— First ever joint project seeks to appoint two creatives to bring new lease of life to castaway clothing —

 

The hunt is on for textiles and fashion designers to get involved in an exciting new project which will see a new couture collection created from clothes Scots have given to charity.

 

Zero Waste Scotland’s Love Your Clothes campaign, in partnership with the Salvation Army Trading Company has launched a search for designers to show consumers the true value of their discarded clothing.

 

In the first ever commission of its kind, one fashion designer and one textile designer will be selected to take up a full-time paid 12-week residency to create two new collections from the unwanted garments.

 

Love Your Clothes is a campaign from Zero Waste Scotland which encourages people to value their clothes and waste less. It aims to reduce the impact that clothes have on the environment by calling on everyone to buy clothes that last, look after them, upcycle old items and recycle or pass on what you no longer want to keep.

 

The Salvation Army Trading Company sees items every day that can easily be transformed to help increase their value. A shirt with missing buttons can be upgraded with new ones, or a dress can be embellished to create an entirely new look. With a little effort, old pieces can become new again and worth more money.

 

Lynn Wilson, Textiles Manager, Zero Waste Scotland, said:

 

“This exciting new project with the Salvation Army Trading Company aims to show Scots the true value of their clothes and how, with a little love and attention, the item they may intend to throw out could in fact be turned in to something more valuable for the current or new owner. It’s also a terrific opportunity for designers based in Scotland, so please send us your applications now!”

 

For this project the charity will hand over five tonnes of various garments – currently worth up to £1,500, from which the fashion designer will select 150 kilos to take away and turn into must-have pieces worth much more. The textiles designer will also choose 150 kilos which they will transform in to new fabric pieces.

 

At the end of each residency the new textiles and garments will be individually and independently valued to demonstrate the true value of the redesigns.

 

The Salvation Army Trading Company is one of the largest clothing recyclers in the UK with 52 charity shops in Scotland as well as thousands of recycling banks. Each year they receive around 30,000 tonnes of donated textiles in the UK, which helps raise vital funds for the charity’s work with vulnerable people, including helping to fund homelessness and addiction services, care for older people, help at emergency incidents, support for adult victims of human trafficking in England and Wales, a Family Tracing Service and more.

 

Applicants for each residency should have a minimum of three years’ experience and be qualified to degree level in a relevant subject area. Candidates that have qualifications in textiles and fashion will be given priority over those from another discipline. They will need to evidence their interest in post-consumer clothing.

 

Designers can apply via the Zero Waste Scotland website at: http://www.zerowastescotland.org.uk/content/fashiontextile-design-residency

 

Applications are being accepted until 12.00 noon on 18 September with the residency beginning on 9 November 2015 and finishing on 28 February 2016.