by The Knitting Bully

 

Okay, I get that recycling is cool. I get that sustainable reuse is better than disposable goods. And I get that it was only a matter of time before fashion trends became influenced by these tenets. Recent market trends have promoted a marked increase of organic fabrics, yarn recycled from soda bottles, and a slew of repurposed and refashioned garments. The influence of the “green” trend on fashion and textiles is obvious.

 

The reasons behind this recycling trend are multifold: some people are tired of overly excessive consumer industry waste. Others want to do their part for the environment. This has never been more evident than the current in-your-face-and-down-your-throat emphasis on the “green” trend. Environmentally friendly is hip! It’s fashionable to save the planet! Look, we’re all concerned about the state of the world, the environment, too much gasoline, too little water, the hole in the ozone layer, global warming. We all want to do our part to help make the world a better place and reduce, reuse and recycle our resources. While I don’t disagree that being environmentally aware is ever a bad thing, I do think that doing things for the sake of a trend, rather than legitimate reasoning, can lead people astray.

 

I’m all in favor of creative reuse, but the knitwear recycling trend has just gone too far. While I can’t argue against the environmental or budgetary merit of recycling, there is often one area where recycling falls short: style. Yes, recycling is good. It’s certainly better than simply discarding material to end up in a landfill or the bottom of the ocean. But have we thought about what it’s doing to our style?

 

Photo: FashionSyndicatePress.com (from the Spring/Summer 2008 collection of John Galliano)

 Yes, folks, that’s exactly what you think it is: a cardigan being worn as a skirt. Not a cardigan that was too small as a sweater and so was repurposed into a skirt. Not a cardigan made from yarn recycled from other knitted garments. A brand new sweater “recycled” into a skirt. Is this what the recycling trend has come to? When did we leave real repurposing behind in favor of the image?

While high fashion is often lauded as “unwearable,” one would hope the ready-to-wear collections at least should represent their namesake. There is no way that a cardigan masquerading as a skirt is wearable. The over-the-top nod to recycling renders the garment laughably unwearable, contrary to the prêt-a-porter claim. Anyone who disagrees: feel free to submit a photo of yourself wearing a cardigan as a skirt in a public place. I promise not to publicly humiliate you (too much).

 

Don’t be fooled by the images fashion designers are selling you. It’s not about recycling or any other grand principles. It’s about marketing, and selling whatever’s hot. Sure, recycling’s hot now, but as anyone who watches “Project Runway” knows, one day it’s in and the next day it’s out. Be true to yourself, your beliefs, and your style. Don’t follow something simply because it’s what the big name designers are doing. Make sure if you wear a sweater as a skirt that you’re doing it for you. Because I certainly can’t think of any other reason anyone would willingly wrap a cardigan around their lower half.

 

I concede that people’s tastes will always differ. What’s ugly to one person is beautiful to another and all that hoopla. So here’s the thing (and write this on your forehead backwards or on your knitting arm so you keep it in mind): there’s no point in recycling it if you’re not going to wear the finished product. If whatever you make from your reclaimed yarn and felted sweaters is so fugly that you yourself wouldn’t be caught dead in it, then what’s the point?

 

And if the end product never gets worn, then the act of ‘recycling’ to create it actually was more wasteful than just simply discarding the original—waste of time spent in modification, waste of money in buying additional materials to complete the piece, and a waste of the original material, which could have been recycled into something actually useable. Five more minutes of thought, my friends. Make sure that yarn you frogged from that thrift store sweater really is the perfect match for your project. Make sure your overdye is even and your colors suit you. Make sure that the time you invest merits you something worth that investment, because while materials may be recycleable, time isn’t.

 

 

 

The Knitting Bully used to sell crafts made entirely from recycled waste materials, so she knows what she’s talking about. Her rant-filled manifestos will grace MetaPostModernKnitting on a regularly sporadic basis.