"Our Planet is Bleeding"

Hi all!

I'm super excited to be back! It's been quite a long time since my last blog post, but now I'm going to do at least one monthly article to keep you all updated about my work!

We're in June — so festival time again! I love this period. It's such an exciting time to design immersive installations! Costumes for festivals are also great fun!

At the end of April, I was working with Team Love and Music Declares Emergency to customise two of their "No Music on A Dead Planet" tees for Love Saves The Day 2025. This was such a great experience for me. Being a fan of Music Declares Emergency's mission and passionate about environmentally sustainable design, this was my chance to create a piece that deeply resonates with my values.

The Concept:

I wanted something bold, something really cool. Thinking about the audience at Love Saves The Day (the ones who could win the tees by subscribing to the movement), I knew they'd want something bold, provocative, rebellious.

Thinking about the "No Music on A Dead Planet" motto, I naturally started to think about the bleeding of the planet, and all the wounds we are making on our beautiful home. I wanted to make the blood drops visible by using red glass beads to create a dripping effect. To suggest the wounds, I designed rough cut-outs that expose parts of the body wearing the tee.

On the back of one of the tees, I created a spine effect cut and threaded a red wool strand between the cuts — like a blood strip running down.

These tees are meant to be statements. I wanted to remind people how hard it is to heal deep wounds — and unfortunately, they might even leave bad scars. So we need to do something now for our planet. It might never be the same, but we can still try our best to heal the existent wounds.

The Making Process:

After my first meeting with Team Love and Music Declares, when I showed them the concept, they really liked it — so we decided to move forward with that as the final design.

All the materials were sourced second-hand. The beads came from old jewellery from charity shops — even the thread was sourced second-hand. Since the end of March, I started to keep an eye out for this kind of jewellery. I’d take one day per week to do a “tour de force” around charity shops in Bedminster, Gloucester Road, or around the city centre. There were days when, after entering more than nine shops, I’d only find one or two suitable items (a bracelet or a necklace), and other days when I couldn’t find anything at all. By mid-May, I had a pile of jewellery ready to be dismantled.

I also chose to stitch them individually by hand and avoid using an electric sewing machine, even for the seams (because of energy consumption).

Each T-shirt contains more than 500 beads! After 24 hours of work (and three audiobooks 😄), the two tees were ready.

To source everything and deliver the tees, I used public transport sometimes — but most of the time I preferred walking.

Seeing such positive reactions to the final tees really melted my heart. I had such a lovely weekend volunteering at Love Saves The Day — on Friday with the Sustainability Team from Team Love, and then on Saturday with Music Declares at their stall, talking about their mission (and about the tees, of course!).

If you want to live a more green life, I definitely recommend checking them out!

I'll continue to use this blog to share more behind-the-scenes of my work and also give tips for a more environmentally sustainable lifestyle.

Would you like to do a 10-day challenge with me to leave fewer wounds on our beautiful home? Let me know in the comments!

Until next time,

Alexia