With the advent of “fast fashion”, it’s very easy to buy and discard. According to Cambridge University’s Well Dressed? report, the average UK consumer sends 30kg of clothing and textiles to the landfill each year (and it’s a similar number in the U.S.).

Given that even the more sustainable fabrics require resources, a new movement is gaining ground to re-use those cast-off clothes: reworked, repurposed, revamped, refashioned or redesigned fashion.

It can be a DIY thing- inspired by books like, Rip It!: How to Deconstruct and Reconstruct the Clothes of Your Dreams and Second-Time Cool: The Art of Chopping Up a Sweater.

In this video, Vancouver designer Michelle shows us how she takes thrift store sweaters and makes them new again.