Dr Noki

Little bit in love with Dr Noki. Interview taken from M&S Stories.

The final weekend of the M&S Shwop Lab is upon us and it’s certainly going to go out with a bang. Scottish artist and designer Dr Noki and his troop of nurses arrived bright and early on Saturday to start the first of two days of completely re-working a pile of vintage t-shirts.

They began by cutting the items into long thin strips, which were then collected into rapidly growing balls, ready to be used as yarn for Noki’s surprise garment which he’ll complete by day two of his session. Speaking to the man himself, his genuine belief and in re-using, and re-working clothing became clear. The t-shirts, which could well have found themselves in landfill, were now being used in a fresh way to create a completely new textile, or as he called it DNA-YARN: short for ‘Direct Noki Action.’

Noki also kindly brought two new items for display in the Lab. One a colourful, full-length playsuit  – which can be seen on page 201 of the current issue of Vogue – and the other a short top, worn by Jessie J when she appeared on the Jonathan Ross show earlier this month. This is exciting, not only for him as a designer of course, but also because it proves that sustainable style is rapidly becoming centre stage in the world of fashion.

“Hi there, I’m Dr NOKI, I’d just like to say a big  HALLO to the www, thank you for logging in and getting ON, reading and engaging with this very important project, where established industry and highly respected BRITISH high-street brand M&S and pioneering charity Oxfam, with a highly respected education body the London College of Fashion are sustaining  the creative Love… Many worlds are colliding and gliding the fashion slipstreams of change. Plan A is working. Design innovation is paramount over ALL in change…

Over the last 16 years building the Noki ideas, creating installations, being inspired by the mountains of throw-away textiles that mount up every day of our glorious sustainable lives, I pray to those mountains their climb is my inspiration, this is a massive change in a creative cultural Fashion  movement, and it’s coming from London, the heart of fashion the other worlds can only be inspired by and assimilate.

We spoke to Dr Noki and here’s what he had to say about Shwopping and the Shwop Lab:

The Lab they have created is the most glorious space, the perfect sustainable operating theatre in the heart of NOKI WORLD, SHOREDITCH EAST END of the FASHION WORLD. Dr Noki is a happy practitioner.”