The Greener Side of Fashion

An Estonian fashion designer brings a sustainable and environment conscious clothing line to the catwalk.

Published

10 months ago

Categories

Arts & Society, Fashion

People

Viola Davis, Paul Smith, Reet Aus

Places

Estonia

Tags

textiles

Transcript

She's a fashion designer, business woman and now an innovator. Estonian Reet Aus recently launched her own environmentally-friendly label called Trash to Trend. After years working in the fashion business she's seen first hand how much waste there is. Now she's taking those leftover textiles and reworking them for the catwalk. (SOUNDBITE) (English) FASHION DESIGNER, REET AUS, SAYING: "Over-consumption is one of the biggest problems and what it causes here in Europe and in the US is post production waste, the thing we can see here on the table. There is a lot of huge amount of clothes we don't know what to do with them because we don't have real solution for them." Every year tons of waste products head off to landfill. But under EU rules textiles are banned for fear of containing harmful toxins. And what to do with them is a growing problem. (SOUNDBITE) (English) FASHION DESIGNER, REET AUS, SAYING: "The nicest thing you can do is actually to up-cycle your own old clothes. If you have, I don't know, five pairs of jeans at home instead of throwing them to waste you can download nice pattern and you can make a dress out of it like this". It's an idea that's already caught on among Hollywood's glitterati. At this year's BAFTA's, actress Viola Davis wore a Valentino creation made entirely from recycled bottles. And Colin and Livia Firth showed their green credentials by wearing matching upcycled designer suits by Giorgio Armani and Paul Smith. Reet can't promise her clothes will be worn by celebrities, but she does hope to make a difference through her brand of trashy fashion. Hayley Platt, Reuters