Do you think creative reuse (upcycling) is a trend or a new normal?

Creative Recycling: A Trend or the New Normal?

Today, we can find projects everywhere that collect and reuse waste from the fashion industry and its production chain, in a movement that marketing has labeled as upcycling. The concept itself is not new, considering that leather has always been a by-product of another industry — the food industry. In more recent times, the Swiss brand Freitag stood out as one of the pioneers of this movement. Its bags, made as unique pieces from discarded truck tarpaulins, were even exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Today, driven by the project’s idea of absolute circularity, the brand has decided to recover the materials from its bags and transform them once again into truck tarpaulins.

What is creative reuse? It is not synonymous with recycling. Recycling means giving a second life to a piece of clothing. Creative reuse, on the other hand, means adding value to a raw material or garment in order to create a new high-quality accessory. The main difference is that creative reuse initiates a new production cycle, often longer than that of a new product. In practice, although the term comes from English and is strongly linked to marketing, it is essentially what grandmothers have been doing for decades — transforming old sweaters into scarves or hats.

In all of this, the pandemic played the role of an accelerator. It led designers to consider the materials already available instead of seeking new ones. It also generated surplus stock that, through creative reuse, brands found a way to reduce, while meeting a more receptive market made up of Millennials and Generation Z, who are making this trend increasingly attractive. Creative recycling offers the advantage of exclusivity. In other words, exclusive and unique items are produced from discarded materials and returns originating from identical mass-produced products.

Although it is growing, the creative recycling market still seems to be only a drop in the ocean of consumption because, as experts often explain, a product created under this philosophy is usually purchased in addition to the “original” products. However, it is also true that it is difficult for brands and retailers to regard this phenomenon as merely a passing trend. To truly influence the fashion world, creative recycling will need to become the “new normal.” The reuse of existing materials has the potential to become standard practice.