STOCKHOLM – Swedish fast fashion giant H&M has launched a new upcycled capsule collection which uses discarded workwear products to make garments such as jackets, chinos and T-Shirts. The new collection will be rolled out from this month through its Cheap Monday initiative, a pilot lab for its sustainability work. Released once a year, the capsule collection sees the business explore new materials and processes to create more sustainable products.
The new capsule collection consists of jackets, work chinos, tees, sweats and a bags, all made from discarded workwear to create the, “sought-after, worn look.”
“In Sweden alone, thousands of t-shirts are thrown away each year, Cheap Monday wondered: why not use them?” said a press note from the company, although readers might reasonably ask how many of these T-shirts originate from H&M and the wider fast fashion sector. The note adds: “In this collection, the brand highlights unexplored sources to creating new garments through the upcycling of workwear. Pieces which have become worthless for their primary purpose are still full of value.
“Furthermore, the process saves on virgin materials, climate emissions, water and chemical use. The ambition is to expand the vision around how to recycle clothes while asking one’s self: what other unvalued sources are there out there?
Carl Malmgren, creative director at Cheap Monday said: “To constantly work towards a more sustainable future is very important to us. With this Cheap Monday collection we discovered a significant source of garments that would otherwise be discarded as trash. Since the garments are all the same design, it makes this project scalable which is the unique part of it. To give these products a new life feels great, as each garment already carries a lot of history.”
The project is initiated by Cheap Monday together with Re:Textile, a project within Science Park Borås in Sweden which focuses on developing structures for circular processes and redesign in the textile industry.
The capsule collection will be available on www.cheapmonday.com and at selected retailers from October 2nd, 2018.