I. Introduction
The acceleration in fashion and textile production and rapid changing fashion cycles has led to landfill amounts of used textiles or factory wastes. Today’s fast consumer culture has negative impact on limited resources and ecosystem of nature; the quantity of water used in production as well as the chemicals which pollute the soil and water raised serious environmental concerns by becoming a threat for natural resources and ecosystem. Thus, both during the production as well as after the production and usage this problem continues reaching to a point even to risk living creatures and human health. Whereas the economic development holds its importance, sustainability also turns into a very important concept for the Textile and Fashion Industry. So how can we maintain economic growth without being destructive? In recent years, there are attempts to find solutions to these issues. Approaches such as “Sustainable Fashion”, “Eco Fashion”, “Green Movement”, “Slow Fashion”, “Slow Design” have emerged as a reaction to these problems that the world has encountered with (Can & Ayvaz, 2017). Upcycling is an existing strategy applicable to fashion production, with discarded materials used to design and create higher value products, keeping them in productive use for longer.
Ⅱ. Background
Used textiles or garments used to be reformed in the hands of our grandmothers in the old days. Although the name ‘recycling’ or ‘upcycling’ had not been mentioned then, the behind idea was somewhat similar to recycling or upcycling originating from different reasons. The main purpose for re-making was mostly for economic reasons. A hand-knitted cardigan could be undone and its yarn could be reused to make a different style and pattern in the hands of the knitter or strands of used textiles could be woven in hand looms to make floor coverings. Patchwork from fabric scraps which is seen in various countries under different names also originates from this idea although it holds an artistic feature now by its high level of craft excellence. Some examples like these ideas have been integrated to fashion trends later (Fig. 1, 2, 3, and 4).
Starting from the industrial revolution mass production in textiles and clothing gradually accelerated. Especially after the world wars, manufacture increased in Europe. The chain stores, advertisement companies, Hollywood film industry, fashion magazines like Vogue all served fashion industry and pumped up consumerism and consumption (Fig. 5 and 6). Style icons like famous film stars, music bands, political figures had leading roles for spreading the newest fashions (Çini, 2018; Fig. 7, 8, and 9).
As we reached to the 21st century, fashion cycles started to change very fast. To shop became kind of a leisure activity, a short term psychological pleasure or satisfaction. People bought more than they need and the reason for shopping was not basically the need. This was due to the fact that fashionable goods were available to people from any level of income. Being trendy had become important especially amongst the young consumers whereas luxury brands appealed a certain group with higher income. All these factors played a role in rising amounts of textile and clothing waste. The sources of textile waste is mainly from either post-consumption such as used clothing and textiles that are good enough to be reused and those that are not good enough to reuse, or textile and clothing waste from institutional or commercial sectors; these could be fabrics, fabric scraps, yarns, fibers, faulty produced clothing, uniforms and such (Fig. 10).
These wastes as well as the fast production in textile sector create many environmental issues such as pollution of water and soil, ecological imbalance, the threat for natural resources and the problem of carbon emission (Black, 2012).
Ⅲ. Solutions to the Problem
The concept of ‘upcycling’ is a dimension in this issue which looks for solutions. Upcycling is the creative process of transforming by-products, waste materials, useless, or unwanted products into new materials or products of better quality or for better environmental value. In fashion, it is to use clothing and textile waste by reusing deadstock or used fabric to create new garments and products. It holds importance in terms of sustainability, to reduce waste and pollution.
During the process of upcycling, rethinking through creativity and innovation are the key issues because to reuse a product to a better value needs a creative mind, aesthetic consciousness, innovative look and knowledge and it is quite different from a normal design procedure (Gwilt, 2014). There is a delicate level of aesthetics which carries the reused materials to a higher value. The handling of the materials, knowing how to manipulate the waste material, the techniques available to apply to surfaces, the concept of two and three dimension on textiles and clothing, contributions of other branches of art such as sculpture and painting all help the designer to reach a higher aesthetic value in the upcycled product in this process. It is assumed that the users would not be willing to change such a special product even if it is worn out and want to keep it for longer (Cramer, 2011). There already are some fashion designers and fashion brands making upcycled clothing and fashion accessories. Some of these reuse clothing or textiles and others make use of other materials such as plastics (Fig. 11-17). Fig. 12, 13, 14, 15, 16
Freitag is amongst the brands which make recycling with used material; they are inventors of the quality bag transformed from used truck tarps with an ecological approach since 1993.
Elvis & Kresse is another brand that transforms leather fragments left over from the production of Burberry into handmade bags.
There seems to be a vast variety techniques to transform waste material whether it is a scrap of textile or a used clothing. It is important for the designer to know all and to decide which one to apply (Fig. 20 and 21). One of these tecniques is fusing which can only be applied to sythetic materials (Fig. 14). Another technique worths mentioning is the traditional Japanese techniques of ‘sashiko’ and ‘boro’ in which mending gives the product a different touch (Fig. 18 and 19).
Stitching, slashing, creative pattern cutting, collage, deconstruction, fabric manipulation, mending, dyeing, heat application, layering, felting, fabric collage, weaving, crocheting and knitting are also amongst the techniques which help the designer in the upcycling process (Rissanen & McQuillan, 2016). Often, traditional handcraft techniques can be adopted innovatively to create new visual or textural effects and convert the material at hand to a fashionable product.
Ⅳ. In Conclusion
Upcycling concept should be included in design education such as theory and practice since it would create awareness amongst students as well as helping them to have practical experience in this context (Karaman & Güllü, 2017). A project is launched with a group of students related to the subject in the Textile department of Marmara University, Faculty of Fine Arts under the leadership of Dr. Cigdem Cini. Various kinds of fabrics as well as clothing wastes from the textile sector were the basic material. Some students transformed the selected items in an artistic approach and the others converted them to new fashionable clothing. The project has been completed with an exhibition (Fig. 22-31). Fig. 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30
