Alterist: The fashion marketplace making upcycling mainstream
- Eveline Vouillemin
- 2 days ago
- 7 min read
Hannah Standen and Martina Sorghi met in 2019 through activism with Fashion Action, raising awareness of the unsustainable practices of the fashion industry. Through their work, they realised the potential that upcycling had to reduce waste.
In the context of fashion, upcycling is the process of taking old garments and waste materials and transforming them into new and stylish pieces.
Standen and Sorghi were aware of many incredible designers who were working in this space, but not of a platform that was fully dedicated to upcycling. That is where Alterist steps in!
The idea for an online marketplace came to the pair during lockdown and in December 2022, they officially launched Alterist which is now home to around 180 designers in the EU who all turn pre-loved, excess, and waste materials into new collections.
Last year, they launched an in-house studio, where they work directly with brands, manufacturers and charity stores to find creative ways to re-purpose materials and to keep them in circulation for as long as possible.
Organisations who collaborate with Alterist will either work directly with Standen and Sorghi or they'll be connected to one of their specialist designers, whoever is best placed to bring their vision to life.
Recently, Alterist took over Traid’s Shepherd’s Bush store to launch their collection of pre-loved T-shirts which have been given a second lease of life through prints inspired by the Our Planet Needs You storybook illustrated by street artist Kleemu.
I spoke to Standen ahead of the launch event about the future of fashion, the importance and fun of collaboration, and changing people's habits and attitudes...
What criteria do designers have to meet in order to become part of Alterist?
It's by application or invitation. For us to really challenge the mainstream fashion industry, we have to make sure that there is a level of quality and also transparency. Coming from the activist world, making sure we're not green-washing is really important because we want upcycling to become mainstream.
What would you say are the most significant environmental and social impacts of fast fashion?
Of the 100 billion garments produced each year, 92 million tonnes end up in landfills and less than 1% of material used to produce clothing is recycled into new clothing at the end of its life.
I think a lot of the industry focuses on forward thinking, so in 10 years we're going to have this new material that's going to be fully biodegradable, or in 10 years we're going to be able to recycle this stuff. It doesn't focus on what is happening now.
Upcycling is about creativity and design. It's about using design principles and looking at something and then reworking it in its current form. Also, by extending a garment’s life by just nine months, it can cut its carbon, water and waste footprint by up to 30%.
One thing we found from our activist background is that when you're calling on people to change their habits, people don't want to be shamed or made to feel guilty. If you can show them that upcycling is really cool, that you're supporting independent brands, you're reducing your carbon footprint, and you still get to look good, it has way more of an impact.
From being involved in activism to starting your business, do you feel that there's been a shift in habits or behaviour?
When we talk about upcycling, it's something that has been around forever. It's been around for centuries, such as being a necessity through war, and there are also incredible designers like Orsola de Castro who was doing upcycling in the 90s.
But, I think there has been a stigma around secondhand clothing. While we like to think that people shop upcycled or sustainable first, I think it is supporting independent brands over mass-produced items and the individuality of the garments which maybe factor first over sustainability.
How would you encourage people to engage with their friends and family about upcycling?
You've just got to speak to people and invite them along to events. We do lots of workshops where you can learn the skills. We did an event at Selfridges last year where people brought something from their wardrobe and watched the designers upcycling in real life.
The same way as when you see an artist put all their time and effort into the art, you appreciate it and you value it more. We try to do that with fashion as well, putting the makers at the centre, seeing their creativity and the work that goes into it, because when you see that you have an emotional connection to it.
Some say people say that sustainable fashion is too expensive. How would you respond to this?
Fast fashion for some people is a necessity, but sustainable fashion doesn't have to be exclusive. I think there is a misconception that sustainable fashion is always more expensive and there are a lot of designers who are really working to make their stuff affordable.
We run workshops where you can bring something from your wardrobe and the designers upcycle it which brings down the price point, as well as learning the skills to do it yourself.
We're also paying designers fairly for their work, which is what we need to start doing. You wouldn't work for £2 an hour, so why would you expect a designer to work for £2 an hour? In the classic words of Vivienne Westwood, 'Buy well, choose well, make it last'.
The average Brit will only wear half their wardrobe in any given year, meaning so much of what you're buying is just sitting in the wardrobe. If you can go to a fast fashion company and buy 10 items, why don't you just pick something that you really love and you cherish instead?
If you buy something that you really love from a small brand, you're more likely to wear it, because you know the time and effort that went into creating it. I think we need to change people's habits and our attitudes.
Are there policies that you think government could introduce to limit the damage of fast fashion or to play a part in changing habits?
The EU government has the extended responsibility legislation where brands are becoming financially responsible for when they overproduce. I think that probably needs to be strengthened, because the idea that large brands can just overproduce and just dump it on the global south, or they could incinerate it, just isn't right.
The carbon footprint of every garment is massive, and we need to make sure that those resources that have been extracted are used for as long as possible, so anyone who takes advantage of that needs to be held accountable for it financially and publicly.
You have said that for the industry to become fully sustainable, collaboration is key.
Could you tell me about some of your favourite collaborations?
We've worked with a baby brand where they bought back the baby suits at the end of their life, because kids go through them so quickly, and we turned it into a line of headbands and hats.
We've worked with Re-London, where we created tote bags to go into schools. I think the collaborations where we work with schools are really nice, because if we can teach them and show them how cool it is to have this unique, sustainable piece at a really young age, we can really change those habits well into adulthood.
We also did a workshop for Re-London to kick off Repair Week with one of our designers, Cabo. She uses eyelets and metal hardware to shape and alter silhouettes. So you take a blank white t-shirt, and then use eyelets to adjust the silhouette or to make it tighter, to cinch it. It's about showing how something like an oversized white t-shirt with a little bit of manipulation can become something that you love and wear and wear again.
There's so many ways that you can upcycle so we're constantly trying to put on different workshops that invite people to come, to learn and to reimagine their clothes. We've got a really exciting collaboration coming up where we're reworking sportswear into a collection which we'll hopefully be launching later this year!
Can you tell me about your most recent collaboration, the Traid x Alterist x OPNY upcycled T-shirt collection?
Using pre-loved garments recovered through Traid’s donation network, we turned second-hand T-shirts into a new series of prints inspired by the Our Planet Needs You (OPNY) storybook illustrated by street artist Kleemu.
OPNY go into schools and run workshops with students about sustainability which are all about raising awareness and encouraging the next generation to rise up for climate action.
As part of the t-shirt collaboration, OPNY ran workshops with students to come up with their own designs. The idea was to encourage children from a young age to understand how to shop sustainably and to use their own creativity. One of the prints from the final collection was designed by a student during one of these workshops.
We're running a launch event at Traid's store where attendees can choose a blank t-shirts and pick their favourite design, which will then be printed on their t-shirt and shipped to their door. So they pick the blank that fits or suits them, the colour, the print, and then we upcycle it and ship it to them.
What is your vision and hope for the future of fashion?
It would be amazing if we can start to build an ecosystem where nothing ends up as waste, where everything has a purpose. Hopefully, we can make upcycling a really cool part of the ecosystem that reduces waste.
Coming back to the idea that collaboration is key, there are a lot of different elements that need to come together to make that happen. So reuse, recycling, upcycling, and material innovation all play a really key part in making sure that we can do that.
Fashion is one of the biggest polluters. It's something that is also a necessity for humans, we need clothes and it's part of our way of life, so it's about finding a way that we can still enjoy that. We can still love fashion but do it in a way where we're not harming the planet.
By Eveline Vouillemin ©
You can visit the Alterist website here to discover their designers and to check out their brand new t-shirt collaboration.
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