If you have diabetes, checking your blood sugar is part of your daily routine. But a fashion designer suffering from diabetes took it a step further and started incorporating sugar test results into the clothes he designed.
Poppy Nash developed type one diabetes at the age of six, meaning her body was unable to produce insulin.
Poppy Nash recalled the day her doctor told her she had diabetes and described the moment as ‘very scary and terrifying’.
Poppy Nash’s life has changed after she was diagnosed with diabetes, which requires her to check her blood sugar levels several times a day along with insulin injections. This work was carried out by his mother for several years until Nash was able to take care of his own health.
At the age of 18, he had to be hospitalized for an accidental overdose of insulin.
According to Nash, “It was an eye-opener. It was like I was re-diagnosed and now I was in charge of insulin that could actually kill me.”
Nash got a new perspective when she left her hometown to study communication design at the Glasgow School of Art. Here he took up the field of textiles and learned screen printing.
According to Nash, ‘My diabetes was not under control due to mental stress and I stopped working on my project because of it. After that, when I thought about the situation, I started to understand.
Nash began looking at the results automatically stored in the blood sugar monitor to see how his body reacted to life, both good and bad.
Nash began printing his sugar results onto cloth and designed the cloth to be wearable. According to Nash, it was as if his blood had started to clot.
She says: ‘When you do research for a project you have to believe in what you’re doing and diabetes was the only thing I really cared about.
“It made me quite happy because I felt like I was cheating on something, but these are real numbers and that’s why they scare me.”
Nash says her job is daunting but believes the project is ultimately good for her because it makes her face reality and understand the consequences if she doesn’t take care of herself. .
Nash began collecting newspaper clippings that illustrated the harsh reality of diabetes and began patchwork them into quilts.
Nash currently focuses on textiles, clothing and apparel and sends them to exhibitions but believes that one day she will have her own collection of clothing designs.
According to Nash, she would love for people to wear them and tell the story of diabetes that they don’t even know about.
Nash still checks her blood sugar regularly, but it also opens up potential creative opportunities.
“It’s a good platform because I can turn something useless into something that’s interesting and entertaining,” says Nash.
“On a subject like diabetes, people can talk about it for as long as they want to listen.”