皆様、こんにちは。S A Y Aです。
服を買う時、その服の作られた背景や、その服の未来について考えて買い物したことはありますか?お恥ずかしい話、私は今までそんなことを考えながら買い物をしたことがありません。服を買う時は必ず“自分の好きなもの”というフィルターを通して商品を選んでいました。今思えば、無責任で自己中心的な買い物スタイルです。そんな自分が恥ずかしいと思えるくらいに、今はファッションと地球の環境問題について学んでいます。地球の環境を守りながら、ファッションを楽しみたい。そんな思いで今日は服の“アップサイクル”のお話をしていきたいと思います。
Hi, everyone. I am SAYA.
When you purchase clothes, have you ever thought about the background and the future of clothes? It is difficult to say, but I have never thought about it when I go shopping.Whenever I bought clothes, I always selected the products through my own filter “What I like”. Thinking about it now, it is the irresponsible and self-centered shopping style. I’m so embarrassed that I’m just learning about fashion and global environmental issues.I want to enjoy fashion while protecting the environment of the earth.Having those thoughts, today I would like to talk about “upcycle” of clothes.
What is the “upcycle” of clothes?
People often hear the word recycle, but I think “upcycle” is an unfamiliar word. “Recycle” is to recycle waste materials and unwanted items, but “upcycle” refers to use waste materials and unwanted items, increase the value of the thing itself and reborn them while retaining the good points of original products.It might be a little similar to “remake”, but remake has both meanings of increasing and decreasing value.
Reason why “upcycle” is attracting attention
Nowadays, cheap products are on the market due to mass production, and a lot of losses are caused. When I was working at an apparel store, I often experienced such a thing like “I ordered additional popular products, they didn’t sell as expected, and I had too much inventory, resulting in dead stock”. By making new clothes with such dead stock, the amount of waste materials can be reduced, new materials don’t need to be prepared, and new clothes can be created.Recycling requires the process of melting and decomposing materials, so it requires a considerable amount of energy, but upcycling does not require it, so the biggest merit is that it can create new and high-value products that we have now.It might sound like an exaggeration, but it’s like an effort to turn trash into treasure. It is understandable that upcycling is attracting attention.
Things that “upcycle” breathed new life into
Of course, materials are upcycled from dead stock of clothes, but waste tires and marine plastic garbage, which are problems all over the world, are reborn as wallets, bags, sandals, accessories and so on. Also, vinyl umbrellas that are famous for being left behind at stations and commercial facilities in Japan. This was also reborn as a fashionable bag, wallet and hat.There are also works that have been upcycled one piece of retro clothes from vintage upholstery textiles, curtains and sheets textiles.In recent upcycling works, there was a project that famous fashion designers trade their own past works, created new works by infusing each designer’s individuality while making the best use of each other’s works.They are famous designers who are active in the world, but before they are designers, they are the same people who live on the earth and love fashion.From that point of view, I was impressed by the wonderful action of creating upcycling works with the same purposes and directions.
In the future, it would be obvious for brands and designers to discover new works and products by incorporating upcycling, we also need to take actions as consumers such as purchasing upcycling products and selecting materials that are easy to upcycle when we purchase clothes.
Clothes have no lifespan. It’s all up to our actions.
First, I want to live a sustainable life by being aware that “we protect the earth” so that we can connect to the future with clothes that we wear now and will get.