Upcycling of clothes

Anne Payen, Intern.

See also: Product development

Upcycling

Upcycling, or creative reuse, simply defines the process of giving a new and more upscale life to an old used product or material.

One of the first benefits of upcycling is its positive impact on the environment. Indeed, the principle being to reuse, we avoid creating a new product. This saves on grey energy and raw materials inherent in the manufacturing process. Ucycling is part of the vast movement of the circular economy and reuse.

In addition to the ecological benefits of reuse, upcycling provides the opportunity to create and recreate unique objects. As a result, upcycling can be found in many contexts: at home, in businesses, in art galleries, in associations, and also in fashion.

Upcycling of clothes

Therefore, upcycling, sometimes referred to as creative reuse, is a term that defines the process of transforming waste materials, useless, or unwanted products into new materials or products perceived to be of greater quality, such as having an artistic or environmental value.

It's a recycling process which can touch many domains; in this case we will be focusing on the use of this recycling process on clothes.

So what does upycling clothes even mean? What does it consists in doing?

Well basically, upcycling clothes is to take old, worn out or damaged clothing and transform it into something new.

In that same perspective, clothing that doesn’t fit any longer, is torn, stained or otherwise damaged, can be refashioned into a new product. Also referred to as repurposed clothing, reused clothing and recycled clothing, upcycled clothing is becoming increasingly popular in today’s fashion industry.

The difference between recyling and upcycling

Upcycling and recycling are two different concepts of material or porduct reuse.

Upcycling is reusing the same fabric and turning it into something else.

Where as recycling is a process that consist in breaking down materials before they are reconstituted into something else. This is usually done in two ways; mechanically and chemically.

Mechanical recycling is when a fabric, such as cotton, is shredded, so that the resulting fibre is woven into a new fabric.

Chemical recycling is when a fabric is treated with a chemical and then dissolved. The resulting fibre is then mixed with other fibres to make a new fabric.

Therefore recycling is very demanding in resources and in the case of chemical recycling it utilizes a lot of harmful substances to create something new.

However, upcycling isn’t as damaging to the environment and uses no other natural resources.

The fashion industry and sustainability

• Look also at sustainability, fashion, making.
• Provide a few examples of upcycling clothes, including business initiatives
• Find all instances of u