Social Fabrics: Wearable + Media + Interconnectivity
Freewear is an ongoing project that explores the possibilities of creating garments out of free materials provided by the city. The Postal Gown is the first product of Freeware which was made using Postal Tyvek envelopes that can be found in any post office or ordered from the USPS website. All the notions needed to sew the dress were obtained via a network of gift-economy named Freecycle. The Postal Gown is a revival of the Paper Dress of the 60s, which was extremely popular because it only cost one dollar and was disposable. The Postal Gown does not have to be thrown away after use and is completely free, encouraging users to refuse to pay for materials and to reuse stuff that otherwise will turn into waste. Along with the exchange of goods, Freecycle also entails an exchange of stories: you are open to encounters with strangers and with the city itself that may have been otherwise foreclosed by dominant modes of exchange and consumption. Hacking the Post Office to get the main resource enables users to detour the purpose of the infrastructure to their own benefit.
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Updated 22 July 2009
