Sabine Hickey
Fabrication
My work probes the boundaries between fashion, materiality, and ecology
through research-driven experiments in textile innovation and refabrication.
By making garments that live, disintegrate, or regenerate, I interrogate durability,
circular systems, and the body’s role as a site of meaning.
Biodegradable Purple Cabbage
This project investigated organic fabrication by constructing a corset from 100% cabbage. By using a biodegradable, living material typically associated with food waste, the garment investigated how form, structure, and decay can operate as design tools.
The cabbage was layered and shaped to approximate the structure of a corset, using its natural curvature and density to create compression around the body. As the material responded to handling and environmental conditions, it shifted in texture and integrity, introducing unpredictability into the form-making process.
The resulting piece functioned as both garment and experiment, testing how organic matter can be temporarily structured to suggest the language of fashion while remaining subject to change over time.
Imbalance, A T-Shirt Project (2026)
Cotton, Epoxy Resin
This project used a single T-shirt as a medium to explore how a design principle can be communicated through the body. By applying a focused set of alterations, the garment was transformed to express imbalance as both a visual condition and a physical experience when worn.
This piece explored the concept of imbalance by examining how garment weight affects stabilization. As materials grow heavier when wet, I partially immersed a T-shirt in clear resin to create a glossy, water-saturated effect—sculpting the fabric to emulate drooping toward the more saturated side.
By hanging the garment vertically as it dried, the resin solidified this asymmetry, leaving an elongated, tail-like form on one side. I also experimented with introducing a more forceful pull to the left using bungee cords and elastic bands, applying tension during the drying process to exaggerate the sense of weight and directional strain.
Cotton, Epoxy Resin
This project used a single T-shirt as a medium to explore how a design principle can be communicated through the body. By applying a focused set of alterations, the garment was transformed to express imbalance as both a visual condition and a physical experience when worn.
This piece explored the concept of imbalance by examining how garment weight affects stabilization. As materials grow heavier when wet, I partially immersed a T-shirt in clear resin to create a glossy, water-saturated effect—sculpting the fabric to emulate drooping toward the more saturated side.
By hanging the garment vertically as it dried, the resin solidified this asymmetry, leaving an elongated, tail-like form on one side. I also experimented with introducing a more forceful pull to the left using bungee cords and elastic bands, applying tension during the drying process to exaggerate the sense of weight and directional strain.
Biomorphic Spat Fashion (2026)
Repurposed Oyster Shells
This project investigated garmentmaking and refabrication using an abundant, human-generated biodegradable material: oyster shells. The goal was to produce a piece of ‘human armor’ that conceptually mimics the role the oyster shell plays in protecting the organism. In doing so, I retained the biomorphic essence/form of the oyster shell, and an adequate ‘hard shell’ surface area so the garment could be reintroduced to NYC waterways, fostering spat growth.
In collaboration with local businesses, I repurposed discarded oyster shells to help address over-harvesting that destroyed NYC’s native oyster reefs and degraded local waterways.
Beyond fashion, the work asks how material cycles and civic waste can be reframed into regenerative objects, and points toward more practical, hedonistic applications for shoreline restoration and circular material systems.
Repurposed Oyster Shells
This project investigated garmentmaking and refabrication using an abundant, human-generated biodegradable material: oyster shells. The goal was to produce a piece of ‘human armor’ that conceptually mimics the role the oyster shell plays in protecting the organism. In doing so, I retained the biomorphic essence/form of the oyster shell, and an adequate ‘hard shell’ surface area so the garment could be reintroduced to NYC waterways, fostering spat growth.
In collaboration with local businesses, I repurposed discarded oyster shells to help address over-harvesting that destroyed NYC’s native oyster reefs and degraded local waterways. Beyond fashion, the work asks how material cycles and civic waste can be reframed into regenerative objects, and points toward more practical, hedonistic applications for shoreline restoration and circular material systems.