NEW SEASON, OLD CLOTHES

new season, old clothes In a year when the pandemic caused massive disruptions to the fashion industry’s global supply chain, upcycling—the practice of using deadstock and discarded materials to create new pieces—became the mother of invention for some of the world’s biggest luxury brands. Upcycling, the process of reusing existing materials, used to conjure up crafty, scavenged visions of Mad Max , i.e., the opposite of luxury. [...]recently, less than 1 percent of the fabric produced by the fashion industry was recycled into new garments, according to a 2017 report by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, a circular economy think tank, contributing to a loss of $500 billion worth of materials each year. Prada’s Re-Nylon project—a collection of the label’s signature nylon bags crafted from nylon fabric made from recycled textiles and ocean plastic—expanded to ready-to-wear. “With Re-Nylon, we can create products without using new resources, highlighting our continued efforts toward promoting responsible retail,” says Mrs. Prada’s son Lorenzo Bertelli, who is also the Prada Group’s Head of Marketing and Corporate Social Responsibility.