Clever Designs Shine Light On The Sheer Beauty Of Repurposing

I know very little about relatively recent college graduate and American designer Lauren Milroy, but as the old adage goes, a picture is worth a thousand words. The photos of her hand crafted goods speak volumes about how the creative mind can renegotiate the boundaries normally assigned to the conventional items that we use in our daily lives. The ability to think beyond the simple application of a "thing" is not something that the mainstream population is endowed with -- it often requires a slightly left of center perspective to nudge the rest of us into thinking, "Oh yeahhhh! Now I can see it!" Then, in the sincerest form of flattery, we trip over ourselves trying to come up with our own original "copy" that pays tribute to the highly unique repurposing, reusing and recycling examples that we find so fascinating. 

With Milroy's creations, the designs themselves would shine on their own were it not for her integration of recycled objects which end up taking each piece to the next level. Would you have ever thought of creating shoes out of epoxied colored pencils? As a sometime artist, I've amassed a ridiculous volume of Prismacolor pencils and can't think of an artistic project that I'd rather tackle right now than my own makeshift shoe rip-off.

Woven seat belts morph into relaxing hammocks -- a sensible and durable new life for pieces of fabric that in a former incarnation were entrusted with the task of preserving ours.

Kitschy Polaroids are showcased inside of hand-laminated bamboo belt buckles. At first glance, the uninitiated might think "So what?" but soon after, you find yourself reviewing all of the ways that such a simple yet clever fashion statement could accomodate your infinitely varied moods.  

Milroy has a thing for bold neckware -- the three different pieces in her current lineup are as individual as the wearer's fingerprints. Hammered bottlecaps take on new life as ornamental rings and neckware...

Fabric rescued from a worn but not forgotten t-shirt takes on button-form...

And the piece de resistence -- Tiny sprigs of green life spring forward from delicate and highly portable miniature lucite planter pendants. Just don't forget to give them a drink of water!