Micaela Clubourg
Micaela Clubourg
SPAIN
“Why do we have to label our bodies in one size? Why do we have to discard a garment if we change sizes over the years?”
Dressing frustrations were the spark for Micaela Clubourg’s desire to design. Observing that modern clothing was often made for limited body shapes, she began to imagine how garments could instead be made to fit the body over time, as it naturally changes shape.
“When I applied for an internship, I had the opportunity to see how the fashion system works up close. I saw workshops in their worst conditions and pillars of garments despised by both producers and consumers,” shares the designer, who holds a degree in Fashion Design from the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Micaela’s collection ‘Back To The Roots’ seeks to reach a universal audience through adaptable, versatile garments that can stand the test of time. She combines the straight lines of oriental geometry with the organic lines of Latin American handmade knits, and sources textiles such as cotton and linen from local industries. They are then coloured with natural dyes from food waste such as coffee, tea, and onion peel.
The designer’s environment also influences her work. Micaela reflects on seeing unused fabrics thrown away in her neighbourhood tapestry stores, and her grandmother teaching her to embroider, a skill she refined during the pandemic. Her collection is inspired by a desire to recover the ancestral, the handmade, and the decelerating of consumption and production.
All her trimmings are made from recycled plastic, processed from containers of dulce de leche (milk jam), a popular confection in the designer’s native Argentina. Without an industry to recycle the containers, Micaela sought out an NGO of product designers to come up with a way to process the plastic, heating and reinjecting it into buttons and trims.
Micaela also made regenerated yarn with recovered industrial cotton waste, tearing the fabric with knives to separate the fibres, and respinning them. Since the resulting fibres were much shorter than those of typical virgin cotton, she mixed them with other natural fibres to create a twisted and durable yarn that could withstand the tension of the looms.
Having moved from Argentina to Barcelona, Spain, Micaela is excited to discover opportunities in a new continent and collaborate with international designers. She recognises that while no creation can be perfectly sustainable, it is important to keep striving to make a positive impact every day. “I hope that in the near future we will be facing the next fashion revolution: the evolution of values.”
