Posh Swaps Blog

The latest great idea for creating sustainable and desirable fashion by recycling old items into new are these beautiful shoes by Terra Plana. The shoes are created using recycled Pakistani quilts making each one a unique piece. But they are not just eco friendly, they are comfy and stylish too. I love the rich colours and the different textures. The shoes are high heel platform shoes, making them a great addition to a day time or evening outfit. They are lightweight with flexible memory soles for extra comfort.

Terra Plana works towards creating sustainable shoes by minimize waste and toxin use and maximize product use. They use eco friendly materials including recycled materials where ever possible and use innovative minimal glue constructions.

What can make from a load of old rubbish? Quite a lot actually. I seem to come across more and more examples of very stylish upcycled fashion lately, especially accessories. I’m talking about the sort of gorgeous pieces that you desperately have to have not because they are eco friendly but because they will look amazing and make a real style statement with that …..

The more recycled pieces that I find, the more I think about how much we throw away. With jewellery made from such a diverse range of found items and scarfs and other accessories made from all sorts of beautiful reclamimed, vintage and second hand materials.

To get some inspiration or some lovely recycled fashion, just try searching ‘trashion fashion’ on Etsy. I hope you love what you find as much as I did. Don’t forget, if you are making upcycled/ recycled fashion, www.posh-swaps.com is a great place to source materials and sell you creations (for free).

This bracelet called coffee berries by Jupita is made from old gift cards.

This hot asphalt recycled LP necklace made by Tresijas is as the name suggests made from an old record, heated and then folded over to give the appearance of a warped pavement.

This Ladybug Fairy Hood by Fairytale Fibres looks both stylish and warm and is made from 100% upcycled wool.

Frugal living is currently a necessity for many people but has also become quite fashionable as people find new and creative ways to live on a minimal budget. The media have likened this frugality to the second world war when rationing and shortages forced people to ’make do and mend’. John Lewis has even rewritten a wartime make do and mend booklet for modern times. It gives some great tips that still apply today as well as some new ones such as the economic use of the central heating.

This make do and mend philosophy, is not just frugal but also environmentally friendly and a real contrast to throw away society that has become so prevalent in recent years. Make do and mend positively encourages a reduction in waste and recycling in all sorts of different ways. Some thing that may be quite alien to many but that fits in perfectly with the current economic climate and make do and mend philosophy is making do with the clothes we have instead of buying new. Of course it help greatly if the clothes were great quality and classic styles in the first place.

A whole movement of fashionistas has began to spring up around the make do and mend idea. Clothes swapping, swishing parties, clothing repair and alteration, buying and selling second hand clothes and refashioning/ reworking old clothes have all become popular ways not just of saving money and the environment but also of creating unique, interesting and beautiful outfits.

Refashioning clothes is a huge trend at the moment. It is both an economical and eco friendly way to keep your wardrobe up to date and even better it is a great way of creating unique and individual clothes that no one else will have. Recycling is already big news with recent years seeing a surge in the sales of second hand and vintage clothes as well as the phenomena of clothes swapping. By refashioning second hand and vintage clothes, fashionistas are taking it one step further and getting fresh, innovative and up to the minute clothes. Refashioning clothes is also great fun.

When you refashion your wardrobe, you just need to take any clothes that you no longer wear and change them into something that you will wear. For each piece that you no longer wear, you need to think about why you don’t wear it and what would make you more likely to wear it. For example, if you are just bored with an item of clothing, you could make it more interesting by embellishing it, if you feel it is out of date, you could change the style to something more current, if it no longer fits you or is damaged in some way, you may want to deconstruct it and then make it into something completely different.

Dying or bleaching - You can change the colour of a garment by dying or bleaching it. There are a variety of techniques that can be used to create patterns using bleach or dyes.

Shortening - you can shorten or remove sleeves, cut off jeans and shorten a dress to become a top. Depending on the look that you are trying to achieve, you can either leave the shortened edges raw or hem or finish them.

Cutting - cutting is a great way to restyle t shirts. You can cut out the neckline and cut slashes across the t shirt.

Embellishing - There are countless ways that you can embellish a garment including beading, adding trims like lace, appliqué, and embroidery.

Fitting - a piece of clothing that does not fit properly can be altered to make it fit perfectly.

Deconstructing and reconstructing - For those with more advanced sewing and dressmaking skills, a piece of clothing can be turned into something completely different by taking it apart and using the fabric or trims to create another piece of clothing.

There are so many ways that you can refashion clothes to create a really original wardrobe. You will be helping to reduce the ever growing problem of landfill and saving yourself money. Your outfits will definitely be right on trend.

picture from office.co.uk

I noticed in the Editors letter in this months copy of Elle,a mention of ‘ the Uniform Project’ an exercise in sustainability and the brainchild of Sheena Matheiken. Starting in May this year Sheena, pledged to wear the same dress every day for a year. Well actually she has seven identical versions of the exact same dress, one for each day of the week. She aimed to create a different look each day by accessorising with vintage, second hand and hand made accessories and layers. Sheena illustrates just how it can be done and creates so many different looks with the same dress and some very gorgeous and hand made vintage accessories.

Elle Editor, Lorraine Candy explains how she dresses according to her mood and found it very difficult to wear the same black dress every day when trying to replicate the excercise. I can understand completely what she is saying and think it would be incredibly difficult to wear exactly the same style of dress for a whole year, even for someone creative with their accessories.

But, the project does prove an interesting point that you do not have to constantly update your wardrobe with every new trend. It brings a new meaning to the words classic investment piece and versatile staple. It shows that if you buy quality and timeless pieces, you can look amazing and original. For those who just have to constantly update their wardrobe, there is always the clothes swap, you could even try swapping accessories.

picture from theuniformproject.com

At Posh Swaps, we love this recycled eco jewellery range by Anna Clifton. Anna’s newest work is made using or rather “re-using” aluminium drinks cans and recycled glass beads to create beautiful pieces of jewellery and bridal hair accessories. Anna also takes commissions for bespoke pieces.  

Anna Clifton Jewellery prides itself on being an “Environmentally Friendly” company. It is a family run business where each and every piece of jewellery (including tiaras, circlets and hair accessories) is made by hand in the UK.

Anna Clifton Jewellery is a home run business and has strong environmental beliefs. They re-use, recycle and compost as much as is physically possible, use energy saving light bulbs, don’t leave appliances and electrical equipment on standby, always buy local wherever possible and are a one car family.

By using recycled materials in their work they cut down on the use of raw materials. All other pieces are made using traditional hand silversmithing and wire working techniques and waste material is kept to the bare minimum .

The perfect piece of jewellery to compliment your second hand eco wedding dress.

You can sell your used and refashioned or recycled clothes on www.posh-swaps.com for free. Refashioning is a great way to create your own line of individual clothes. It is not only fun and good for the environment but it is also a great way to make money. If your old clothes are looking a bit out of date refashioning them is a great way to bring them right up to date. There are so many ways to refashion clothes including dying, embellishing, shortening and deconstructing and reconstructing them into a completely new piece of clothing.

You can also sell second hand, designer, high street and vintage clothes on Posh-swaps.com.

Set up your Posh-swaps.com account today and start listing your items.

Finnish designer Mina Hepburn started her eco fashion label Mina in Dorset after she begain making clothes using Scottish Lace and embellishing using from the beautiful things that she had collected from local antique markets.

Mina uses eco friendly textiles in her clothes where ever possible including organic, fair trade and recycled materials. She also ensures that there is no waste and any remnants are used to embellish garments.

I love how she used recycled things to make very gorgeous and intricately detailed clothes. The latest collection features luxurious lace/wool mixes, cropped wool jackets made with British wool and fitted dresses made from recycled fabrics. Her clothes are all very feminine. Her ranges include women’s and children’s clothes, accessories and jewellery.

picture - Lola dress by Mina

We are pleased to present our first Posh Swaps DIY refashion project. We thought that we would start off with something fairly simple. We have refashioned two boring old t shirts/ tops by bleaching them. It can take a little bit of trial and error to get the desired effect, but it is really quite simple. We used some tops/ t shirts that we bought from a second hand shop for a few pounds.

All we did was to bundle the t shirts up and tie them loosely with string. We then covered our clothes with an apron to protect and donned some very attractive rubber gloves. We put a bit of bleach in the bottom of a washing up bowl and rolled the tops in the bleach. We left for about 3 or 3 minutes before topping the bowl up with water and leaving for another 10 minutes. We then cut the string and rinsed the tops really well.

For the eco friendly option, you can use an eco friendly bleach like Ecover.

This black top turned orange when bleached. I love the effect even if it does look a little like the hippy tie dye thing. It is worth experimenting with the amount of bleach coverage for different effects. A bit more bleach and this top would have been even more orange.

This orange t shirt changed yellow when bleached, making it a really colourful summer t shirt.

All Posh Swaps Refashion projects are available to buy on www.posh-swaps.com

Just incase you were in any doubt as to how trendy eco fashion is, it had now been confirmed by the launch of a collection made from recycled clothes at Topshop. Topshop is considered the most cutting edge and innovative of the high street fashion store and it’s introduction of a line of recycled clothing proves that being green is red hot. It follows in the footsteps of Oxfam’s recycled DIY collection which has recieved plenty of publicity lately.

The collection is by the Eco brand My Only One, that used second hand and women’s vintage clothing to create beautiful and fresh new designs. The ideas come from a team of innovative and emerging designers.

The collection will launch at the Oxford  Street store of Topshop and will be called Sport Noveau. It will feature stylishly reconstructed sportswear.