Upcycling: A case study on Insecta Shoes
There is much more for an old shirt than a rubbish bin. Or a crowded drawer for no one to use. Wouldn’t it be nice to see some interesting pattern return from the eighties or from a tropical scenery? The concept of upcycling and the idea of an incipient Slow Fashion movement in Brazil will lead this case study. It discusses the work of Insecta Shoes, a Brazilian brand that is looking forward to improve sustainable aspects by emphasising its vegan and artisanal production of gender-neutral oxfords, sandals and boots.
Insecta Shoes was created by designers Pamella Magpali and Barbara Mattivy in january 2014. The brand is the result of the union between Pamella’s shoes brand MAG-P and Barbara’s store Urban Vintagers. As they emphasise in their website: ‘Insecta is an ambulant metamorphosis. Our keyword is reuse, increasing the life cycle of what is already out in the world, with lots of laid-back creativity’. Fabrics and prints from vintage clothing are transformed into shoes throughout a handmade process that also includes a recycled rubber sole and faux leather lining. The pieces are handcrafted in limited numbers according to the available fabric collected in vintage stores, so they are never repeated. The production takes place in Novo Hamburgo, located in Rio Grande do Sul state, south of Brazil. The city’s economy is strictly related to the creation and development of footwear industry since the sixties.
In less than one year of operation, Insecta Shoes has been selected by The Brazilian Trade and Investment Promotion Agency (Apex-Brasil) to be featured as one of the 20 Brazilian brands participants of 2015 SXSW Interactive Festival, an annual music, film, interactive conference and festival known to be an incubator of cutting-edge technologies and digital creativity held in Austin, United States.
Upcycling concepts and identities
Forty percent of all manufactured clothing ends up unused in the rubbish bin, as José Teunissen highlights in the opening chapter of Fashion Odissey — Progress in Fashion and Sustainability. The equation involving industrial production and unwise consumerism needs to be rethought now if we want to reduce the environmental impact of our actions. In this context, it is so relevant that new designers can be able to give garments and accessories a chance to last longer by reusing materials, but especially by giving these products a story to tell that relates them directly to the public’s imaginary.
Insecta Shoes already have consumers that are interested especially in brand’s reuse of material and final result as vegan products. Upcycling is the concept behind these actions. According to William McDonough and Michael Braungart well-known book Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things the upcycling could avoid the waste of valuable material by using it to create new products, even more interesting and functional as the first ones. The term has recently been refined by the authors in the book The Upcycle: Beyond Sustainability — Designing for Abundance and its ultimate goal is that every one of us could be able to improve the environment throughout design choices absorbed in our daily lives.
We are still initiating these changes, but one example of reuse is Petit H, Hermès re-creation atelier specialised in ‘reinventing leftovers as objects every bit as luxurious as anything else from Hermès’, according to Daily Telegraph deputy fashion editor Luke Leitch.
Take this example and change the luxurious appeal to another, related to fun and youth. Add to it information about ecological materials and no-gender restrictions, so relevant in a moment in which gender identity and equality are on focus; put together a long lasting shoe design and the result is a product which its materiality can reach different consumers, from urban youngsters to vegan engaged individuals as well as people that just looks for comfortable and affordable shoes — Insecta average price goes around €60 each pair.
By reusing colourful fabrics, Insecta Shoes also creates a narrative that brings past to the present by making every pair of shoes unique. As stated by Teunissen, to make a product ‘talk’ for itself is to relate it to a strong narrative. In The Future of Fashion is Now we find a clue to understand this: ‘the stories in the work of many young designers often emphasise the tangibility and authenticity of the product: they focus on the materiality, experience and origin of the objects. The construction or creation process is very often part of the story’.
This proposition can be appealing to people who likes to identify themselves in a creative way among a million of brown and black ordinary shoes. Although foreigners think about Brazil as a place full of colours and mixed cultural influences, this country has a society that still shows standardized behaviors, struggling with serious issues such as racism, gender inequality as well as homophobia. In this context, representation and personal identity matters. As Teunissen explores in The Future of Fashion is Now, ‘clothing is concerned not only with an ideal look or the communication of identity; in our culture it also functions as an embodied practice: we are attached as persons to our clothing (and to that of our fellow human beings) and we form a relationship with it’. Therefore, to choose a colorful pair of shoes out of a homogeneous scenario can be as fun as representative of our identity and how we relate to others.
To support is to co-create changes
In an interview for Mini Full Life website, Pamella Magpali, Insecta’s owner and shoe designer, talks about Brazilian footwear industry. In Brazil, she says, there are a few brands that can call themselves 100% sustainable. Insecta itself has difficulties in finding ecological supplies such as eyelets. ‘At this moment, we are looking for alternatives to replace rubber insoles. It is always a search for more sustainable replacements and new suppliers’. At first, the product appeal is visual, but Pamella affirms that some of Insecta consumers got involved ‘because they believe in micropolitical changes and, by doing so, they prefer handmade items from local producers as a form of support’.
Furthermore, one of Insecta’s focus is on collaborations with creative professionals and labels. Benta Studio in one of the examples. This fashion brand from Rio de Janeiro produces clothes and accessories with all exclusive prints and patterns. Together, they are in the second collab collection, in which Insecta reuses excedent fabrics from Benta’s latest creations. More than utilizing materials that could be wasted, this kind of action brings together the consumer from both brands and adds one more story to tell about a cooperation system of ‘no waste’ where everybody wins.
Reuse, rethink and collaborate are the guidelines for Insecta’s current success. These concepts are also representative of a growing community in Brazil that takes responsibility and embraces sustainability in their ordinary living. But this community is not only local. It continues to grow in number and importance and sets together people from different backgrounds that puts ecological concerns in a higher level of consideration. By doing so, these engaged consumers give space for new models in fashion, design, production systems and politicals decisions to flourish strengthened by the power of ‘doing together’. In a globalised world where behaviors still seems to be prescribed, creative initiatives can be the turning point to generate the desire for change in people who are not interested in ecological matters. Wouldn’t it be nice to inspire changes by just showing our own caring identity?
References
Braungart, Michael & McDonough, William (2002). ‘Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things’. New York, North Point Press: 17–25, 68–76, 157–160.
Braungart, Michael & McDonough, William (2013). ‘The Upcycle: Beyond Sustainability — Designing for Abundance’. New York, North Point Press: 23–30, 53–62.
How to Make Vegan Shoes (2015). Insecta Shoes on Vimeo. URL visited on 09–04–2015. <https://vimeo.com/115435460>.
Handcrafted Vegan Shoes Made from Vintage Clothing (2014). Insecta Shoes website. URL visited on 09–04–2015. <http://www.insectashoes.com/p/about>.
Leitch, Luke (2013). ‘Hermès Embraces Recycling with petit h’. The Telegraph — Luxury. URL visited on 09–04–2015. <http://www.telegraph.co.uk/luxury/womens-style/15811/herm%C3%A8s-embraces-recycling-with-petit-h.html>.
Müller, Luiza (2015). ‘To be an Entrepreneur by the Social Need — Interview with Pam Magpali’. Mini Full Life. URL visited on 10–04–2015. <http://minifull.com.br/insecta-shoes>.
Teunissen, José (2013) ‘The search for new values and practices in fashion’, in: José Teunissen & Jan Brand (ed), Fashion Odyssey. Arnhem : ArtEZ Press: 9–22.
Teunissen, José (2014) ‘The Future of fashion is now’, in: José Teunissen & Jan Brand (ed), The Future of Fashion is Now. Arnhem: Boijmans: 22–25, 82–87, 120–123, 150–157.