HOW PADINA BONDAR TAKES GARBAGE TO COUTURE
By: Hillary LeBlanc
Fashion is often the muse of many memes for challenging the concept of what is fashion. It goes without saying that creatives love to push boundaries, take risks and spark conversation in hopes of making an impact. Recently on the NYFW runway a specific collection made from garbage, yes GARBAGE has had everyone talking. You might be visualizing actual trash being worn by models but that’s not quite the case.
Born in Toronto, designer Padina Bondar has been working in New York City after graduating from Parson School of Design and becoming a Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) scholar in 2021. Not only are Bondar’s designs sustainable, the way she creates her work is pure magic. Bondar just shared in her first solo show at New York Fashion Week Show titled Refuse, aptly referring to her unique method of turning garbage into couture.
Photo Courtesy of: Padina Bondar
Bondar describes her work as “garments and accessories that disrupt and modernize traditional couture aesthetics through materials, texture and conceptual design. Work meant to change the way we perceive value in the fashion industry, emphasizing the potential that exists in producing high-quality work without consuming new materials or producing more pollution.”
While many sustainable designers are known to be innovative, she has created her own method of turning literal garbage into yarn and using them to craft couture gowns. She shares that her sustainable practices started early on. “I have always tried my best to live a sustainable lifestyle because of my love for nature and animals. I started my fashion career with a focus on bridal, which exposed me to the wasteful nature of the industry in a way that ignited a fire in me. I wanted to change and challenge those norms; my personal lifestyle made it easy for me to integrate sustainability into my professional career.”
Photo Courtesy of: Padina Bondar
Although Bondar does say that she did think she would dumpster dive for creativity, she never imagined she would make a full-time career out of it. She can be seen on her social media bringing garbage home, cleaning plastics, making yarn and showcasing the final results. This work has allowed her to teach methods and showcase at the Textile Museum of Canada last summer as well as be featured on the show OMG Fashun with celebrity Julia Fox and celebrity stylist Law Roach. Furthermore Padina has won grants from the CFDA for her work in sustainability and fashion.
Bondar’s goal is to demonstrate how anything synthetic can be upcycled and has value. “Years of research and practice have led me to develop proprietary tools to spin low-density polyethylene plastics into versatile yarns that can be used to create a wide range of textiles, but it doesn’t always have to be so complicated. Sometimes it can be as simple as using a hole puncher to make sequins out of plastic bottles. The process evolves and adjusts to whatever “garbage” I have on hand.”
Before launching her show Refuse, Bondar was no stranger to New York Fashion Week having worked with a sustainable high-end menswear brand for three years as a lead designer and producer. Outside of this she has been an artist, educator and consultant in the industry with a focus on embellishment and sustainability.
Photo Courtesy of: Padina Bondar
Bondar’s show Refuse was almost more of an art gallery experience than your typical fashion show. Sentences encouraging guests to reconsider their fashion choices were on the walls and floor, while sculptural fashion and literal garbage bags sat on podiums where the models and goans shared space.
How can the fashion community improve? Bondar thinks that low-quality products are the detriment and both manufacturers and consumers are complicit in the continued creation of sub-par products. “There is nothing cute about fast fashion when it ends up permanently polluting the environment. Get creative and find your way to be a part of the solution, consume consciously, and make sustainability a part of your style!
After Refuse, Bondar hopes to continue to work in couture. She shares that while people are scandalized by her process and she is receiving some pushback - she won’t be stopped. “I hope to keep proving that recycled materials can be just as precious and beautiful as what [industry veterans] are used to.”