Turning bikinis into jackets, bedsheets into shirts: The joy of upcycling

“Can I borrow your biggest pot?” I asked my mother on one of our near-daily phone calls. Assuming I was making chicken stock, she happily obliged. Secretly, I planned to use it to dye a cream top that had come off second-best in a bathroom incident involving a bottle of foundation. Although I write about sustainable fashion a lot in my line of work, I’ve never quite learnt to embrace a turmeric stain and I don’t “do” holes (except the ones in my jeans I paid way too much money for). Still, throwing out a lightly stained garment didn’t wash.

Designer Noah Johnson upcycles summer cast-offs into winter jackets, vests and pants.

So, armed with my mother’s cauldron, I embarked on my first foray into upcycling: the altering or remaking of something that would otherwise be discarded or defunct to increase its value. Forget transforming a pair of old Levi’s 501s into hot-pants (an act many would define as downcycling – that is, decreasing the value of the original product): thanks to TikTok and a handful of luxury brands, including Gucci and Miu Miu, upcycling has gone haute.

Unlike my own humble efforts with a box of Rit, many Australian designers are producing impressive examples of upcycling. Take Tasmanian-born Noah Johnson (above), whose recent 20-piece collection turned summer cast-offs like bikinis and beach towels – difficult to resell in their original states – into winter jackets, vests and pants. Meanwhile, Esse Studios’ Charlotte Hicks is turning discarded bedsheets (washed, of course) into tailored pieces, such as shirts and pants, giving new meaning to the term “bedclothes”.

But not every effort is to be applauded, say a number of commentators, including Melbourne-based Bianca O’Neill. She takes particular aim at celebrities and influencers, such as Kim Kardashian, accusing them of “erasing fashion history”. (At a Dolce & Gabbana Spring 2023 show at Milan Fashion Week, Kardashian wore a red sequinned D&G dress from 1994 as a newly remodelled, midriff-baring two-piece.)

As for my humble cream skivvy, it’s enjoying a new life – in black. It’s on high rotation in my wardrobe this winter, and I get a smug satisfaction from telling people its story of going from wardrobe refugee to seasonal staple – though it did accidentally dye some of my cream items mauve the other day after it ended up in a light wash. That’s the thing about upcycling: once you start, it can be hard to stop. Maybe I’ll hang on to Mum’s pot for a bit longer.

Style list

Anna-Lisa Backlund

Australian label Romance Was Born made headlines in 2009 when Cate Blanchett wore its crocheted dress, renamed “Cate Blanket” by the tabloids, to an event in Melbourne. That dress now resides in the Powerhouse Museum, but 14 years later, the label is still working with retro throws, recently creating a series of biker jackets (a style immortalised by Marlon Brando in The Wild One). Instead of black leather, though, it’s using upcycled colourful blankets of the vintage woollen checked variety (below, left). Cosy. Blanket Biker jacket #8, $650

Sawdust shavings from furniture-making isn’t an ingredient you’d normally associate with fragrance, but distilling the oils from discarded wood pulp, particularly cedar wood, is a process used by several perfumeries, including Issey Miyake in A Drop d’Issey, Ellis Brooklyn in Bee and Boy Smells in Tantrum (above, right). If you’re looking to romanticise your scent story, knowing it had a previous life in a furniture studio is probably a good place to start. Boy Smells Tantrum EDP, 65ml, $157

Indigenous label Liandra Swim uses a fibre developed from waste material, including plastic bottles, by textile group Unifi to create a swimwear range with a difference (below, right). Aside from their waste-repurposing origins, the mix-and-match pieces are super-soft, UV-resistant and reversible, with each print in the range drawn by founder Liandra Gaykamangu, a Yolngu woman from East Arnhem Land. “Samantha” swimsuit bottom, $120, and “Ella” top, $125

To make these attention-grabbing slides, Dutch shoemakers Jelske Peterson and Jarah Stoop have pulled apart and repurposed more than 500 vintage sneakers, mainly Nike Air Force and Adidas Stan Smith. The synergy not only between competing brands, but also the original and new makers and wearers – not to mention that irresistibly comfy Birkenstock mid-sole – make for a one-of-a-kind collage (above, left) for the feet. Synergy mules – Colour Pop, €645 (approx. $1060)

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