dana centre - event - Refashioned: From Waste to Wear

UK shoppers buy more than 2 million tonnes of clothes and textiles every year. But what happens to our unwanted clothes and fashion-industry leftovers? Most of them are simply thrown away to clog up landfill sites, even though half of these textiles could be reused or recycled.

Now designers are beginning to use old clothes and materials to create fashionable new fabrics. From dresses made of designer offcuts to trainers created from T-shirts and tyres, they are breathing new life into our unwanted clothes.

Join us for the Dana Centre’s very own catwalk extravaganza as we throw the spotlight on five of the most stylish designers in the recycled fashion business – featuring collections from Rebecca Earley, TRAID Remade, Worn Again, From Somewhere and Allison Teich.

Meet the designers involved as they host workshops throughout the evening, lifting the lid on how to turn reused and recycled materials into modern, cutting-edge designer clothes and accessories.

This event is supported by SITA Trust and Defra.

Facilitator:
Lucy Siegle, Ethical Living columnist, The Observer

Designers

Rebecca Earley has been a 'green' fashion designer for over a decade and also runs a Textile Environment Design group at the Chelsea College of Art and Design. Her Top 100 shirts will be paraded on the Dana catwalk and she'll be running a workshop looking at how to 'up-cycle' recycled materials by using innovative new technologies.

TRAID Remade are the spin-off fashion label from the TRAID textile recycling charity. They will be hosting a clothes swap stand where people can exchange their unwanted garments, with all the leftovers sent for recycling.

Worn Again produce stylish footwear and accessories made out of used clothes, coffee bags and scrap leather. Worn Again will be running a workshop focusing on all the different types of materials they use, how they go about getting them, and the challenges of producing a shoe that is 99% recycled.

From Somewhere use high-quality offcut, end-of-roll and damaged fabrics from the textile industry to produce exquisite vintage-style ladies’ fashions. Tonight they’re running a workshop on using reclaimed materials from the fashion industry, with sample fabrics and offcuts to show how it is done.

aGaiN NYC, the brainchild of Allison Teich, turns junk into funk. Allison’s wonderful bags come from rescued and repurposed materials and her designs will be seen at London Fashion Week.