Designer brings plastic-fashion mission to Gables Museum
In conjunction with its Design for a Living World exhibit, the Coral Gables Museum recently hosted a reception featuring award-winning fashion designer Barbara de Vries, who integrates creative uses of recyclable materials into her designs.
Perhaps best known as the lead designer who launched the CK-Calvin Klein brand in the early 1990s, de Vries has started Plastic is Forever, a fashion brand that incorporates the plastic she collects from beaches in the Bahamas in jewelry, clothes and more.
“To take any material that is orphaned and introduce it into ownership by making it glamorous is the ultimate design challenge,” she says.
Next up for her is a fashion project using sustainable materials, such as those featured in the museum’s Design for a Living World exhibit. De Vries says she’s looking forward to the day when designers everywhere will recycle plastic and use sustainable materials as a matter of course.
Guests enjoyed cocktails and hors d’oeuvres prior to de Vries’ presentation on Thursday evening, Oct. 4. The event was presented by the museum and Northern Trust.
Making its final stop in a four-city, national tour, Design for a Living World features intriguing works from 10 of the world’s top designers whom The Nature Conservancy invited to create usable objects from sustainable materials found around the world.
The exhibit will be on display at the Coral Gables Museum, 285 Aragon Ave., through Oct. 25, when The Nature Conservancy will host a closing celebration and live auction of the one-of-a-kind objects showcased in the exhibit.
For details about the exhibit, visit www.nature.org/media/design/index.html.
Photos by Betty Alvarez / Events Photographer
