With its “Textiles Reborn” project, designer outlet operator McArthurGlen has combined sustainability with the promotion of young talent in the fields of fashion and design. Together with long-term partner AMD Akademie Mode & Design, the company organized a four-day workshop in cooperation with designer Lucas Meyer-Leclère from the label LML Studio, who is looking for a new approach to luxury couture with sustainability in the form of upcycling. This brought the students closer to working with recycled materials. Works by the American Pop Art artist Roy Lichtenstein and the Wiener Werkstätte artists’ community served as a source of inspiration.
Most of the recycled textiles for the workshop were collected from the Designer Outlet Berlin as part of McArthurGlen’s “Recycle your Fashion” project, which started last year. This enables customers to donate used clothing.
With the help of various sewing techniques or by hand painting, six couture looks were created from the collected items of clothing, which were then professionally photographed.
“With the ‘Textiles Re-born’ project we have highlighted the synergy between existing clothing and couture craftsmanship. With great dedication and the ability to immerse themselves in different techniques, the students took risks and managed, for example, to mix hand painting and embroidery – techniques I developed during my years alongside Karl Lagerfeld at Chanel and then allowed to study in Italy. Together with McArthurGlen, AMD and their students, we have thus explored the endless possibilities offered by fashion: to create something unique while respecting the planet and the environment,” Meyer-Leclère comments on the collaboration in a statement.
“With our ‘Textiles Reborn’ project, we are taking our partnership to a new level and are very pleased to have Lucas Meyer-Leclère, an expert in the field of upcycling, on board. We are all not only connected by a passion for fashion and design, but above all by a very trusting and honest cooperation. Last but not least, the promotion of young talents remains a project close to our hearts and the link with the topic of sustainability is the only correct and forward-looking way,” says Karoline Müller, Group Communications Manager of the McArthurGlen Group.
“Upcycling used clothing is one of the most important ways to conserve resources and reduce the environmental impact of clothing. Not only is the lifespan extended, but the clothing donations are given a creative upgrade through the redesign,” explains Antje Drinkuth, Professor of Fashion and Design at AMD Berlin.
“With our design, we wanted to express the complexity of fashion and we used the pattern of an Arabian carpet as a source of inspiration. Our modern interpretation draws on historical weaving techniques and, by reducing lavishly decorated patterns, shows a play between rigidity and flexibility,” say Julian Niesen and Benedikt Schwarz, students at AMD Munich.
The outfits are now styled with matching accessories from the designer outlets in Berlin, Neumünster, Roermond and Ochtrup and then exhibited in the respective centers.