Fake fur in the Co-op and Upcycling

Much later, on my way home from a lecture, bump into my daughter in the Co-op. She has ventured out to buy chocolate chips for cup cakes she is making and is wearing a fake fur coat (bought at funnily enough at Kernow Animal Welfare charity shop in Cornwall during the holidays) over her pyjamas. Recycling garments: instant glamour with fake fur is a theme of the season....

Later, while we eat the cupcakes, she says 'upcycling' is a new trend i.e. creating something from old garments/ materials that values the original craft/workmanship that made them. A friend of hers, Molly, who is studying Fashion at Central St Martins, has been set a project. It is not just a question of e.g. making a new dress from an old satin evening dress found in a charity shop. But using the techniques or characteristics of that garment to create something new. Molly is boiling woollen garments so that the inner seams fuse into felt-like tubing, then creating something new from the tubing.