Japanese designer Rie Sakamoto replaced yarn with rubber bands for her knitted fashion collection, which aims to showcase this stationary item's overlooked qualities.
Created as part of her thesis project for Tama Art University in Tokyo, Japan, the Rubber Band collection comprises a series of garments made entirely from elastic bands.
Including a dress and a jacket, the collection aims to shine a light on simple, everyday objects that may be ignored in contemporary design and reestablish them as art.
After experimenting more with the rubber bands she found that, despite being widely considered as a mass-produced item with limited functionality, they do in fact have hidden qualities that aren't immediately obvious, and their stretchy quality lends itself to clothing, as it enables the material to morph to different body-shapes and sizes.
Sakamoto made each elastic garment by connecting the rubber bands together one by one, before knitting them in the same way as knitting yarn with needles.
According to the designer, it took her up to half a year to finish the project. Her pieces were on display as part of a group graduate exhibition in Tokyo earlier this year in January.
