our first venture into home products with this collaboration.’
VESTI Conversations had a quick rundown with Willie to discuss about the collaboration project.
What does collaboration with other creatives like VESTI mean to you?
It’s a great feeling that artists from different industries can work together for the preservation of the environment as well as our culture and traditions.
As the world faces a string of health, economic, and political concerns - what role does creativity, and creatives, play in this global shift?
The pandemic makes us more creative. We discover that all of us have creative talents may it be in different forms. It makes us united, resourceful, and made us think sustainably.
What is the inspiration behind the collaboration collection? How do you get inspired?
I’m also an advocate of indigenous weaving. I’m excited with our collaboration because I know in my heart that we will inspire those of whom we are helping with this collaboration - the artisans - as more hands are involved in making this project.
Walk us through the process of creating this collection. Was it easy? Fulfilling?
YES fulfilling! especially when we finally finished putting everything together. It took us a week of trial and experimenting on how to combine the plastic waste and the textile together without damaging the beauty of it. Weave - unpick - tastas-laugh-weave-tastas-laugh-weave tastas-tadahhh. . . ang ganda (it’s beautiful). It was worth all the time and efforts poured in. We laughed because it was hard to unpick plastic weaving. haha
What do you see or expect for the future of the industry?
Fashion or furniture industry will survive this pandemic, on the bright side, it opened a lot of opportunities for us creatives to re-design everything for the new normal. As there are emerging new lifestyles, that means we should adapt to go with the trends. It make us think deeper on how we can balance human and environmental survival.
The VESTI X Junk Not! limited collaboration collection is now available here
