Growing up in a home where appreciation of nature and the usage of natural herbs and remedies were a norm, Godlyn Lyte has always been connected to the environment around her. It was this connection that would support and ultimately lead Godlyn towards experimenting with sustainable fashion.
While she has always taken part in redesigning looks, her experimentation with sustainable fashion began in 2018. After taking a look at the excess fabric she was constantly throwing away, she decided that she wanted to make something out of it and would begin creating a small number of looks from leftover material. Noting a highlight occurrence, Godlyn recalled a young lady approaching her to do a piece out of scraps.
“She brought scrap pieces her mom left back from sewing and from those patches, I made her a dress. She gave me feedback on how many people positively commented on the dress. It was a really proud moment as it was a physical creation of what I have always wanted to do with scrap pieces and it also verified to me that you don’t always have to get new stuff to make something beautiful. You can make something out of nothing and trash is often seen as nothing, excess is seen as nothing, so you throw it in the garbage rather than recycling it for future items.”
One of her major challenges in making pieces out of scraps, however, is the time commitment it needs.
“The nature of creating artistic pieces that don’t take much from the environment, while learning how to personally sustain it, that was something that I was really interested in.”
This desire to explore alternative materials to create fashionable looks would result in Godlyn’s exploration into working with palm leaves, plantain and banana stalks. Coming across Indigenous craft in countries such as Thailand that utilized these materials to create clothes, accessories and a variety of crafts and wearable items, Godlyn was encouraged by the possibilities the materials held for her.
“They strip the materials down directly to fibres, spin it to make thread and weave it to make a fabric. I’ve been able to strip it and spin it down to thread form, but it’s not as thin as I would want it to be for fabric. It was pretty daunting work to do by hand, but it was very cool to see,” said Godlyn.
Currently, Godlyn makes bags out of banana stalks as she finds the material very easy and fun to work with. Given its durability also, she believes that there is a lot of potential for the growth of products created from the stalks.
“It is also easy to create variety with it as they take coloured dye well, which makes it easier to modernize the things you create. People tend to look at sustainable fashion and see it as being old, tacky, cheap and not stylish. There is a certain look to the things that are made with sustainable materials, and to be honest, sometimes it just don’t be looking cute,” Godlyn laughed, “but if we’re aiming for modern generations to use these products and limit their impact on the environment, we have to make it appealing to them.”
While she has been having success with the material, her challenge currently is figuring out a preservative blend to ensure that they are durable for years. “It’s a beautiful material and I hope I get the chance to continue growing with it in terms of creating and using it to grow my business focused on sustainable fashion,” said Godlyn. In the long term, she hopes to open a company where she can mass-produce fabric with the banana stalk as she believes it would be a great way for Guyana to get into the global textile market.
