Reet Aus: The Scrap Fashion Designer

Since 2022, all of its collections have focused on fabric recycling. To waste nothing. Starting with old family clothes.

di |
fashion recycling

REET AUS

Her name is Reet Aus , and she's a young Estonian designer who created an entire fashion collection from recycled materials. Her story begins when punk was just arriving in Estonia and Soviet influence was beginning to wane. The designer spent much of her time with her grandfather, a sculptor who had the habit of saving everything in his studio: even the smallest piece of fabric would become part of his artwork. This was how Reet developed the habit of creating her own clothes , starting with old family clothes or fabrics from her mother's drawer, a fashion designer herself. Studying fashion design was therefore a natural progression: Reet began working as a fashion designer in 1997.

READ ALSO: Refreshing your wardrobe can be done without wasting money. And it can be fun.

REET AUS FASHION DESIGNER WITH SCRAPS

Since 2002, all Reet Aus collections have followed the principles of innovation, focusing on the transformation processes of waste materials , reintroducing them into the production cycle with the help of design. The concept of textile recycling fascinated the designer so much that she wrote a doctoral thesis on the topic " Trash to Trend: How to Use Upcycling in Fashion Design ," where "upcycling" refers to the possibility of giving new life to old garments by creatively reinventing them. The idea is to implement the concept of textile recycling, not only on a small scale, but also in the fashion industry and in mass production. Thus was born the Trash to Trend web community , to map textile waste across Europe and then reconvert it, through recycling, into fashion clothing and accessories.

After completing her doctorate, Reet Aus began applying the results of her studies to real life. In 2012, she began collaborating with Beximco, one of the largest clothing manufacturers in Bangladesh, a country with a poor waste management system, resulting in tons of waste destined for Chinese landfills. In the designer's creations, the transformation of old textiles is introduced right from the start of the mass production process, improving production efficiency and reducing environmental impact : each garment produced this way uses an average of 70% less water and 88% less electricity than traditionally mass-produced garments. The production line, which uses the creative recycling method , was patented and certified in 2014 and has since been sold and distributed in Europe and around the world by major mass-produced fashion brands.

RECYCLING AND FASHION, HOW TO OBTAIN CLOTHING FROM RECYCLED MATERIALS:

Want to see a selection of our news?

Don't Waste