K-State fashion professor’s sustainable burial garments showcased in museum exhibit
While many people who’re passionate about environmental practices look to composting or fighting carbon emissions, K-State fashion studies professor Sherry Haar has chosen a different medium: couture for coffins.
Haar has dedicated her work in textile art to bringing awareness to sustainable burial practices and honoring local prairie land. Her portfolio, ranging from a biodegradable coffin cover to a burial gown inspired by her Czech heritage, showcases both natural dyes and botanical printed materials.
Through her green fashion pieces, Haar encourages curiosity about the mark burial practices leave on Earth.
“I hope it spurs conversations about end-of-life plans and how human and environmental well-being can tie into those plans,” she said. “I also want people to connect with the beauty, color and pattern of this special place.”
Haar’s passion for end-of-life fashion also garnered the attention of K-State’s Mariana Kistler Beach Museum of Art, earning her the title of guest curator for the “Return to Prairie: Textiles for Green Burial Awareness” exhibition, where five of her pieces are displayed.
The Beach Museum is a longtime partner of the Prairie Studies Initiative, a community of K-Staters working to raise awareness about grassland sustainability through the arts.
“The ‘Return to Prairie’ exhibition is a perfect example of this work,” said Kathrine Schlageck, associate curator of education at the Beach.
Haar hopes the exhibit, along with her future work, will inform and inspire conversations surrounding burial practices and their part in preserving and restoring habitats.
“We have clothes for everything. We have outfits for all of our significant rites of passage,” she said. “So why aren’t we talking about what we want to wear for our last rite of passage?” “Return to Prairie: Textiles for Green Burial Awareness” runs through Dec. 21, 2024, in the Ruth Ann Wefald Gallery.
Learn about Haar’s process and pieces.
Written by: Abbigail Marshall
