Upcycling Fashion
What is upcycling in the fashion industry? Upcycling fashion is not the same as recycling. While some fabrics are recycled into other textiles such as carpet padding or insulation in your home, upcycling takes a piece of clothing that is worn out or no longer fits and creates something new. It also includes deadstock fabrics or manufacturing waste that once had a quick exit to the landfill.
Recycling can be very energy intensive and require damaging chemicals. Sometimes it means dissolving the old fabric and mix with new fibers. This is not only harmful to the environment, but also to the people doing the work.
Upcycling is not as damaging and usually only requires a bit of creativity.
WHY UPCYCLE CLOTHES?
One good reason to upcycle clothing is that it is second only to the oil industry for creating pollution that causes greenhouse gases and global warming. Upcycling has become more of a sustainability concept instead of appearing cheap by wearing secondhand fashions.
The switch to upcycling has grown so much that it can now be described as an industry of its own.
This is a great trend for the planet.
Americans throw out an average of 17 million tons of old clothing each year, which has doubled in the last 20 years. That equates to nearly 6% of total municipal solid waste. This may include items we no longer want that are in our closets, unsold pieces from retailers, or scraps from the floor of manufacturers.
If you look at what it took to get that garment into a retail store you may view it a little differently next time you make a purchase or develop a new line.
GARMENT LIFECYCLE
If you look at the lifecycle of a typical garment made from cotton, you will discover just how repurposing apparel can reduce pollution and waste.
It all begins in the field where heavy machinery, driven by fossil fuels, prepares the ground for planting. Then another machine runs through and plants the seed.
Almost immediately, in dryer regions, watering begins. It takes about 2,700 liters of water to grow the cotton for a single t-shirt. In contrast, that is equivalent to 900 days of drinking water for a single person.
If it is not an organic field, chemicals are poured on the plants via yet another fossil fueled machine. The same t-shirt requires around 17 teaspoons of fertilizer and a teaspoon of pesticides, herbicides, insecticides and defoliants.
The next stage is picking the cotton, with yet another machine, bailing it and sending it off to the textile manufacturer. Once the fabric is made and dyed (another chemical process), it is sent to the factory where it is made into the t-shirt.
From there it is packaged and shipped to distribution centers and eventually retail stores or direct shipments to you. Every step requiring fossil fuels and energy use.
By upcycling the t-shirt and keeping it out of the landfill, you are eliminating all of these steps.
Traditional linear trajectories of clothing can now be transformed with circular fashion, which keeps it out of the landfill. This is not only upcycling fashion, but designing fashion that is compostable, can be disassembled and recreated into something new.
Fashion brands can design circular fashion to reduce required resources on the front end of the cycle and keep it out of the landfill at the end of the cycle.
EXAMPLES OF UPCYCLING CLOTHES
Repurposing apparel has been around for many years, but now it is becoming an industry. It seems to have been awakened by the pandemic, where designers felt the damage of supply chain disruptions. Fabric mills were closed for indefinite periods of time.
Getting creative, they began to look at their bolts of deadstock fabric for inspiration.
The pandemic also causes the consumer to look at their purchasing habits. Without the need to buy as much apparel when working at home, they began to switch to more sustainable thoughts.
This created a more sustainable supply and demand cycle. Doing a quick Google search demonstrates how many brands are dipping their toes into upcycled fashion.
Some fashion brands are offering a resale marketplace where you can buy and sell quality used apparel and keep it out of the landfill. Other smaller fashion brands are taking unwanted items and turning them into a totally new piece, such as a skirt or purse made from old denim jeans.
The pandemic saw people buying less but the industry needs to promote buying better so that you move from the linear trajectory of apparel to a more circular model. How can you look at your brand in a more sustainable way?
