LONDON — It took Eden Tan just a little over a minute to turn out to be one among London’s most talked about up-and-coming talents as his Central Saint Martins graduate collection went viral on the web — and netted him the L’Oréal Professionnel Young Talent Award top honor.

What made him win was not only that the concept for his collection was out of the box, with each look crafted out of an uncut roll of cloth, but additionally because he managed to stir emotions through the presentation.

After greater than 100 designers presented their out-there creations, the audience on the graduate show was met with whole rolls of cloth still attached to the clothes being unfurled in the midst of the runway. Each look was met with delighted whoops, wows and even a couple of tears.

In accordance with Tan, his collection, titled On Borrowed Fabric, was created with the goal of pushing the bounds of zero-waste fashion.

“These garments are going to exist for five or perhaps 10 years, after which they’ll get cut up later in my profession. I relish the concept of cutting them up and turning them into essentially the most mundane objects. One among the fabrics is definitely meant for covering mattresses, so I would actually cover one up and switch it right into a mattress in the future,” the designer told WWD in an interview.

By strategically cutting, pleating and airbrushing the material on a roll, Tan offered a green dress, a gray hoodie with matching sweatpants, a washed denim top with jeans, a striped blazer, a tartan pleated skirt with a bow tie top, and a blue and white stripe dress.

“What I would like to do is make a set that doesn’t remove any fabric from the roll. I have the desire to make a set of garments that might be as easily reprocessed into latest garments as if the material had never passed through my hands,” he said.

The emotionally charged audience response was a part of his plan.

“I wasn’t oblivious to what got here out. I used to be quite aware of the effect it was having and it was all for a purpose. As creators, not creating something is all the time essentially the most sustainable goal. Making a set that resonates with people is the highest priority because if that doesn’t occur I might need not made the gathering. The garments don’t necessarily exist, in a practical sense. I played into the concept for the show, to have the ability to make the gathering more legitimate,” he explained.

Sustainability is a theme he has been championing for years. On top of his graduate collection, Tan has been working on a slew of upcycling projects and he shares them with the Instagram account @LetMeTinker.

“The very first thing I made to sell was a small handbag out of a pair of jeans. Now I’ve got an eyewear project and a T-shirt project that has been in development for 3 years. I’m also making 17 bags for the time being for my customers. So I even have over 1,000 patches to chop for that,” he said.

While these smaller projects represent the sensible side of Tan’s design ethos, the graduate collection embodies a more conceptual side.

“I hope the conceptual side of my practice is in a position to propel the more real side which sells products that try to have as big an impact on helping the planet as possible,” he said.

Sustainable fashion has been a hot topic in recent times, but Tan believes that the word upcycling has lost its meaning in the style industry, and “we’d like to give you a latest word for it.”

“The standard model of fashion is you’re taking a square fabric because you’ve your patterns, you chop the patterns, and you’ve the remainder thrown out. It may well be quite wasteful. Most sustainable fashion only focuses on using sustainable fiber, as an alternative of really having fun with the strategy of changing,” he said.

To him, turning waste into products that folks need to pay for can higher save the planet, and he really enjoys the problem-solving process.

“All of my work is about just working through the issues. Every problem is a possibility of constructing something exciting or making something latest,” Tan said.

Born in Hammersmith, London, to a Malaysian Chinese father and an English mother, Tan’s parents have a profound influence in shaping his creative vision. Specifically, his father who “just saves, [is] very frugal and a little bit of a hoarder,” as he’s an artist who doesn’t need to waste resources and uses right right down to the last scrap of paper for his sketches.

From his mother, he got a critical eye on his own work. “I never feel like my work is about me. I’m just the tool, the doll instrument that works through the issues,” he added.

As a designer, Tan said he all the time starts with the fabric. “For me, this collection is about designing inside the constrictions of cloth,” he said, adding that the aesthetic of every project develops organically, relatively than being fully dictated by his intention.

Tan said he also enjoys spending time within the studio and factories and studying how things are made on an industrial level, and the way he can tweak the prevailing system to supply unexpected outcomes.

“How can we make a set that speaks truth to how the materials are made? That’s what inspires me,” he said, adding that he hopes by doing so to bring attention to the parts of fashion which are often undervalued and ignored.

Looking ahead, Tan said he would really like to go see “what’s on the market” for a couple of years and maybe move away from London, before considering applying for a spot in MA Fashion at Central Saint Martins.