Posh Swaps Blog

 I have just come across yet another fashion label using recycled materials and clothes to make some very desirable designs. Sew Last Season is the label created by London based designer Elena Garcia. It is dedicated to finding sustainable solutions to the waste created by the fashion industry and recycling or ‘upcycling’ which describes the process of taking something that is being disposed of and transforming it into something that is of greater use and value.

Sew Last Season creates limited edition pieces from excess production clothes such as office shirts. It uses applie surface textiles and low impact dying to create trendy but individual pieces. It use local labour to create the clothes and also works with community groups like HEBA women’s project in Brick Lane, London.

At the moment the label only has menswear collections but plans a women’s wear line soon. They are also working with high street retailers on ways to upcycle their waste.

We are really pleased to have a mention in the June edition of The Ecologist. The article which is part of a series entitles 101 ways forward:resources for a better world, discusses the issue of consumerism as well as 7 other topics of huge importance to the environment including waste, climate change and energy, food and farming. It outlines how we can take simple steps to reduce our consumerism and live a more sustainable life.

Swapping is of course one way to buy less new stuff and recycle old stuff and the article gives some great ideas for swapping, other than clothes. It also talks about ethical shopping and fairtrade, all great ways to live more sustainably.

Overall the article urges us to try and point where happiness comes from how little we own, not how much and changing the word ‘more’ for ‘enough’.

picture from the Ecologist