The fashion industry is known by its bad reputation, because of the damage it does to our planet. A lot of waste of natural resources such as water, increase of CO2 and the huge production of trash are some of the red flags in the traditional clothing industry. According to a study made by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, each and every second, one truck of clothes is dumped in the world. Combining that with a poor variety of styles that does not embrace everyone, people are getting creative and making their own clothes, in a stylish and sustainable way. That’s what they are calling Upcycling Fashion.
Some people might confuse it with recycling, but it’s not what this is. When we recycle, there’s a whole bunch of chemical and machinery processes involved. Upcycling is mostly manual readjusting and adapting. It can be very useful to renew your wardrobe and make new looks that fit your personality.
There’s not one exact date to when the upcycling movement appeared, but it is safe to say that it really grew in the last decade. Eco-fashion and other concepts related to sustainability have become much more popular, especially among young generations. Social media also helped to spread upcycling around the world. Nowadays, this way of dealing with clothes is really trending on the internet, and people are showing how to make new looks from scratch on TikTok, Instagram and YouTube.
However, it is more than just a trend, it is a different way to do fashion. The world of fashion can be not only bold and stylish, but also revolutionary. Movements like upcycling can help the industry become way more eco-friendly. After all, we are not wasting anything and, at the end, we have a brand new piece of clothing.
How can we upcycle our clothes?
Upcycling consists in making, in a kind of Do It Yourself way, new clothes based on other ones or out of inusited things. Croppeds made out of sneakers (like the one that went viral after the Brazilian influencer Jade Picon posted a photo wearing it at Lollapalooza Festival, in São Paulo), table cloth’s dresses and rug t-shirts are just a few possibilities you can try to style your clothes. The idea is to transform one piece you don’t like anymore into another that fits you better. The thing about upcycling is: everything needs to be cut and torn apart, which makes a total mess. In the middle of the process you think it’s not gonna work, but then you build it again to turn it into a masterpiece.
By transforming your outfits like that, you can go wherever your imagination (and craft skills) takes you. All kinds of fabrics, jewelry, ribbons and ink, sew up one piece into another, everything is valid for you to make your own version of some trending look, or something you really want to wear but never find in the stores.
Upcycling is not only limited to clothes. We can also make new fashionable accessories. Gold and silver can be reused to make earrings, necklaces, rings and bracelets. We can even create fancy items by using gemstone cutting chips. Big jewelry stores usually only accept products made out of the most “pure” part of the stone, which means that there are pieces that are thrown away and can be repurposed. Now if we’re talking about shoes and bags, one creative way to make them is to use old tires, since rubber is a durable and difficult product to recycle.
Upcycling benefits you and the environment
For brands to sell their products, it has to be in perfect conditions. If they find one single wrong fabric thread, they have to throw it away, which increases the amount of non-organic garbage, polluting the environment. So taking these clothes that nobody wants to make new clothes out of them is a good way to contribute to the planet. That is why going to thrift stores is also a great way to be sustainable and upcycle clothes, you never know the gems and fixer uppers you could find in there, thrifting is cool and ecological.
Now the downside is that, for you to get really great results of your art, you need good equipment, like a sewing machine, patterns, pins, glue, cutting and sewing board and other similar stuff. So if you want to do it like a pro, you have to be prepared to buy yourself your own little atelier.
Transforming clothes can be a therapy. It can be fun, it stimulates your creativity and gives you more possibilities on what to wear. Besides, it is a way to leave your mark and make your own style. All of that while you’re contributing to the planet by being a little more green, reducing our consumerist ways as well as the production of trash. How about giving it a go?
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The article above was edited by Amanda Moraes.
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