Purple patchwork dress
Lamine Badian Kouyaté · Spring 1995 Ready-to-Wear (shown September 1994)
Craft, repair and upcycling
Recovered materials entered experimental designer collections while established textile skills continued to shape fashion. Reuse, repair and craft remain different practices within this story.
Recovered materialsVisible handworkTransformation rather than disposal
Reclaimed-paper vest
Martin Margiela · spring/summer 1990
Martin Margiela paper vest, spring/summer 1990
Kuba-cloth bustier and raffia skirt
Alphadi · 1993
About Craft, repair and upcycling
Making new clothes from existing materials became an important part of 1990s experimental fashion. Martin Margiela turned recovered paper and garments into new designs, making reuse visible within a luxury context. This was one strand of a wider story: hand weaving, embroidery and other skilled practices continued to shape fashion internationally, including Alphadi’s work with Kuba cloth. Craft, repair and upcycling are related practices rather than a single silhouette. They also have histories far older than the designer labels that brought them to the catwalk.
Explore the designers
- Lamine Badian KouyatéView garment · Spring 1995 Ready-to-Wear (shown September 1994)
Street energy and defiant reinvention
- Martin MargielaView garment · spring/summer 1990
Making the hidden visible
- AlphadiView garment · 1993
Cloth, culture and the Sahel