THE GOLDEN COOLIE
Recherche: Sustainable Fashion Series Design Project - Fall 2025 | Design a fashion or art installation collection based around sustainability.
The traditional Chinese coolie hat, also known as a conical hat or rice hat, is a strong symbol of hard work and China’s agricultural history as they were most commonly worn by manual labor workers as protection from the sun and rain.
For this project, I aimed to create my own handmade coolie hat that had an artistic and luxurious feel to it while still preserving its cultural significance and paying homage to the hard work of those who gave purpose to these hats in the first place.
In a world overrun by mass production and overconsumption, it’s more important than ever for artists to carefully consider sustainability in their design practices. The Golden Coolie was handcrafted almost entirely out of collected trash and recycled materials—making full use of scrapped objects such as old takeout containers, paper receipts, and plastic bags.
The golden petals resemble grains of rice and were individually cut from recycled plastic and hand-painted. Its golden color emphasizes the sense of preciousness and valuableness that is created out of tedious human labor, and the transparent cord which holds the paper flowers up is one long, uncut string—a clear symbol of longevity.