5 Upcycled Clothing Brands You Should Know About
The fashion industry has a pollution problem. Most of the discarded clothes end up in landfills and incinerators. In fact, a garbage truck full of clothes is landfilled or burnt every second.
Additionally, a lot of waste occurs during clothing production. Deadstock clothing, which is unsold and out-of-style stock, fabric trimmings, ends of fabric rolls, and damaged items all end up in landfills.
Some brands pick up this textile waste and upcycle it into new products. This increases the lifespan of these clothes and keeps them out of landfills and incinerators.
Here are five upcycled clothing brands that reduce the burden of textile waste on the planet:
Goat Vintage
Founded in 2016, Goat Vintage leads the way in upcycled fashion by transforming vintage clothing into trendy new designs. Rather than using new fabric, Goat Vintage carefully disassembles old garments to create fresh styles. They specialize in graphic tees, sweatshirts, jeans, and dresses, effectively combating fast fashion by giving high-quality vintage garments a new life. This circular fashion model keeps vintage pieces out of landfills, extends their life cycles, and promotes a more sustainable industry.
Edwin USA
Edwin USA, established in Tokyo in 1947, is a premium denim brand known for its authentic and high-quality jeans, tops, jackets, shorts, and skirts. They aim to transform the denim industry using a circular design strategy and sustainable manufacturing. Their upcycled clothing program allows customers to send back old jeans to be refreshed and reused. Edwin USA's jeans use 98% less water and 69% less energy than industry norms, and they plan to use 100% regenerative cotton by 2030.
{{cta-join3}}
Zero Waste Daniel
Zero Waste Daniel, a New York-based designer, creates genderless clothing and accessories using pre-consumer waste from NYC's garment industry and other hard-to-recycle materials. It sources recycled fabrics locally or through FABSCRAP, a non-profit textile recycler. Zero Waste Daniel transforms scraps into unique patchwork garments made entirely of upcycled materials such as cutting room scraps, design waste, deadstock fabric, old clothes, and post-consumer plastic. Each piece prevents about a pound of textile trash.
LOTI
LOTI is an upcycled fashion brand known for using discarded textiles to create frilly and feminine pieces. They craft their recycled fashion from premium scraps, leftovers, or damaged materials, including buttons and hardware. Independent seamstresses in Lima, Peru, where founder Lottie Bertello is from, ethically make all the pieces. They source deadstock from the Peruvian Textile Mill, Creditex. Each collection is produced in small, limited batches, and new collections are only released once the old ones are sold out.
BrokenGhostClothing
Owner and creator Jana, after years of running a consignment shop, got tired of seeing garments go to waste and decided to repurpose them into bespoke tunics, dresses, skirts, and more. She collects unwanted garments from thrift stores and combines different fabrics to craft each piece. Smaller offcuts are used for decoration and finishing touches on other items. Jana, as the sole crafter, embraces slow fashion by making everything herself and limits the number of creations at any given time.
More about BrokenGhostClothing→
.svg){kind=icon}
.svg){kind=icon}
Join the community
