In just 4 days, students in the Fashion and Textile program at “Den Skandinaviske Designhøjskole” DSDH have turned big bags, airbags, and webbing straps into outerwear. Additionally, some groups have gone all in and designed pants, skirts, and other garments. All materials are post-used New Waste sourced through THE UPCYCL's material showroom.

Guest lecturer and lead on the project, Agnes Bjerre, explains that it began with an idea to challenge fashion conventions by integrating materials that would otherwise have been discarded, and those materials DSDH could find at THE UPCYCL.

Students were presented with 1.5 cubic meters of large big bags from the coffee industry, as well as airbags from the automotive industry, and were tasked with exploring, manipulating, and creating with these materials. The project focused on integrating volume and scale while incorporating classic outerwear details. The creative freedom of working with materials that would otherwise become waste was clearly emphasized by the students' enthusiasm:

"You can feel that everything has been done before, so we're actually fortunate to be part of a generation where we have the opportunity to contribute something completely new (...)" and "It provides a different creative freedom to work with materials that would otherwise just have been thrown away (...)".

This collaboration between THE UPCYCL community and DSDH illustrates how creativity and circularity can go hand in hand to create a circular future together. And as it can be brought right into the classroom and hopefully further into the future fashion industry.