When was the last time you took a needle and thread and sewed a torn dress? Often, people have no time to do this kind of thing. Old clothes are just that, old. Their term ends when the zip falls off. We will put them on the farthest side of the closet and donate them on Christmas. But do you know that you can actually repurpose old clothes? Just like we do with old T-shirts- they become nightwear.

Susan Strasser in her book Waste and Want argues that there is a thing we can learn from the mid-19^th Century. “Housekeeping manuals had preached frugality even to women who wore silk dresses, teaching them to rip out and reverse sleeves thinning at the elbows and to lengthen the lives of old sheets by tearing them down the middle and sewing the outer edges together."

Acting a bit too cheap? I don’t think so. Instead of buying a new rag, why not use your old T-shirt and make one for yourself? Even famous fashionistas encourage repurposing of items you buy cheaply off the thrift market, or just jeggings that you do not wear anymore.  But you have the money; why not just buy new stuff? You may ask. If you are interested in consuming stuff ethically, rethinking the buying process might be a thing of interest to you.

Interesting to note is how companies are already making money out of the repurposing technique. A London-based company, Junky Styling has embraced the ‘wardrobe surgery idea’ and makes all its garments from second hand clothing. They deconstruct, re-cut and completely transform what would have gone to charity or to the bins. A similar company in New York, The Reformation buys vintage and overstock clothes, tweaks or reworks them, then sells the fashion-forward results.

There is really no need throwing away all your old T-shirts. You could cut long pants into very fashionable shorts. Dye faded jeans or even wear them that way. Faded is acceptable. From old handbags, you can make jewelry out of the leather straps. Don’t throw anything away unless you are truly sure you are done recycling it, or you are sure there is nothing more you can do with it. It is ecologically and financially correct.