It seems to be the latest trend in fashion, and on many more fields: re-fashioning and upcycling. The concept of making new items from old, worn-down materials (whether or not in combination with new materials). A whole identity is even build on these concepts: the hipsters, and on a granter scale: gentrification. This re-introduces not only old materials, but also classic craftsmanship into the estranged and overly modernized society, where most things are commercialized into the most cost-efficient course, which also means cheap off-shore labor to manufacture our everyday products. I also follow this “new” trend with my own company – Fabula Vestimenta- , but how “modern” are these ideas actually?
In 2013 I visited a exhibition of Jean-Paul Goutier in the Kunsthal, Rotterdam (the Netherlands). There I watched this documentary where J.P. Goutier mentions that at the very start of his carrier (in 1977) he didn’t have the money to buy the necessary materials to produce his first fashion-line. So in order to make something, he went to a flea-market and bought a bunch of thatch placemats. Out of those he made 9 models, that formed his first show. The rest is history. But this story shows us that upcycling is not a new technique, not even in fashion, because we know for sure that Goutier started his carier with this technique in 1977.
The question then is: why do we see upcycling as a modern technique in fashion and in other facets of life? Is it because finally our awareness has caught up with reality, that we cannot keep throwing away good materials, just because we do not wish to look at them anymore? Just because we grew tired of some items? Why not give them a new use, a new life? With Jean-Paul Goutier this was done from a point of financial necessity, but I think most of us can also relate to that particular necessity. All it costs is a bunch of creativity and a bit of time (or a friend with both).
What is new to this time, though, is the insight that creativity is a very useful skill, and finally creative people across the world are acknowledged for being creative, instead of being dreamers and slackers. These creative people, who make things from old materials, who upcycle and refashion, they put time into this, because the creative process is not as fast as commercial designs. People using crafts do not work as fast as machines. But they do really see and feel the materials, know what is possible and what is not. And this is what produces beautiful and unique products, and that is what the hipster pays for: a well crafted, unique, creative design that is endurable.
So it is not the upcycling and refashioning that is new to this period of time, but the acknowledgement of the creative design and its merits. And it is the latter that is in fashion, but I hope from my heart that this particular fashion remains and becomes our new way of thinking for the future, near and far.
