What Is Upcycling?

Upcycling champions Emma Friedlander-Collins and Ximena Corcuera guide us to environmental awareness in a creative way

Emma Friedlander-Collins (@steelandstitch) is a designer with a unique approach. She is passionate about sustainability and uses crafts to inspire and engage communities. As a lecturer, a Youtube content creator, and a creator of visual stories as part of her degree in Fashion Communication, she is not short of platforms to share her messages about upcycling.

Ximena Corcuera (@ximenacorcuera) is a fashion designer who seeks to make people aware of the possibilities offered by upcycling and sustainable materials. She teaches you to create pieces giving new use to materials that you would otherwise consider disposable.

Read on to learn more about this important movement.

So, what is upcycling?

Upcycling is the idea of reusing discarded objects or material in such a way as to create a product of higher quality or value than the original. It is an ally of sustainability. It should be on the mind of anyone who is aware of how much is produced and wasted daily and is committed to doing something to solve this environmental problem.

A change in the world of fashion

With the explosion of fast fashion, we face a global crisis that can be addressed through ingenuity and a sustainable approach.

Major publishing company Condé Nast has been promoting sustainability in fashion and produced a Sustainable Fashion Glossary in partnership with the Centre for Sustainable Fashion, London College of Fashion, University of Arts London. They describe it as a long-standing commitment to driving change in the world of fashion, design, and style.

What’s the difference between upcycling and recycling?

When you upcycle clothes, you are using creativity to transform an existing garment, or part of it, into something new. On the other hand, recycling entails breaking down rejected material before it can be used to make new garments.

Upcycling is a greener approach than recycling because it does not involve the use of water, chemicals, and the production of carbon emissions, which is part of the recycling process.

Environmental benefits

Fashion is the third biggest manufacturing industry and contributes more to climate change than international aviation and shipping combined. When you upcycle existing garments, you need minimal raw materials. You get to create new unique pieces, and, at the same time, you are sparing clothing from ending up in a landfill.

With fashion companies having billions of dollars' worth of unsold stock in their depots, it is apparent that the world is being swamped by surplus fashion. Upcycling is a small but effective solution to a massive problem.

If you want to become part of this sustainability revolution and want to explore the multitude of possibilities that upcycling with crochet can bring to your wardrobe, sign up to Emma’s Domestika course Upcycling with Crochet for Beginners. She has just signed a contract to write her first upcycling book, so watch this space!

Ximena Corcuera teaches the Domestika course Sustainable Fashion: Get into Upcycling. She teaches upcycling techniques from fabric that will allow you to create your clothes, favoring a circular economy, as well as inform you of important data on the environmental impact of the fashion industry.

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