Motivated by disappointing statistics about fast fashion and textile waste, art major Sophia Berwanger set out to turn fabric into a symbol of sustainability.
“Through my passion of sewing and art, I wanted to depict how fabric can be a renewable source.”
Sophia Berwanger
“The average person contributes to over a thousand pounds of textile waste to landfills each year,” Berwanger said. “Through my passion of sewing and art, I wanted to depict how fabric can be a renewable source.”
Berwanger’s solution? A 12-foot-wide and 25-foot-long giant pair of pants crafted from donated clothing, furniture fabric, and household textiles, stitched together into colorful quilted panels. When she first envisioned stitching together a giant pair of pants, it seemed more like a quirky daydream than a serious art project.
“As an artist, you come up with these fantastic ideas that often just stay in your sketchbook,” Berwanger said. “One day, kind of joking, my art professor Jennifer Hecker said, ‘Hey, you know there’s a summer program where you can stay on campus, work on projects, and even get funding? Talking about these pants — maybe you could actually get money to make them.’”
Encouraged by Hecker’s suggestion, Berwanger applied to the Summer Undergraduate Research Program, which offers students housing on campus and a stipend to participate in hands-on, experiential projects for up to eight weeks during the summer.
“I’m also trying to bring attention to how people do this as their job,” Berwanger said. “They sit in factories to make clothing so that large companies can sell them. So, if you think what I did was outrageous, there are people in other countries doing this for dollars a day.”
After Berwanger secured funding, she needed to find out how to secure the materials. She started by placing recycling bins promoting the project throughout the Brockport and Rochester areas, including locations such as the Golisano Autism Center and Go Green Rochester. Her main source of donations came from local nonprofits, strong community ties, and Instagram, where she posted daily updates.
“Every day I worked to try to make one post and talk about what I was doing,” Berwanger said. “That really attracted a lot of people to my project. In fact, like, I had to go back and make the pants even bigger because I started to get more donations even after my donation period closed. People were so interested in it.”
“I want to be able to take the pants apart and make something new. It’s always breathing.”
Sophia Berwanger
Reaffirming her commitment to sustainability, Berwanger used vintage sewing machines and avoided purchasing new materials, with the exception of an electric cutter she used to minimize the physical strain of manually cutting fabric. Looking ahead, Berwanger designed the pants to be deconstructed and reused for future projects.
“I want to be able to take the pants apart and make something new,” Berwanger said. “It’s always breathing.”