Create Craft
To begin off the biggest yearly event, Road to Fashion Revolution Indonesia 2024, Marina Chahboune, the founder of Closed Loop Fashion, moderated an enlightening conversation show on Febrary 21, 2024. Three Indonesian changemakers, each with their own distinct upcycling experiences, presented their insider knowledge on the talk programme, which put a special emphasis on upcycling fashion.
Ratna Dewi Paramita, Head of Fashion at Binus Northumbria University, Daciadhia “Phoebe” Phoebehana, Fashion Student at Binus University, and First Place Winner of the Upcycling Design Challenge Indonesia in 2024, Toton Januar, Co-Founder and Creative Director of the fashion brand Toton, joined Marina. They discussed material availability, production scalability, pricing, business cases, and shifting viewpoints in the fashion industry and academia as they explored the advantages and disadvantages of upcycling together.
From raw materials to finished clothing, up to 47% of material is lost during the manufacturing process, according to Marina Chahboune. “Most of these materials are either traded in local markets, burned, or end up in landfills without being reused.”
This figure, which outlined the significance of upcycling to the fashion business, set the tone for the discussion programme. Reusing the waste materials is a direct answer to the problem of textile waste that exists today. Toton Januar discussed his beginnings, having already used upcycling to produce a line of upmarket clothing.
Subjects of Conversation:
- Upcycling production scalability • Upcycling fashion pricing
Academic upcycling of clothing; redefining “normal fashion”; Watch the entire talk show.
Designing with Limited Resources
He began his adventure with an invitation to create a collection for the 2024 Jakarta Fashion Week. In order to better understand the concept of “Modernism,” Toton raised awareness of our surroundings and the environment.
Toton encountered his first difficulty when he procured piles of pre-consumer scrap denim from mills. Because waste materials were scarce, he had restricted resources. This compelled him to consider unconventional ideas. Using a rip-and-stitch method, he would snip little strips of patchwork and then sew them onto a piece of plain cotton fabric, thus starting from scratch with a fresh composition of cloth. For patchwork, he also used a lot of top stitching, which gave the piece a more finished, streamlined appearance. Toton emphasised that in order to create upcycled fashion, designers must be fearless and defy conventional wisdom. Only then can creativity soar and design standards be questioned.
When Phoebe was assigned in 2024 to develop a two-outfit collection using pre-consumer textile waste material for a joint project between Binus University, Hollit International, an Indonesian fashion brand, and Closed Loop Fashion, she encountered similar difficulties. 100 kg of textile waste, including swatches, cut-offs, colour cards, deadstock, and samples from QC and lab testing, were distributed to the students.
Ratna, the project manager, said, “The students were shocked when they saw the condition of the materials, the sizes of each available patch, and how limited supplies were.”
We’re accustomed to creating moodboards, observing trends, and designing the design first. In terms of this collection, Phoebe explained, “it really comes down to what materials you have and what designs you can make from it.” Countless fashion designers start their creations with the notion that cloth may be ordered by the metre, according to their specific requirements. Upcycling reverses this procedure. Many of the challenge participants had to go back and reconsider their original colour schemes and design conceptions.
“You have to find solutions with what you have in hand,” Marina continued. You might not be able to select the fabric composition when upcycling. This can make typically straightforward procedures more difficult since, for example, different materials will dye differently. “Although it seems like a restriction at first, this allows creativity to operate within limits.”
Scalability of Production with Upcycling
Scalability problems are unintentionally caused by the inconsistent and limited supply of materials. Toton was questioned about how he determines how much work goes into each of his collections.
He explained that the key is to plan one’s production and that the first step should be to ascertain the amount of material that is accessible. Toton claims that he shops for used clothing himself at neighbourhood markets like Jakarta’s Pasar Senin. He has access to more uniform fabric because he wears denim so frequently.
Ratna offered yet another perspective on production scheduling. After sourcing materials, designers can better comprehend what elements are accessible to them and modify their thoughts by classifying the materials into colours or other categories.
She reminds us that “ready to wear clothing needs different sizing for each piece,” and that the industry must account for this when determining stocks and production quantities. “But with upcycling, every item is unique.”
Toton continued, “We want to stay tiny and not grow into giants as we follow the path of sustainable fashion. I learned from Orsola de Castro, the co-founder of Fashion Revolution, that it’s okay to be proud of our current position in the sustainable process. It’s sustainable to be little. When a thing goes mass produced, its value as a narrative is lost and it becomes just a trend or style.
It’s interesting to note that Toton does occasionally “tone down” a piece’s intricacy to make it simpler to produce; in this way he can create more works and hence appeal to a larger number of people.
Pricing Upcycled Fashion
According to Phoebe, the “bespoke” element of repurposed clothing definitely appeals to her generation, but price sometimes deters them from buying anything. This led to the crucial conversation on price.
Ordinarily, upcycled apparel is more expensive than conventional apparel. According to Ratna, “we need to set our margins more freely for upcycling; it’s up to the brand.” She continues, “Brands really need to value the production time,” pointing out that recycled clothing frequently requires additional labour.
Toton emphasises that for this reason, objects should constantly strive to be exquisite and visually appealing. Not just because the clothing is sustainable, but also because of its aesthetic appeal, customers should desire to wear it. This ensures a brand’s financial stability, enabling it to carry out its objective. Customers seeking opulent, exquisite, and cosy pieces are the target market for the Toton brand, therefore designs have to satisfy these needs. Going sustainable helps to justify a higher price point because the intention is not to reduce the quality of the finished product.
It is imperative for brands to first create their business case. Toton advises, “First, research your target group. Then, present your business case to the target group and modify your pricing.” “We were taught to go to the fashion district to research and identify the kind of customers we wanted to target when I was a student at Parsons School of Design in New York.”
Future Designers: Upcycling in Academia
Marina reported that students struggled to build their project’s business case, which included defining a target audience, price, and sales channels, during the Binus University Upcycling Design Challenge in 2024. This demonstrated the importance of the challenge in fostering fresh viewpoints for the following wave of fashion designers.
Since 2024, the university’s fashion department has included a sustainable fashion subject, according to Ratna. “Students of fashion design are visual individuals who are interested in trends, colours, and image. They were compelled by this training to comprehend the fashion “world” and its associated concerns on a deeper level. It established a connection with the real sector, according to Ratna, who studied fashion design in the UK and has worked in a variety of fashion-related fields, including retail, merchandising, and wardrobe styling.
Students can actually have a better grasp of fashion and learn to recognise connections by working with industry, which will be beneficial for their future jobs.
Above all, the student’s upcycling experience questions the current fashion industry’s “norm.” to work within means, be more thoughtful when creating business cases, be more aware of where their materials come from, and get rid of the “limitless resource” mentality that the industry has promoted.
Closing Statements: “Normal Fashion”
As the discussion show came to an end, Marina made a passionate speech that served as a sobering reminder of the status of modern fashion.
Saying that the fashion industry of today is “normal fashion” is false. The system we have built over the past two to three decades is utterly exploitative of people and resources, and the price we pay for “normal fashion” does not adequately reflect the underlying costs. The cost we pay is offset by the free raw materials provided by nature and the underpayment of labourers along the whole supply chain.
Because it does not represent the genuine costs that should be taken into account when designing a look, we are unable to identify this as a measurement of regular fashion or normal pricing. Including procedures like upcycling, in my opinion, actually provides you the chance to set a fair price that accurately represents the work that goes into it. These are the kinds of guidelines that our sector ought to implement. Since mainstream fashion produces uniform collections and eliminates the opportunity for personal expression through clothing, we do not want to lose this creative business to upcycling, which requires many hours of labour and just compensation. It is our responsibility to motivate others, and even tiny steps count.