is there anything more frustrating than a faux leather dress jacket or bag
peeling off what do you do with that when it happens
hi everyone I'm Layana an eco stylist
slow fashion ambassador and founder of swap-a-porter
today I'm gonna show you an easy way you can upcycle
anything made of synthetic leather please
hit the like button right now because i am sure this little hack
will blow your mind as it did with mine I have to be honest here before knowing
this trick I was throwing away all my damaged
synthetic leather stuff since they can't be swapped or donated
because they are not in good condition and I believe most of people do the same
which is pretty sad every time I throw clothes away it
breaks my heart because I know deep inside that I am
throwing my money away and polluting the environment with
something that will take ages to decompose when H&M
and other fast fashion brands started collecting textile for recycling
I thought my problems had been solved like this
however when I researched more about recycling technology for textile I
realized that most of clothes cannot be recycled yet
does it mean those brains are cheating us? They are not cheating but they want
us to believe that all the clothes we throw into their
bins have been recycled which is not true. To understand that we
need to know the definition of the word recycling
recycling means converting a material into something of
roughly the same value as it originally was
in fact what they do with most of our clothes
is down cycle down cycling converts the material into something of less value
than it originally was. For example,
they turn most of those damaged clothes into rags
or insulation material. Look I'm not saying that it's bad
in fact it's pretty good at least those clothes have been prevented from going
to the landfill, right? however recycling and upcycling are
better solutions and we should use down cycle as the last
alternative every time you upcycle or recycle an
item you decrease the demand for
manufacturing a new one and as a result, you save energy, precious
natural resources and reduce the release of greenhouse gases and
other toxic substances into the environment
that's why I decided to share with you guys this mind-blowing and easy
technique of how to upcycle anything made of
synthetic leather and stop chucking them into the bin. Are you ready?
let's get started! this bag was not good for wearing again
since it was peeling off what we are gonna do is to scratch the
fake leather using something like scissors to remove all this plastic
layer how easy is it? You only need
some patience and time. In fact, it can be a relaxing time killer you
definitely can do it while watching your favorite series
I learned this trick from another slow fashion ambassador
her instagram is on the screen now if you want to check her out
she's Brazilian like me. What will I do with all this leftover of plastic?
I'll put them together with the clothes I cannot recycle or
cycle and take them to the nearest H&M shop. Ta-dahhh This is ready!
that damaged bag now can be worn again and it looks totally different
it's a brand new bag I decided to remove the buttons
which I can use for other upcycling projects
for example, I fixed this velvet jacket that was missing a button with one of
them and I transformed the back chain handles
into versatile bracelets if I put them together they become a
choke and a handle for the other bag
I hope you guys had enjoyed these ideas and get creative
with your damaged clothes and accessories
let's recap the main takeaways of this video
upcycle and recycle first if it's not possible
then you go for a down cycle. If you love sustainable fashion as
I do please join our online clothing swap community on Instagram
which is swap-a-porter. Yes we exchanged clothes on
Instagram! and don't forget to subscribe to this
channel if you haven't yet to receive much more content like this
see you next time!