As a new year’s resolution, we would all love to update our wardrobe. We would also love to make less waste and support eco-friendly businesses. For designers, the reality of creating a responsibly made collection and also make a living from it is much tougher. It’s hard enough to make it in the fashion industry. Making the choice to produce upcycled fashion adds additional challenges that mainstream labels don’t have to worry about.

Americans are filling landfills with 10.5 million tons of discarded clothing a year. There is ample opportunity for this waste to be remade into something useful. However, designers of sustainable fashion are mostly independent labels producing small runs; making it difficult for corporate retailers to work with. There is also a resistance from fashion fans to purchase clothing made from trash.

So what can designers do to compete with upcycled fashion?

1. Find consistent sources for your materials.

Many designers create their collections from what they can find. Not knowing what your next collection will be made of or how to design it takes extra time and hampers your own marketing plans. Decide on a consistent product line and how you will supply it. Oregon Company Looptworks creates its collection from neoprene and excess materials from wetsuit manufacturing. It knows where its supplies are coming from and can plan for the fabric use and design before each season.

2. Emphasize uniqueness.

Large retailers may shun an indie designer for not filling a huge order with mass market products. For a small boutique or designer, this can be your advantage. You can market to your customers that they are getting a one-of-a-kind creation. Looptworks also makes it a point of never producing more than 500 of any product. The company hand-numbers each piece to identify it as a limited edition item.

3. Have a defined aesthetic.

The Bella Sisters in Portland specialize in upcycled jackets and outerwear. They buy pieces in all colors, textures and sizes. However, their customers love their signature embellishments of peacock embroidery and romantic appliques. They also add flattering knit cuffs and peplums to create a consistent silhouette. They may have started with pre-made garments as a base, but the final product is clearly a work of their design. Re-making a recycled item as your own is a great way to eliminate the “second hand” stigma of recycled clothing.

4. Develop a service.

You don’t just have to sell products to get into the upcycled fashion game. Former brides have been finding ways to re-fashion their wedding dresses for hundreds of years. You can build a responsibly made fashion business helping clients renew pieces from their wardrobe.

Brooklyn designer Shannon South of ReMADE USA offers a service to remake your old leather jacket into a chic bag. The benefits of offering a service as an alternative to manufacturing are that you don’t have to invest funds and space to obtain materials beforehand. You only work on confirmed (and paid) orders. There is a large market for this beyond weddings. There is clothing that is no longer in style or doesn’t fit. There are always sentimental pieces customers own where the materials or heirloom value cannot be duplicated.

5. Have a story.

Shoppers and designers alike don’t choose sustainable fashion just to be cool. They pursue it because they find it meaningful. As a designer, be ready to explain what inspired your collection. Let your customers know where your materials come from.  When planning your marketing, ask yourself why you chose this path?

Toronto boutique owner Nathalie Roze specializes in warm weather accessories made from recycled sweaters. She also collects donated knitwear at craft shows to refashion into stylish winter hats and gloves to give to communities in need. Detroit based Rebel Nell is a jewelry company that trains and employs underserved women in shelters to make jewelry from discarded graffiti concrete.

People pay a premium for farm-to-table dining. With upcycled fashion, they pay a premium over mass market items. Customers are willing to spend more because they are buying the story behind label as much as they are buying the end product itself. If you are a designer with a great story, make sure you tell it well!

Related on EcoSalon

From Upcycled to Vegan Leather: Gorgeous Jackets for Fall and Winter

Is it Eco? Topshop Launches 3rd ‘Upcycled’ Reclaim to Wear Collection: Behind the Label

Lastbutnotleast’s Upcycled Clothing Ideas Will Have You Thinking Twice About Cheap Fashion

Images: Mariana Leung

The post 5 Tips to Succeed With Upcycled Fashion Collections appeared first on EcoSalon.

Shannon South gives vintage leather jackets and pants new life as sexy handbags.

Made from used leather clothing and scrap material, Shannon South’s ReMade in the USA collection of bags is a great way to make a fashion statement while keeping your conscience clear. The amount of clothing that gets sent to landfills every year is staggering, The Fiber Economics Bureau reported that the average American throws out about 68 pounds of textiles per year. The Council for Textile Recycling found that of this waste, only about 10 pounds per person is recycled. Giving tired old leather jackets and pants a new life as gorgeous handbags seems like a great way to boost that recycling number.

If you want, you can even send in your own old, no-longer-loved jacket and South will transform it into a bag based on one of her current designs.

South studied at The Royal College of Art in London, and earned a Masters in Industrial Design at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York. After graduating, she lived in the Netherlands for a while, working with internationally acclaimed designer, Marcel Wanders, who taught her the value and beauty of “the story” in design. South also spent time living in Oslo and Copenhagen, places that greatly influenced her design work and aesthetic.

After moving back to the United States, South started designing bags. She was, however, deeply troubled by the process of sending CAD drawings to China and having her bags mass produced. She decided that the only way she could feel good about what she was doing was if she used only repurposed materials and manufactured locally.

She went to Goodwill, found a leather jacket, studied the details and let them guide her design process. She fell in love with the result and “quickly became obsessed with studying old jacket details and seeing them on bags.” Thus, ReMade USA was born. Last year, she packed up her studio in San Francisco and moved to New York City. All of the bags are now made by hand in South’s studio in the Brooklyn Navy Yard and at a handful of her manufacturers in Manhattan.

Shannon South at work in her studio

The main material South uses is leather, but she also works with everything from used denim to vintage doilies, and the bag linings are all made from vintage scarves.

“Repurposing materials is a very thoughtful process and it means that every object made is unique,” says South. Because she works with an existing garment rather than a piece of leather or fabric, South has to constantly adapt her basic designs to work with the details of that particular garment.

“No two jackets that I find are alike. Each one must be deconstructed and design decisions must be made. My patternmaking has to be smart and creative, fitting within the constraints of the given material.” For the customer, this means that even though you choose between basic styles from the collection, no two bags are alike.

For this new collection, South decided to include pieces made from vintage fur.

“I’ve wanted to work with vintage fur for quite a long time and mink is something I was drawn to for its luxuriousness,” she says. “I came across a vintage stole, which I made my first samples with and loved the results. The combination of mink with the buttery soft leather is beautiful.”

Fur is a pretty controversial topic within ethical fashion, something South is fully aware of. “I would never endorse using new fur, but there is a lot of old fur that has been hidden away for several years and is out of style.”

iPhone & iPad cases made from reclaimed leather and vintage mink fur

One of my favorite things about the new collection are the brass detailings that can be seen on some of the bags. This was inspired by one of South’s old studio neighbors, Fay Andrada, a metalsmith who uses brass as her medium.

I interviewed Shannon a few years ago, as her first ReMade USA collection (which was picked up by Barneys) was coming out so when putting together the lookbook for this new collection, she asked me if I would model the bags for her, which I was of course happy to do. We spent an afternoon in South’s Brooklyn apartment with photographer Evan Browning and what came out of it is what you see here.

All ReMade USA bags are handcrafted in New York City

Shannon South’s vision has remained constant from the start, even though she has now added jewelry and home accessories to her line.

“I see reMade USA as part of a back-to-basics, holistic approach that is in line with the way I try to live my life. It sees beauty in the past, praises a lifestyle of ‘making do’ and has a deep appreciation for things that have been cultivated by hand — be it tomatoes from a garden, a piece of wood from a salvage yard, or a bag that has been hand-crafted from an old jacket. In the end, I am trying to lead a life of authenticity and responsibility, doing what I love and attempting to be as good as possible.”

The post Shannon South’s Handbags ReMade in the USA appeared first on EcoSalon.