ZWS recruiting designers to salvage style
Zero Waste Scotland’s (ZWS) Love Your Clothes campaign, in partnership with the Salvation Army Trading Company, is seeking two creative designers to promote the true value of clothing discarded by Scottish residents.
As part of the joint project, one fashion designer and one textile designer will be selected to take up a full-time paid (£3,500 each) 12-week residency to create two new collections from unwanted garments.
The Love Your Clothes campaign, launched by the Waste & Resources Action Programme (WRAP) last year, was designed to make the public think about the way they consume clothing.
WRAP research suggests that around 30 per cent of clothes bought every year are not worn. ZWS hopes that the lines created by the designers will encourage people to value their clothes more and waste less by showing them how a little bit of effort can bring a new lease of life to their formerly favourite frocks.
It aims to reduce the impact that clothes have on the environment by calling on more people to buy clothes that last, take care of them, upcycle old items, and recycle or pass on clothes that are no longer wanted.
The Salvation Army Trading Company, which has 52 charity shops and thousands of recycling banks in Scotland, received around 30,000 tonnes of donated textiles from around the UK. Many of these items, it says, could easily be transformed to help increase their value, whether it be adding new buttons to an old shirt or adapting an old dress to create a new look.
As part of the project, the charity will be donating five tonnes of various garments worth up to £1,500, from which the fashion designer will select 150 kilogrammes to take away and turn into items with increased value.
The textiles designer will also choose 150 kilogrammes of garments, which they will transform into new fabric pieces.
At the end of each residency the new textiles and garments will be individually and independently valued to demonstrate the true value of the redesigns.
Applicants for each position should have a minimum of three years’ experience and be qualified to degree level in a relevant subject area. They will also need to provide evidence of their interest in post-consumer clothing.
ZWS are accepting applications until noon on 18 September with the residency beginning on 9 November 2015 and finishing on 28 February 2016.
Sustainable approach can add value to old clothes
Lynn Wilson, Textiles Manager at Zero Waste Scotland, said: “This exciting new project with the Salvation Army Trading Company aims to show Scots the true value of their clothes and how, with a little love and attention, the item they may intend to throw out could in fact be turned in to something more valuable for the current or new owner.
“It’s also a terrific opportunity for designers based in Scotland.”
Sustainable fashion in the news
Sustainable fashion has been in the news already this week, after fashion brand H&M announced that it is to introduce 16 new denim styles created from old clothes brought into its stores.
Cotton from clothes collected by the high street store’s Garment Collection Initiative, in which the public can drop off clothes of any brand, will be converted into a range of products from September.
The Swedish company has also announced its inaugural Global Change Award, which will share a funding pot of €1 million (£726,000) between five winners with innovative ideas to close the fashion loop.
Find out more about Zero Waste Scotland’s sustainable fashion residency.
