Sustainable Makeover: Upcycling Consumer Clothing Waste Using Zero-Waste Design

• Cynthia Lockhart, Fine Arts, University of Delaware

• Nokyeon Kim, Fashion and Apparel Studies, University of Delaware

The concept of getting rid of clothing is nothing new to people. Especially with the rise in fast fashion and synthetic fibers, cycling through clothing has become incredibly common for the average person. Over recent years, microtrends have accelerated this harmful practice with the help of social media. This constant routine with the contributions of millions results in an overwhelming amount of textile waste for our world to handle, yet many seem to either disregard these facts or are uniformed about their impact on the environment. The goal of this project is to rewire the average clothing consumer’s mindset, to see if people can be convinced to find an alternative to repurpose their unwanted clothing using creative methods. Over the course of the summer, many interviews were held to discuss people’s reasoning for discarding clothes. After having deep conversations with consumers, it became clear that clothing is more than just fabric, fibers and thread. Interviewees gave long winded answers about their emotional journeys whether they were painfully discarding or protectively keeping certain items in their closets. This led to my next phase of my project which is to gather donated clothing to repurpose, using zero-waste design methods to demonstrate how any fashion item can still have a purpose even if not ideally practical. As of now, there still needs to be more clothing acquired for the project’s success, however the overall goal is to make sculptural art pieces based on the most common reasoning that was given during the interview process.