Waste Not, Want Not

No, this is not a post about recycling or saving mother earth (not that it's a bad thing anyway), so don't worry.

Welcome back from the Raya break and I hope you're all warm and satisfied from the over-indulgence of rendang and ayam masak merah during the week-long break  :)

As I have lamented many times in the past, the first post of the week (even though it's not Monday) is always the hardest to write as it sets the momentum (or lack thereof) for the rest of the week. During the break, I was bored-browsing through fashion websites and came across an interesting concept. I shan't tell you what that is, though, and instead, will let the next few pictures speak for themselves before providing a lengthy explanation.

Photo taken from here

Photo taken from here

Photo taken from here

Photo taken from here

 What's so special about these pictures? you ask. Well, it's the outcome of being too creative with human by-products, if you haven't figured that out already. No, we are not talking about fake eyelashes, faux fur or even wearing the tooth of some poor exotic animal around your neck - this is worse. Much worse. 

See those cute teddy bears in the first picture? I doubt you'd think them cute if you knew what they are made of, anyway. Yep, the teddy bears are made of belly-button lint. American artist Betty Rae Case takes belly-button lint and shapes them into teddy bears before putting them in glass bottles and sealing them with a cork.

Moving on, we are looking at human teeth jewellery. Polly van der Glas, an Australian jewellery designer takes donations (I suspect most of you'd think donation = $$$, but not in this case, sadly. I meant donation as in...teeth) from family and friends, sterilises them before setting them into sterling silver as necklace pendants and rings. Tooth fairy, anybody?

OK, the third one isn't that bad. After all, it's just hair. Croatian fashion house Artidjana caused a big fuss in the fashion industry back in 2009 when they used 165ft of human hair to create the dress (the one on the far left of the picture).

I thought the pendant picture was just plain gross. Why? Because those are toenail clippings you're looking at. This is another one from Betty Rae Case (the navel teddy lady), made into pendants and rings. Imagine giving your girlfriend/boyfriend a memento to remember you by - a toenail-clipping pendant to be worn around the neck *chokes* 

Whatever happened to proper teddy bears, silk dresses and real jewelleries, eh?

Anyway, if you must know, this is something called 'cannibal couture'.