Upcycling at Hast: common sense in the service of responsibility
On an international scale, the impact of the textile industry is a social, health and environmental tragedy. Behind this disaster? Careless raw-material production, the polluting and energy-intensive processing of fibres, the transport of finished products, garment care and, finally, waste.
At Hast, this situation saddens us as much as it alarms us, which is why we have made the firm choice to place responsibility at the heart of our identity.
Since 2012, we have favoured natural and recycled raw materials, worked with European partners and made durable, timeless garments locally. When it comes to waste, we have chosen upcycling to make use of fabric offcuts from the production of our pieces, and this is the process to which we devote today’s article.
The life cycle of the products in question
As a brand, we consider the question of a creation’s life cycle absolutely crucial. Indeed, it is impossible to claim eco-design if the journey of a garment is not known, controlled and optimised.
First and foremost, it is important to bear in mind the path common to all textiles (with the exception of the sixth phase, which is more unpredictable):
Source: reseauethique.org
To be credible, any ambition for responsible production must be accompanied by measures to reduce the impact of each of these stages. At Hast, this thinking has informed our strategy for more than ten years, and we strive to prove it to you every day. For example:
- We have reached 100% natural and/or recycled materials in our collections (most often organic and certified).
- We produce 95% in the European Union.
- We strive to reduce our CO2 emissions as much as possible by producing as close to demand as we can, using ever more responsible methods.
- We were the first French brand to use compostable packaging and recycled cardboard.
- We have introduced recycling collection points in our shops so that our customers can drop off unused pieces (Hast or otherwise) to be transformed into recycled fabric. The aim is to encourage circularity.
In short, and while cultivating a genuine passion for fine clothing, we aspire to make our own as thoughtfully as possible. Upcycling naturally forms part of that commitment.
Upcycling, a definition
To be completely transparent, the manufacturing stage always results in some material loss. In practice, we cut pieces of fabric/knitwear from panels of cloth, then assemble them to give shape to garments, inevitably leaving a few remnants. Upcycling is precisely the reclassification of these remnants.
In practice, we reuse these offcuts to make other pieces, avoiding waste while maximising the use of the premium materials we select. As a result, the quality of the upcycled product is in no way diminished: it is the same resource, simply reassigned to another purpose.
Unlike recycling, which consists of processing waste to recover its material and make a new item, upcycling is more a matter of “reuse”.
Let us take a concrete example: melting down and remoulding a glass bottle to turn it into a jam jar is recycling. Using an empty glass bottle to make a vase or candleholder is upcycling (or, in French, “surcyclage”).
Put simply, recycling concerns the reuse of a product’s material, while upcycling focuses on enhancing the product itself.
Upcycling according to Hast
At Hast, we see in this art of repurposing a way of combining the useful with the pleasurable. To combat waste and unlock the full potential of existing materials, we have made several commitments to upcycling:
- First of all, we use the fabric offcuts from our shirts to make our boxer shorts. In two-ply poplin, twill or Oxford, you will find exceptionally luxurious underwear with absolute comfort. Nothing is lost, everything is transformed.
- Then, we sometimes find exactly what we are looking for among suppliers of so-called “dead stock” fabrics. Leftovers from former collections, these rolls of material constitute dormant stock and can sometimes conceal genuine treasures. For the capsule collection released for our 10th anniversary, for instance, we found our red selvedge at Nona Source, the resale platform for exceptional materials from the Houses of the LVMH group (Louis Vuitton, Dior, Céline, Givenchy, Loro Piana, Loewe, Fendi, Givenchy…). A way of making the finest materials accessible to you without using a single gram of CO2 in their manufacture. For the least polluting fabric is the one that already exists. In this spirit, we intend to repeat the experience to make certain pieces in the future.
- Finally, we donate our unsold stock to charities such as AIDES or the Solidarity Tie, a collective that facilitates access to formal clothing for people seeking employment.
Moreover, other forms of upcycling exist and strike us as interesting, even if we do not yet use them (in-store repair services, creating patchwork garments, sharing “Do it yourself” content, etc.). With the modesty and humility that have characterised our eco-design approach since 2012, we are likely to explore them in the near future to refine our model, with the unchanged ambition of controlling our impact and optimising the use we make of our materials.
Thoughtfulness at the heart of our ambitions
At the time of writing, the textile sector is one of the most polluting in the world, accounting on its own for 4% of the planet’s available drinking water, emitting more than one billion tonnes of greenhouse gases annually and enabling the consumption of 130 billion garments every year.
Fast, disposable and broadly thoughtless, fashion has disastrous social and environmental consequences. For Hast, committed since its creation to a greener, more responsible industry, working to improve every stage in a garment’s life cycle is not optional. Alongside the care we devote to considered production, upcycling is a relevant way to manage our material stocks and enhance their offcuts.
Truth be told, it is a method we like so much that we are increasingly seriously considering a 100% upcycled capsule collection. On that note, we advise you to keep your eyes open: it is a project that could come to life sooner than you think…
