An Upcycling Renaissance 谁拿了你的旧衣服？

As we look back on a tumultuous year, it’s clear that parts of Southeast Asia, like much of the world in general, have been left in a trail of destruction. Typhoons of increasing strength and frequency have washed away areas in Vietnam and The Philippines. Thailand is bursting at the seams with plastic-waste pollution, which skyrocketed as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. And Jakarta continues sinking faster than any other city on Earth while its rainforests are set on fire. But what does any of this have to do with the latest T-shirt you wear? As it turns out, a lot.

The Consequences of Fast Fashion

The fashion industry accounts for 10 percent of the world’s carbon emissions, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. It uses 1.5 trillion liters of water annually. It’s a major source of chemical waste and plastic pollution in the ocean. This is all due to things like the use of petroleum-based fabrics such as polyester, large amounts of wasted product, expansive supply chains, and untreated wastewater from textile factories.

With the fashion industry creating such grim environmental realities, it’s reaffirming to see a rise in upcycling and custom clothing, particularly in Vietnam, where the momentum is growing at an outsized pace compared to most neighboring countries.

Upcycling is basically just recycling with a fancy name. It means taking an older product and reusing it for something new. So that old jacket you love with a big hole in it? Instead of throwing it out, you can repurpose it into a new shirt or bag. It’s not exactly a new concept though. In the past, sewing was a more integral part of our lives and mending clothes was more common than buying new ones. But one of the most notable examples from modern history before the term “upcycling” even existed is probably Harlem’s Dapper Dan in the 1990s. The Black designer was taking brand name clothes like Gucci and Louis Vuitton from customers and redesigning them into new fits and styles. Although Dapper Dan was sued for the practice back in the day, he’s now celebrated by the fashion industry, with big-name brands seeking out official collaborations with him.

Upcycling and custom designs are blowing up now in Vietnam. To see how fast things are growing in the country, you can look to the range of local brands that specialize in upcycling and customizations. There’s the casual wear of The Vandal; the Viet-punk look of 247 Art Club; the updated traditional garbs of Ugly Born; and the high-fashion wear of Môi Điên. And this doesn’t even account for individuals making clothes for themselves and friends, with no brand in mind. Perhaps the best spot to go at the moment to find out what’s bubbling underground is the Vietnamese 1 of 1 Fashion Group, a spot dedicated to creating a community around custom and upcycled clothing.

Custom Made

Founded by Hoang Anh Nguyen and Đức Thành, two upcycling enthusiasts from Hanoi, 1 of 1 is a place to share ideas, share work, talk about production methods, and spread the gospel of upcycling. It’s a meeting space for creators and customers alike. Nguyen is currently studying fine art and never expected to get involved with fashion, but when she met Đức, he taught her how to sew, and they’ve been making artsy clothes together ever since. “We don’t consider our work as a brand or anything like that,” she says. “We’re just a clothing shop reworking or destroying your old clothes. I’m always asking my friends for old clothes. Throw them away to me; I’m a hoarder!”

“All we do is recycle old clothes because we’re thinking about what we can do to protect the environment,” Nguyen adds. “ I’m not an environmental activist, but I do care about the environment, and I hate how the fast fashion industry works.”

Thrifting culture is also widespread in Vietnam and has proven to be a quick way to enter the fashion industry with very little capital. Creatives with a good eye can buy a piece they find for a dollar and flip it for double or triple that. A lot of people sell secondhand goods and many have started their fashion careers that way. Phương Vũ from Vietnamese creative collective Antiantiart, an artist widely known in fashion circles here, got his start selling secondhand goods online. Many brands sell their own designs alongside thrifted pieces. “I definitely loved going to the thrift shop before I ever thought about making my own clothes,” Ngyuen from 1 of 1 says.

“This upcycling movement, which grew out of streetwear and thrifting culture, is really democratic, in the way a customer who isn’t professionally trained can be a part of the design process,” says Ngoc Ha Thu Le, a sustainable fashion designer and blogger who was born, raised, and educated in Hanoi. “You don’t need to understand the techniques because you have pieces that are readymade, you just mix them together with basic sewing skills. It can be really empowering; they’re not just consuming but creating too. They may not even understand that what they’re doing is sustainable.”

The movement isn’t strictly, or even mainly, about the environment, but it dovetails with social and technological changes, as well as recent fashion trends. The antipathy toward fast fashion is widespread. With people now being exposed to styles from every corner of the world, a growing desire to dress expressively and with individuality is only to be expected. Customers no longer have to wait for the next season when the fashion gods reveal what’s cool. They can step outside these commercial cycles and dress on their own terms.

“I don’t care about the latest hype; I want my pieces to be timeless, to be appreciated forever,” says Hoang Duy Minh, who founded the Rockboy Clique brand about five years ago. Duy primarily uses new fabric for his work and specializes in customizing old pants. The Hanoi designer leans toward streetwear but bristles at being pigeonholed. “There are a lot of styles in Vietnam but I don’t think about what category I fall into. I just do my thing, I make clothes as a passion. I just want to make you feel good about the clothes you’re in.” He doesn’t upcycle much, preferring instead to use new materials for most pieces, but he follows the same ethos, placing an increasing value on vintage pieces and how they could be reused. “You can take pieces from your archive and deconstruct them and you have something no one else in the world has.” Escaping from the hype cycle can only be a good thing.

Many DIY designs combine dyes, fabric paints, and bleach in new ways to create different textures and colorways, which are mixed with prints, patchwork, and layers that resemble a collage. The Hidden is a good example of this approach, a Vietnamese brand of handmade T-shirts featuring psychedelic designs and striking color schemes, each piece looking a bit like an abstract painting. “Most shirts that teenagers wear are very similar, all printed and sewn by machine. Mass produced. It’s pretty much all the same piece,” says founder Nhi Kieu Le. “I figured I’d just create my own with different styles and forms to make them pop, make them unique.” Le is a medical student from Da Lat, a city outside Saigon. She got her start in fashion as a model and launched The Hidden about two years ago. They’ve made around 1000 pieces so far in batches of 30-50 at a time. Although she uses new fabrics, she handpicks them and brings them to a shop to have them sewn.

Being in direct touch with the various parts of their supply chain gives brands and designers the chance to make ethical choices. Le, the blogger and designer, has been studying sustainable fashion since high school. She recently won the Redress award for her upcycled menswear line and says she’ll be sourcing local, natural fabrics as a way to commercialize her winning entry. “I also plan to purchase deadstock, the leftover rolls of fabric from big international corporations, as a way to commercialize the Redress designs.”

Upcycling can happen at different levels of the supply chain. Bigger companies sign deals with manufacturers to buy large quantities of leftover fabrics. Smaller, under-the-radar brands buy their textile waste. Then finally the smallest scraps get used as installation in things like pillows and stuffed animals.

Looking to the Future

At the macro level, fashion companies need to be properly registered with the Vietnamese government, but below that, people often start up their own businesses in Vietnam without needing to jump through regulatory hurdles. The relaxed laws make it easy to get started, and Vietnam’s longtime position as an outsourcing country means skilled workers are readily available. It’s easy to find a seamstress or a production house to help with designs. This partially explains upcycling and custom culture’s growth here. Minh from Rockboy is the son of a working tailor, for example. As upcycling grows in the country, it has the opportunity to open up a lot of local employment opportunities.

But the loose business rules can also have downsides. Health, labor, and environmental safety are often overlooked. In rural Vietnam, where a lot of the upcycled materials come from, the burning of leftovers pollutes the air while buried polyester leeches into groundwater.

Vietnam seems uniquely positioned to lead in the world of custom and upcycled clothing. All the pieces are there, and younger designers are already making the moves. Events like that of Hidden Archive, aimed at teaching sustainability, forums like 1 of 1, and outreach by people like Le are feeding that growth, educating designers about how to take the next steps and also why they should take them. These types of resources are essential in furthering the upcycling movement.

Of course, without government action across the globe to deal with industrial, agricultural, and corporate offenders, there won’t be enough change. But a creative culture that embraces the issues of sustainability as part of their everyday lives sends a message to the world, proclaiming that this is the change we want to see.

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Contributor: Mike Steyels
Photographer: Nguyen Hoang Long
Chinese Translation: Olivia Li