lost soul

!e search is over.

{ lôst s!l }

Lost Soul is a project that critiques today’s views on consumerism through the act of deconstructing and reconstructing discarded footwear. It is about understanding why crucial items, such as a pair of shoes, are so easily forgotten and considered waste. Timo Rissanen, a Professor of Fashion Design and Sustainability at Parsons !e New School for Design states that: “Waste comes into existence through categorizing and sorting: when we deem something no longer desirable or necessary, it becomes waste ... !ings exit our lives with relative nonchalance”. !e main goal of this project is to shed light on our disposable culture, by o"ering creative solutions to problems such as planned obsolescence and fast-fashion trends that inevitably lead to abandonment and waste.

Lost Soul is a collection of used footwear that has been deconstructed and reassembled in a manner that challenges the speci#c purpose and function of the shoe all while implementing the themes of reusing, reclaiming and reimagining. Lost Soul takes each individual abandoned shoe either donated or found, and uses a cradle-to-cradle mentality to produce “new” items. “New” as in, not something made quickly and poorly, but rather using existing materials to produce that item. Lost Soul focuses on the idea of recycling and reclamation of items in order to deem them desirable once again.

Lost Soul is a project created by Mélanie Contant for her undergraduate thesis project at Ryerson University in Toronto. Editorial Photography by Shannon Jager.Product Photography by Benjamin Freedman.

© 2012 Lost Soul

lost soul{ lôst s!l }

deconstruction

“Every one has experienced how learning an appropriate name for what was dim and vague cleared up and crystallized

the whole matter. Some meaning seems distinct almost within reach, but is elusive; it refuses to condense into

de#nite form; the attaching of a word somehow (just how, it is almost impossible to say) puts limits around the meaning, draws it out from the void, makes it stand out as an entity on

its own account.”

- John Dewey, How We !ink

reconstruction

“Art is the most e"ective mode of communications that exists.”

- John Dewey, Art as Experience

“Shake your tail feathers .”

“You are what you eat.”

“Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair, so that I may climb the golden stair.”

“He’s a woman; she’s a man”

“Some ideas are bulletproof.”

“She’s a Silver Fox”

“Alright already, we’ll all "oat on.”

“Trailblazin’”

“Zip it away, zip it away, zip it away now”

“Godspeed you,black velvet”

! e search is over. I’ve found my soulmate.

- with love, Lost Soul.

! e search is over. ! e search is over. I’ve found my soulmate.I’ve found my soulmate.

- with love, Lost Soul. - with love, Lost Soul.

Flower headband, Katrina Cervoni. Jumper and shorts, Albertine. Collared shirt and socks, stylist’s own. Shoes, Lost Soul. Photography by Shannon Jager. Art direction by Mélanie Contant, Katrina Cervoni and Shannon Jager. Makeup by Elyse Moland.Model from Icon Model Management.