Not all second hand clothing that is donated to charity shops/thrift stores can be resold. Some clothes are ‘out of fashion’. Others may be part-worn in places, or in need of repair.

However, reusing clothing and recycling fabrics into new garments gives them a new lease of life. It extends the useful life and therefore prevents new clothing having to be manufactured, at environmental cost. It is therefore an effective way of mitigating the well-publicised impacts associated with producing new clothing.

Salvation Army Trading Company (SATCoL, The Salvation Army) was invited to collaborate with Winchester School of Art to help better understand the feasibility of upcycling non-saleable donated clothing and textiles in the secondary markets.

Senior Fellow at the School, Sophia Malig, received the charity clothing donations from The Salvation Army, to help students with a key part of a degree-level course (Year 2 BA Fashion).

SATCoL delivered the clothing in April 2021, and this was sorted by fabric and by colour. This was a key step in inspiring the students – the programme leader commented that by organising the donations, “students saw the opportunity to ‘recycle’ clothing in a completely new light… they used the opportunity to be innovative and creative, but still with the perspective of the end customer in mind.”

The upcycled clothes that were made by the Year 2 students formed part of their coursework.

The clothes were featured in two special Salvation Army pop up shops that the School organised with help from SATCoL’s retail team. As well as showcasing the creative work of students, and what is possible creatively with second hand clothes and unwanted textiles, the students kindly donated their work to The Salvation Army to raise funds.

Along with the pop up shops, the collaboration raised over £1,400 for The Salvation Army and it will now continue with more pop-up shops for Fresher’s Week 2021 and sales in Salvation Army shops.

Some of the students’ incredible designs are included and were showcased in Winchester Fashion Week.