Clothes for Chairs: Future Archive transforms waste, one seat at a time

At this year’s Melbourne Design Week 2026, an exhibition at Abbotsford Convent is asking a simple but provocative question: what if the things we throw away still had something to offer? 

Clothes for Chairs, presented by Future Archive, is a group exhibition inviting fashion, textile, and design practitioners to reimagine discarded garments as functional seating. 

Each participant is provided with a reclaimed chair frame and textile waste – particularly worn or unwanted garments – to create a new textile outcome. 

“There’s two parts,” explains Melanie Read from Future Archive. “There’s the workshop on 16 May, and then the resulting show which is on from 21-24 May.” 

The materials are clothing that’s outlived its original purpose, paired with chair frames salvaged from the street. 

“All of the chair frames for this project have been collected from the side of the road,” Read says.  

“I’ve been collecting them over the past few years… it got to the point where I had a carport full of chair frames that needed to find new homes and new uses.” 

To support the material supply, Future Archive has partnered with After, a community-focused textile recycling organisation that redirects unwanted clothing and household fabrics away from landfill. 

The resulting Clothes for Chairs exhibition will feature between around 15 works, 10 of which will created by invited local designers. 

Chairs, it seems, have become an unlikely focal point across this year’s Melbourne Design Week program. 

“Chairs seem to be in the zeitgeist at the moment,” she says. “They’re such a beautiful design item. They have this really nice balance between functionality and aesthetic, and they can carry so much personality.” 

“Some designers have questioned whether the piece they produce for this show needs to be a functional, useable chair in a traditional sense,” Read explains. “Maybe it’s the chair that sits in the corner of your bedroom, the one you put your ‘floordrobe’ on.” 

For Read, holding a show at the Abbotsford Convent is something special. 

“The Convent is such a special place in Melbourne,” she says. “It really reflects this sense of community within the arts and creative industries, bringing together people from all different creative disciplines.”