Words by Smiley Team
In her final year studying fine art in London, Inga Tilda was rummaging through her wardrobe one day when she came across an old pair of jeans she hadn’t worn in a while. Like most students, she was short of cash to buy new clothes, and in those jeans, she saw an opportunity.
“Would they make a woven rug? How about a purse?” Inga wondered. Then she saw a denim bag in a shop that she absolutely loved and she had her answer. Rather than buy the new bag, she would make one herself.
From there, Inga went on to sew progressively more bags, building up a collection and selling them via her Instagram page. As her bag range grew, so did her sense of purpose.
“The whole point of this was not to buy new material ever,” the 25-year-old tells Smiley News. “It had to be repurposed or upcycled because otherwise, it would go against everything I had originally intended it to be.”
By reusing old scraps in this way, she’s conscious of the difference from using new fabrics. Denim, in particular, takes a heavy toll on the environment. The production of just one pair of jeans, using contemporary techniques, requires 1500 gallons of water and metal accessories often make denim clothing difficult to recycle.
The European denim market alone sees about 500 million sales in pairs of jeans every year and, on average, each European owns seven pairs of jeans, two of which are never worn.
Inga’s customers seem to appreciate the environmental impact when they buy her bags. She says: “Even for people who aren’t environmentally conscious, maybe the bags make them think. It opens up a conversation, which is just as important as the piece of work.”
In her bags, people see a uniqueness, simply because they’re handcrafted and not each identical like the mass-produced items you can buy in high street stores.
“It's obvious when you see my Instagram page that it's not selling brand new factory-made items. They’re all one-off pieces,” she says.
She believes that with a little sewing experience, anyone can repurpose their own clothes, just as she’s done. “If you have an old T-shirt, for example, instead of getting rid of it, give it a new lease of life. Maybe you want to keep it as a T-shirt and add some embroidery, or maybe you want to cut it up and make a bag or a little purse,” she suggests.
As the climate crisis becomes an ever-pressing issue, she sees much potential in this alternative source of clothing and accessories for cutting down on waste and emissions from manufacturing processes.
“I still feel like there's a lot to explore with upcycling, and maybe in the future clothes,” she says.
Support Inga through her Instagram page.
