Recycled Clothing Companies
January 2, 2024Recycled clothing companies are very fashionable right now. Tons of textiles from every kind of fashion brand goes to waste each year. Clothing brands are trying to create more sustainable fashion with initiatives like organic cotton, recycled fabrics, closed loop systems and high quality recycled polyester from reclaimed plastics like fishing nets. Vintage clothing, it could be argued, may be the most sustainable clothes type – it already exists! This spares all the processing of making new clothes, although not necessarily the shipping.
Advantages of vintage clothing recycled clothing companies
There’s so much choice!
Clothing has been manufactured since there have been bodies to be covered. So either since the Fall of Man, when Eve bit the Apple of Knowledge and discovered that she needed Fashion (was the snake a great fashion PR or what?) or sometime back when we got cold, living in caves, and decided to wear something when out and about.
I’m not suggesting you search out an original outfit from an early hominid’s collection, but there is clothing from the 1940s onwards that is still good to wear. I’m looking at a hand-sewn nightie from the 1940s right this minute. And while I could criticise the finishing of it (someone forgot to take out the basting stitches! All that effort, all those tiny, tiny even stitches and they missed that detail!) it is both beautiful, and has no holes or damage in it whatsoever.
Decisions, decisions!
You can choose recycled clothing from any era and there will be a fair amount of choice within that decade. I’m not saying you can find a polyester shell suit made in the 1950s, but you will find skirts of many different lengths, from knee high, through calf length, ankle and floor length. You will find straight recycled clothing companies pencil skirts and gently pleated ones. There are fun dresses for summer printed with polka dots, and business suits. And this, with variations, is true of all different times. There was always clothing which was meant for different sizes, different ages, and different tastes within the overall fashion aesthetic. And you’ll find something which is perfect for you.
Think of period dramas – unless it’s a very bad film indeed, everyone is not running around in exactly the same frock. While the actress cast as the tea lady in a wartime film set in the London Blitz might be a bit disappointed at the outfit – or maybe not, it may be a brilliant role and she loves it – for sure she will be wearing a pinafore and shapeless, comfy cardigan underneath that, with some sensible shoes. While the leading lady will be in a tight knitted sweater, tight skirt and high heels, even if she is supposed to be a factory worker. All of these clothes existed at that time, even if the factory worker didn’t really wear her high heels to work.
If you don’t want to look like a wartime tea lady, or even a glamorous wartime factory girl, there are plenty of other options. Of course, you could just look like yourself. Yourself, wearing a very cool jumper or pair of jeans.
Recycled clothing companies – Denim
Royalty free image by Rogério Martins on Pexels – https://www.pexels.com/@rogerio-martins-300911/
Now with jeans – denim lasts for ages and is very, very tough. The only signs of ageing on denim is fading and, of course, shredding at stress points. It will go into holes, but they are often quite desirable ones. Physical signs of ageing, that is. The cut of denim obviously ages it faster than anything. However, just to confuse matters, a type of cut often comes back into fashion anyway. Obviously, you know this. And sometimes, something isn’t necessarily in fashion as such, it just feels appealing.
Not to sound like a broken record, but there’s a certain sort of high waisted 1940s jeans I like. I don’t wear the original items, I haven’t come across any. But I wear reproduction ones – and even the repro ones are vintage. I’m not sure when they were made – around the 2000s, I think. So they were popular in the 40s, probably in the 2000s, and right now – with me, anyway.
Recycled Clothing Companies – All in Fashion
And I think anyone who saw me wearing them would probably not think much of it. I get compliments in the summer, and in the winter all you see are a pair of pretty wide jean legs sticking out from under all the layers. So I suppose I’m simultaneously saying that I picked these jeans with great care and they were exactly what I wanted. And also that I wear them every day and probably nobody much cares but me. I definitely wouldn’t have worn then more often or more proudly if they were new.
At the moment, there’s such a proliferation of jeans shapes that it seems every person you see is wearing a different style. From my window as I write this I can see intense blue jeggings, some mid-blue mum jeans, and a pair of very dark indigo blue Japanese selvedge style. I guess even jeggings are vintage now.
Vintage or second hand?
In any case, there seems to be quite a lot of blurring between vintage and second hand now anyway. Probably due to Vinted, whose name hints at vintage but contains all sorts. But it’s popularity is a good sign of how cool and acceptable second hand buying and selling is now. I don’t think there is any stigma attached. Especially as people realise they can also make a couple of quid selling things back if they don’t fit or aren’t the perfect colour.
So! Avoid fast fashion and textile waste, and even recycled materials and clothing companies that make recycled clothes. Go direct to the source and wear vintage. You will have plenty of choice. You can look unique whilst also blending into the crowd, and best of all, you can find exactly what you want. It seems like a pretty straightforward choice.
