GM: Would you advise all other small fashion companies who want to be more sustainable to also upcycle fabric for their apparel lines?
DS: Every designer, every brand, everyone has their own mission. Zero Waste Daniel exists — it’s a business people know about it, and if it’s your style, you’re buying it. So making another patchwork sweatshirt probably isn’t the best way to go about joining the upcycling revolution. But I don’t use every material, and I only make what I make. So what other designers need to do is find what’s being leftover that inspires them and what holes there are in the market to fill, whether that’s making some dresses out of old sheets or turning towels into rugs.
What we really have to focus on doing is upcycling and recycling leftovers and closing the holes in the currently unclosed loop of what is the production system as we know it today. Looking for what’s leftover, what doesn’t have a home, what people don’t see value in, is a great place to start.
