An experimental pop-up at Milan design week offered visitors free haircuts, then turned the harvested hair into textile artworks and clothing.
As the second edition of New Store, a project by Rotterdam's Nieuwe Instituut, the installation offered a vision of how retail could harness the circular economy to support communities and the environment.
Visitors were offered free haircuts from stylist Alberto Fucci. Photo is by Giulia Virgara
By letting hairdresser Alberto Fucci cut their hair, visitors provided the raw material for two different textile products.
Human Material Loop, a Dutch start-up specialising in textiles made from hair, processed some of the trimmings into yarns that were turned into clothing garments.
The trimmed hair was collected and reused. Photo is by Giulia Virgara South Korean artist Woo Jin Joo took the rest of the harvested hair. Working in collaboration with visitors, she produced embroidered artworks aimed at challenging negative perceptions of this material.
"Human hair is culturally coded," the artist told Dezeen. "When it's on our body, it's precious and valued. But when it's other people's, we find it icky and disgusting."
"I'm trying to introduce a new perspective," she continued.
The exhibition was the second edition of Nieuwe Instituut's New Store
Nieuwe Instituut staged the first edition of the New Store at Dutch Design Week in October.
Conceived as an alternative to the typical museum gift store, New Store 1.0...