The second-hand industry creates rag. It's the clothes that can't be sold due to defects like a stains, rips, broken zips, etc. These items in turn get sold by the kilo to textile recyclers and becomes a source of income.
Rag Bags
In our industry, donated items that are slightly damaged end up as ‘Rag’ and is often dumped in developing countries - out of sight and out of mind.
At Re-Fashion we sort our ‘Rag’ into themes and offer them to the upcycling community as ‘Rag Bags'. With their skills they can create original items from these fabric scraps.
What is Rag?
What happens to Rag?
Textile recyclers will sort, grade and transport the UK's rag to developing countries - part of a £2.8bn second-hand garment trade that spans the globe.
A lot of the countries receiving our rag have become discerning consumers who would rather get quality second-hand clothes instead of our cast-offs. But we keep sending it to them.
What happens to this excess rag? To be honest we don't know? It's out of sight, out of mind and has become someone else's problem.
Upcycled Magic
We don't want our rag sent halfway around the world to countries that don't really need it. Instead, we want to get it in the hands of upcyclers, fashion students, and makers... in fact anyone who can turn rags to riches.