Dutch designer Dave Hakkens has launched a new sustainable fashion collection, but he doesn’t want you to buy any of it. Instead, he uses this line to illustrate the different techniques he teaches users on Fixing Fashion, a platform that features instructions and video tutorials on how to revamp the damaged or unwanted clothing you have sitting in your closet.
The idea behind Fixing Fashion is to combat the ever-growing issue of textile waste by educating consumers on the various ways we can repurpose old clothes to make stylish new pieces. Although many sustainable fashion initiatives focus on how a garment is produced, Hakkens argues that “fashion doesn’t need something new,” and that “we already have enough clothes in the world for the coming decade.”
According to Hakkens, “it’s time to stop buying, stop creating more waste, and proudly reuse what we already have.” On the Fixing Fashion platform, you can learn how to “thrift flip” or upgrade your clothing through five main methods: remake, repair, resize, recolor, and decorate. Sew two different shirts together to make a new one! Or stitch over holes and stains to create a bold new look.
Hakkens hopes that Fixing Fashion will help consumers get excited about their old clothes. The biggest hurdle he faces is not teaching people the techniques, “but it is to make this new look cool and accepted—something you want to wear.”
Dedicated to promoting sustainability, Hakkens has previously created the modular Phonebloks smartphone to reduce e-waste and has also shared open-source designs for recycling machines as part of the Precious Plastic initiative.
Hakkens’ goal is to make Fixing Fashion as self-sufficient as the two efforts mentioned above, and most importantly, help change consumer’s ideology behind fashion design to ultimately reduce textile waste.
Source Image: Fixing Fashion
