Paterson: Business cast-offs become art, fashion exhibit

PATERSON – A curator at the Paterson Museum went around to six city-based businesses earlier this year to collect an unusual assortment of fashion supplies – including bubble wrap, electronic chords, scrap metal, waste paper and unwanted upholstery fabric.

The museum on Sunday unveiled the fruits of that effort – 16 designs that make up the “Paterson Eco-Chic” exhibit, a project that organizers say brings together fashion, ecology and history.

Each of the outfits uses at least 60 percent of its material from items discarded or recycled by Paterson businesses, according to the curator, Cristina Deutsch.

The story continues below the gallery.

The works include a Victorian-era gown, a flapper’s outfit befitting the Roaring Twenties and Colonial military uniform in tribute to Paterson’s founding father, Alexander Hamilton. Some of the designs can actually be worn, while others are works of art best left on mannequins.

“As a museum with roots in the industrial history of the city of Paterson, such as cotton and silk, we are excited to expand our lens to look at fashion,” says Paterson Museum Director Giacomo Destefano.

Eight of the designs were created by local artists. Most of the rest were done by students, including a group from the Performing Arts at Bergen County Academies in Hackensack and the Fashion Summer Camp in Demarest.

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Deutsch said the project highlights “the blurred lines between fashion and contemporary art” and “the creative intersections between art and environment.”

Deutsch said the inspiration for the exhibit came from the “Project Runway” reality television show.

Among the Paterson companies that donated materials used in creating the designs were Accurate Box, Feldman Brothers Electrical Supply Company, Greenbaum Interiors, Levine Industries, Les Metalliers Champenois and Vac’s Bandage, officials said.

The exhibit is scheduled to run through the end of January.