Professional guide

Upcycling, Second & Third Hand

In view of the wast amounts of clothing and textiles we discard, the consumer could be convinced to hang on to clothes in different scenarios. An alternative could also be take-back schemes such as Patagonia and other companies have launched, so that the textiles go from a cradle-to-grave life cycle to a cradle-to-cradle system.

Fashion clothes capture a moment in time and are as quickly forgotten, according to TED (Textiles Environment Design) Research. But what if that moment was not one but many moments… a process of transformation? they ask in their "Five Ways" project. Updatable involves a series of transformations to a t-shirt. Instructions, sent through the post – in this case to the team of designers - suggest modifications which keep the T-shirt at the forefront of fashion and out of the dustbin for another season. Just like a cat, which ‘dies’ only to live again, our clothes can be resurrected. We can reuse a piece wholesale, or just key bits. Nine Lives takes the form of a top and skirt which is born again into a skirt embroidered with yarn from the jumper. A guide for embroidering is ready printed onto the skirt in its first life. The unravelling of the jumper and the making of the new skirt are deliberate acts of re-creation and show us the possibilities of engaging with our garments in a new way.

There are numerable other examples, which involve internet-versions, redesign courses organized by the Salvation Army (the picture here is from Oslo Fashion Week's Redesign Catwalk show, featuring the Salvation Army's project in Norway) and also pure styling-alternatives. But the essence is that involving the customer in the process, at what-ever level, makes the item of clothing much more emotionally valuable.

Redesign and Second Hand are becoming the new black

The Swedish designer Otto von Busch did an experiment where he opened a second-hand store. But the twist was that those who brought in items they wanted to get rid of, had to write down the history of the piece of clothing, why they had bought it and things they had experienced wearing the piece of clothing, Most people left the store with what they had brought in.

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Patagonia's ambitious plan to take back everything they sell and recycle, is another story that shows how dedicated some companies are to their responsibility. Many other companies accept returns and even give a premium towards a new purchase, Marks & Spencer cooperate with Oxfam - giving those who donate old clothes a coupon worth £5.

Every year, more than 20 million tons of useful textiles go to waste in the U.S. alone. Every week, the average textile factory produces 60,000 pounds of useful waste. Every day, piles of excess fabric in landfills grow higher. Looptworks - an online apparel start-up is taking steps to reverse this wasteful trend – turning waste into want. Looptworks aims to repurpose abandoned materials to create meaningful, long-lasting and limited-edition clothing and accessories. Using no new materials, everything in the Looptworks line is uniquely created from excess. Looptworks has turned the way traditional apparel companies manufacture cool clothing inside out: Instead of designing collections more than a year in advance, Looptworks shortens the development cycle to weeks. Instead of using the world’s limited resources to manufacture brand new fabrics, Looptworks uses top-quality, excess materials and components that already exist. Instead of producing huge flash-fashion seasonal collections like traditional apparel manufacturers, Looptworks offers fresh, numbered, limited-edition eco-friendly clothing.

“We have a unique process to create unique products,” says Gary Peck, co-founder of Looptworks. “From concept to your closet, we can assure you that no new materials were used to create our clothing and that each item is as individual as the person who wears it.” For example, to create a button-down shirt for Fall 2009 (F09) through a traditional clothing manufacturer, the process involves evaluating the market and competitors, designing silhouettes, creating fabrics, developing sample garments, reviewing styles/collection, deciding on final styles, producing these pieces, and shipping. This process usually takes at least 54 weeks at best, as well as a tremendous amount of resources. For example, at least 400 gallons of water are used to manufacture one shirt. The fabric that is not used in production is left over excess and often discarded, adding to the 60,000 pounds of pre-consumer waste produced by one vertical textile factory every week.

At Looptworks, it takes nine weeks and no new materials to create the Jalan shirt. Adds Peck, “This is not only a new way of making clothing and accessories, it is a totally new way of thinking. We hope people start to think about what they buy, where it came from, and what natural resources it required to produce it.” With a traditional apparel manufacturer, 3600 other people might purchase the same exact product, a quantity that represents a typical factory minimum. Looptworks limits what it can produce based on the amount of materials leftover. Typically this means that there will be no more than 500 of any given style. Each one is hand-numbered making it indeed a one-of-a-kind collectible.

Even though, the production cycle is extremely fast and the materials are acquired second-hand, Looptworks builds clothing and accessories to last. Each material is tested for shrinkage and durability before being incorporated into designs. Products are double-needle stitched on all seams and triple-needle stitched on critical seams. Looptworks also adheres to a strict 1.5 AQL rating for all of its quality assurance inspections. Part of being sustainable is building products that don’t fall apart after six months of use.