Some ideas seem almost obvious once somebody has had them.
An old pair of jeans may no longer be useful as trousers, but there is often absolutely nothing wrong with the fabric. Denim is tough, ages rather beautifully and comes with pockets, seams, faded areas, patches and all sorts of other details already built into it.
At Atelier MeJe, all of that becomes raw material.
From social work to bags
Atelier MeJe grew out of Yen's enthusiasm for making things.
She originally studied social work, while handmade bags, purses and backpacks were something she pursued alongside university. At first she worked with newly bought fabrics. After graduating and returning to her hometown, however, she started looking increasingly at materials that were already there.
Then an old pair of jeans came out of a wardrobe.
Instead of throwing it away, Yen turned the denim into a bag and showed the result online. People liked it. More importantly, some of them began sending her their own old jeans and asking what she could make from them.
That simple idea eventually became Atelier MeJe.
The material gets a say
This is the part of MeJe's work I particularly like: the material is not merely cut into anonymous rectangles and treated as if it had never been anything else.
The original jeans are allowed to interfere.
A pocket may end up on the front of a bag. A faded section suddenly becomes part of the design. Seams, belt loops, different shades of denim and even signs of wear can suggest what a particular piece wants to become.
That makes the process rather different from conventional production, where the designer first decides exactly what something should look like and then orders identical material to make it happen.
Here, every pile of old jeans presents a different problem.
Where does this pocket go?
Can that seam become part of the shape?
Which shades work together?
Is this piece large enough for a bag, or does it want to become something smaller?
The answers change from one pair of trousers to the next.
A small workshop in northern Vietnam
With help from her family, Yen established a workshop in Bắc Giang, north of Hanoi.
What I like about the photographs from MeJe is that the place looks exactly like what it is: not a factory trying to imitate handicraft, but a working creative space full of fabric, sewing machines, half-finished ideas and people discussing what to do next.
The starting point for a day's work may simply be a pile of trousers somebody else no longer wanted. By the end of the process, some of them have become handbags, backpacks, purses or smaller accessories.
And because the source material is never quite the same, neither are the finished pieces.
Upcycling without the sermon
There is, of course, an environmental argument for using existing material instead of immediately replacing it with newly produced fabric.
But I don't think Atelier MeJe needs to save the planet single-handedly to make the idea worthwhile.
An object already exists. Its original purpose has ended. The material is still good. Somebody looks at it, has an idea and turns it into something useful again.
That is already a pretty sensible thing to do.
And in this case the limitations of the old material actually contribute to the character of the finished work.
Atelier MeJe
MeJe is one of those partnerships that fits Avanova almost suspiciously well: real people, a small workshop, a material with a history and a process where creativity matters more than making ten thousand identical objects.
That is why their work belongs in our People & Craft section.
If you would like to know whether we currently have work from Atelier MeJe available in Salzburg, you can contact us.