Upcycling adventures

After I graduated from college, I started working for a community arts organisation in Belfast, as coordinator of their Trash Fashion Project. We worked with diverse groups all over Belfast, teaching them sewing and design skills with an environmental twist; all the materials we used were recycled. Whether it was a bag of school ties, a hideous 80s jumper or lace remnants from a lingerie factory, we loved taking what was discarded and giving it a second life.

This wasn’t just about fashion of course. This was post conflict Belfast. Fashion was simply the medium we used to break down barriers between different communities. Teaching design skills in catholic and protestant areas, with ethnic minorities, refugees and groups with special needs, these diverse communities came together in the final fashion shows. I loved seeing how these groups made connections through their creativity, recognising their similarities rather than differences.

While working on the project ideas for new ways to use things popped into my head at night, and I’d scribble them down in the notebook I kept beside my bed. Soon I became obsessed with upcycling and finding new uses for things, so after some time I left the organisation and set up my own eco-fashion label.

Although I’d studied fashion in college, I discovered there was something even more satisfying about reusing existing garments because the final pieces were never something I could have designed from scratch: they were inspired by the materials themselves. I could almost HEAR them whispering to me what they’d rather be…

I cut and snipped, deconstructing suit jackets, turning collars into tails, swapping sleeves, and messing with the conventions of traditional tailoring. I combined fabrics that shouldn’t have worked together and put features in unconventional locations.

Listening to the materials, I would ask each garment what it wanted to be, and where it needed to be cut. It was so satisfying to save a hideous piece of clothing from the scrap heap, then chop it up and combine it with other fabrics to create something brand new.

I merged jumpers, kilts and jackets, inside out and upside down. I used shirt fabric samples to create patchwork corsets and created a bustle out of old school ties. I used broken jewellery as embellishments and heat-pressed golden peacocks, chandeliers and deer’s heads onto traditional suit jackets.

Over and over again, the pieces told me what they wanted to be.

I loved the materials I was using, and the idea of motivating people to reuse items by sparking their imaginations. I thought if people appreciated the life the garment had already had – all the adventures it had already been on – then they’d want to continue the tale.

Inspired by Alexander McQueen (who famously scribbled hidden obscenities on the interior of a jacket he created for Prince Charles), I wrote tiny stories about the people who might have worn the clothes before and stitched these tales into the lining of each piece.

Of course the stories were completely made up. I let my imagination go wild, thinking of the curious characters who might’ve worn them before, and called the label Curious Tales. I'd always had my nose in a book as a child, so I loved the idea of combining fashion and storytelling.

Here were are some of the imagined histories I stitched into the linings, each tale starting with the words

“This may have belonged to…”

…Bernard C. Periwinkle, a windsock maker from Somerset, who likes to count snail trails at midnight and once planted fireworks in his garden to see if they would grow…

…Ralph Luscious the Third who likes to wear velvet suits when gardening and dresses the insects in hand crafted Italian boots…

…Emilio Corazon who wore clockwork waistcoats and gambled his mother’s engravings on the night of a thousand moons…

…Mr C. Wyatt who likes to count worry lines and likes the way car crashes glitter. He smiles at children when they fall…

…Smiley Monroe a rollercoaster operator from Milwaukee who wished he could conduct electricity like an orchestra…

…Mr L. McGarrigle who once tried to phone someone using a grapevine and likes to wear crowns when he is alone…

…Francesco Norville a bumblebee farmer with eyes like moons, who would polish the neon saints in his bedroom on Tuesdays…

…Gustav P. Hopodopolis, maitre-d at Basil’s Emporium of Delights, who follows flocks of wild moustaches west for the winter…

…Horace T. Kingfisher, a wildebeest poacher from Nicaragua who roams the hillsides of Kilimanjaro stalking his subjects with truffles and cream buns…

…Grover Jones, a psychic astronomer from Tunbridge Wells who keeps owl feathers in his waistcoat to help him see in the dark. He can predict shooting stars and new comets…

…Germaine Rodriugo a vagabond with cat’s eyes who liked to measure contradictions with a compass and an old boot…

I hoped that the people who bought these new pieces would continue their story, so I created a website where they could share their adventures, continuing the tales.

And they did! The clothes attracted incredible new owners, and went on adventures with circus performers, painters, authors, singers, crochet artists, illustrators, musicians, and even a finalist on the X-Factor!

And my tale continues. Although I no longer make one-off fashion pieces, The Curious Tale of Ralph Luscious the Third would not let me go. So now I’m studying for an MA in Writing for Young People, recording Ralph’s adventures in a novel for middle graders.

When I first started listening to the whispers of the clothing and began to tell their tales, I never imagined they’d take me on such an incredible journey.

As Roald Dahl says: ‘watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places. Those who don't believe in magic will never find it.’