Upcycling turned into an art form

From flotsam and jetsam chandeliers to vases made from leftover leather, London designers are turning upcycling into an art form...

East End designer Simon Hasan began his career in marketing, working with advertising agencies including M&C Saatchi but had 'an early mid-life crisis' and decided to study design instead. 'I loved The Conran Shop and buying nice furniture', he says. After an HND in furniture design he applied to do an MA at the Royal College of Art, but was rejected on his first attempt: 'I took a total kicking from Ron Arad. It took a whole year to recover from the shock.' His second attempt was more successful, and his final show had the design world buzzing at his innovative use of a medieval French practice known as cuir bouilli (boiled leather), which has since become his trademark.

A Fendi collaborator, Hasan, 38, has been working with the fashion house since 2009, when he exhibited at Craft Punk, a Design Miami/Fendi event held during the Salone Internazionale del Mobile in Milan, for which he created versions of his trademark vases alongside boiled leather furniture. This year he will be working on Fendi's Fatto a Mano series, making 20 vases for the label's Selfridges concession, using offcuts of Fendi leather from this season's accessories collection. But Hasan says that recycling isn't his main motivation. 'Sustainable design is important to me as a human being,' but drawing on time-honoured craftsmanship is his true focus. 'I love historical research... looking to the past to keep design alive but in new ways and with new techniques.' He credits designers including Ron Arad, Tom Dixon and Jurgen Bey as influences and admits to finding inspiration in the most unlikely places: 'I have a thing at the moment for construction sites. It's important to have a healthy mix of influence.'

Next, there's a project for the Design Museum's 'Designers in Residence' series, a further collaboration with Fendi on mannequins for its Sloane Street pop-up store, and he plans to start an online shop of his own. 'Maybe I'll finally have some pieces in Conran,' he laughs. 'What a crazy idea.'
Simon Hasan will be creating limited-edition vases for Fendi at Selfridges on 1-2 and 8-9 April (simonhasan.com)

The latest face at the Italian fashion house Fendi isn't a fashion designer or supermodel but 28-year-old sculptor Rowan Mersh. Based in Highbury, he won the Nationwide Mercury Prize, the UK's premier student art competition, during his final year at the Royal College in 2005, and his CD Vinyl Sculpture Part 2 (a piece made using his possessions including compact discs and vinyl records, with jersey fabric stretched over the discs and secured with hand-tied knots) was bought by the V&A in 2005 for its permanent collection.

While fashion houses from Armani to Matthew Williamson have embraced homeware as part of their output, few take such an interest in contemporary design as Fendi. Its Fatto a Mano series involves collaborations with artists such as Mersh, who are commissioned to reinterpret its traditional practices. For last year's collaborative show between Fendi and the Gallery Fumi at the London Design Festival, Mersh created a wall display using slivers of offcut leather from Fendi accessories.

This year, he created a window display for Fendi at Harrods, and is currently visiting cities in Europe with his multi-coloured leather tapestry (above), inspired by a visit to the Fendi factories in Florence. 'Each hole of every bag is punched by hand,' he says. The piece is created through a complicated process involving measuring the heart rate of the Fendi bag-maker as he works, and then feeding this information into a sewing machine which punches it onto thin strips of leather. Mersh then weaves the strips onto a steel framework. The piece, he explains, 'questions the role of the artisan next to technology and the future of design. I like the sense of material being reborn into new exciting forms.'
rowanmersh.com

Take a grandmother's nightgown, fabric from 20 vintage dresses, a 1920s corset, give them to South East Londoner Gary Harvey and what do you get? An Oscar dress for Best Actor Colin Firth's wife Livia.

Harvey, 46, fashion director of edgy cultural magazine 125, has always had a passion for designing clothes, and honed his skills as a teenager, creating outfits through necessity. 'I used to make myself clothes because I couldn't afford them. It was the 1980s, so every weekend I needed a new outfit to go to all the crazy clubs like Taboo,' he explains.

Harvey has known Livia for some time: 'I was aware of her Eco Age company. This business is relatively small so we all know each other; it's a little eco-clique.' It took four weeks to create the Oscar gown. After talking through ideas with Livia, Harvey went away with a colour palette based on her grandmother's pink nightgown. His research of the era of The King's Speech and attention to detail impressed Livia, who likens her first encounter with him to a first date. 'He wanted to know everything about me, my interests, and my personality. He took that away and created something incredible and personal.'

Harvey lives and works in Lewisham and is constantly scouring charity shops, jumble sales and vintage stores for fabrics (his favourite haunts are the Rose Bowl Flea Market in Pasadena, California, and Brick Lane). He hopes to educate people about the disposable nature of fashion. 'People have disconnected from the craftsmanship of clothing. I use couture methods, hand-stitching and reclaim used material to create something timeless.'
garyharveycreative.com

It all started with a dog called Albert,' says Stuart Haygarth, 45, recalling long walks with his faithful mongrel along the beaches of Dungeness in Kent. The flotsam and jetsam he collected during those outings became the inspiration for his 2004 Tide chandelier, a sphere of hundreds of clear and translucent pieces of plastic, which got him noticed as one of Britain's most exciting designers.