Redesign of deadstock

Another virtuous approach to limit the damages caused by overproduction is to think circularly and imagine a new destination for the unsold stock you may have.

In recent years, it was revealed that many famous brands, both from the fast fashion and from the luxury market, use to destroy their unsold stocks in order to protect their sense of exclusivity or because of financial advantage, like avoiding paying for the taxes of their disposal. This practice of course multiply the negative impacts of their products on the environment, because of the realisation of gases, microparticles and other toxic substances , together with the significant loss of materials and energy.

Re-design is a great example of what to do with this stocks, while creating a higher value. Similarly to upcycling, but using brand new materials instead of old used ones, stock can  be reinterpreted into a brand-new collection. You can re-design your own stock, or you could start collaborations with other brands to help them reinventing their own unsold clothes.

This is the concept of RE;CODE, Korean fashion brand, that redesign deadstock garments from major brands, for a new use. The brand started in 2012, willing to find a solution to the incineration of garments. They started with the unsold garments of their own corporation (a sub-division of Kolon Industries, a 3.6 billion USD company founded in the 1950’s) but soon began to collaborate with other brands, such as Nike, for the development of capsule collections.

Every piece is created by a master craftsman and designs are produced in highly limited numbers with maximum 6 items per style, each one labelled with the total number of designs produced. Each item in the collection has a story and creates a new culture of value in place of waste. In this way the brand exclusivity is not only kept alive, but even reinforced, without wasting resources and generate pollution.

Source: https://recode.webflow.io