What is upcycling?

By cathie | May 5, 2014

“Upcycling means high-end garments are fashioned from ethical materials that don’t compromise on desirability.”

“Cue upcycling, a new environmentally conscious genre in fashion design that repurposes discarded garments and textile waste and reintroduces it back into the fashion market.” The Guardian

Pictured: Upcycled Sweater

Clothing: Tomorrows Toxins?
Fashions have a short-lived trend cycle. Many garments end up in waste bins in a season or two. Some fashions end up in landfills without even having been worn at all. These fashions from last year can end up being tomorrow’s toxins (around 1 million tons of textiles end up in landfills each year). It takes clothing a long time to decompose. Because of the use of bleaching, dying and printing processes in manufacturing, they can percolate deadly toxins /or chemicals and gases.

Eco-Sustainable Synthetic Materials
Clothes made from bamboo, corn, hemp, and residue from tofu and soybean oil? Textiles made from these products are called “eco-sustainable synthetic materials.” Do you have any clothing made from these fabrics in your closet? The answer is most probably no because they have not been widely available. This is the case for a number of reasons such as selection in stores, cost, and styling. Also, the most stylish clothing made from these textiles goes the fastest.