Following this year’s CSM BA show, menswear designer Eden Tan was accorded the top honour of the L’Oréal Professionnel Young Talent. His collection, On Borrowed Fabric,  places heavy emphasis on sustainability and circular production.

Of Malaysian-Chinese and British heritage, Eden Tan was born and raised in London, a city celebrated for its highly innovative fashion and creative communities. His latest collection draws from his hobby of tinkering and developing new techniques, bringing renewed life to garments and fabric found in charity shops. On Borrowed Fabric follows a material’s journey from creation, to obsolescence, and ultimately, recreation. 

Utilising trompe l’oeil techniques, folds and a handful of slits, Eden had constructed a series of six looks that had been made entirely from one fabric roll -still attached to the garment.

“I don’t think my work is that deeply rooted in fashion culture, I just like to find a quirk in a piece of material and really elaborate on that,” Tan explained, “the motivation for the collection was the possibility of making clothes which could be as easily reprocessed into new garments as if the fabric had never passed through my hands.” 

Tan references Schrödinger’s Cat, a thought experiment, as a core principle he held during the creation process. “Basically, a scientist puts a cat in the box with a bunch of chemicals and puts a lid over it. We won’t really know if the cat is dead or alive until we open the box. This represents a paradox of quantum superposition, one I want to demonstrate in using the same roll of fabric that remains seemingly untouched though work has been done.”

Evidently, upcycling and rebirth are crucial themes at the forefront of Tan’s graduate collection, yet the designer is under no illusion that this project is going to save the planet. “I know it’s not a practical solution to fast fashion, but being as sustainable as possible and preserving the integrity of materials will always be important to me.”

“My work is never indulgent, it’s always restrained.”

And what’s next for Eden? 

“The truth is I’m taking the whole year to not worry about the deadlines someone else has set for me. This project is over and it was a success, and I now want to take each day as it comes.”

Tags: Central Saint Martins, Eden Tan