Break the cycle, up-cycle!
What’s old is new again, but with a twist.
Upcycling is the new buzzword about responsible sustainable production. It’s all about doing something better with your old stuff, keeping it away from landing in the trash can (which is, as we know, already way too big).
The main difference between recycling and upcycling is that the latter doesn’t necessarily need to break down the materials. To put it simply, that meal you made out of leftovers?, that’s recycling. Cutting a milk tetra pack, or even better, stacking several to use as a pen container ? that’s upcycling.
Even before this Pinterest era, I’m sure you can remember some in-house creative hacks. After all, we have always been DYIng at home, even when it wasn’t cool. Grandma (or maybe you yourself) might have been an up-cycler, you just never thought to call her like this.
Ever taken a look at your wardrobe and decided that, despite it being full, you have nothing that you actually want to wear? And angrily pushed the unwanted stuff into the back , till the day you decide to do some spring cleaning and throw them away.
Most likely, you don’t get new clothes two times per week, but, for example, the Spanish giant fashion label Zara does. For each of their 6,500 shops around the world. Now, that has got to mean some potent spring cleaning at the end of the season.
Think about it all, the pesticides used in cotton farming, the energy needed for harvesting and processing, the toxic dyes used in manufacturing just to end on the great amount of discarded clothing. Add shipping to that too, because you know that cheap t-shirt wasn’t made next door.
‘But, I didn’t ask them to do it like this. I just wanted a t-shirt’
Of course, you didn’t place an order. You just maybe walked around the mall and noticed which store had the cheaper price, and newer/cooler wares than the last time you came.
Truth is,
We are trained to look for the new thing. New is instantly cooler.
This is why businesses, not just within fashion, are forever releasing new versions of their products, regardless of whether there was any actual improvement made. Jeans from 1980 aren’t probably much drastically different from those in 2016, but you’ll still want new ones. Style changes, but, as we also know, fashion is cyclical.
Upcycling, the new buzzword for the crafty old pastimes.
If you aren’t able to redesign your clothes, have a look to see what’s around. Fast fashion leftovers aren’t really going to take the cool Vintage label, the magical word that turns old to gold. And, even if Thrift shopping has been cool for some years (Thanks, Mackelmore!), why not doing something new?. There are many interesting creatives choosing to turn to creating with old textiles, and knowing the keyword will help you find them.
Up-cycling is actually HUGE in Berlin, a city that loves its flea markets, but probably not so much the old Primark stuff that’s recently flooding there. In fact, there’s even green fashion tours you can take to get to know the scene.
SHIO (Weichselstraße 59), deep in the Neukölln district is one of the places to go to find interesting up-cycled fashion. Soon, you will also be able to buy Kate’s cute designs on our platform too!
