A Reflection Through Fashion Upcycling by Rachael Cassar (Hardback)

£145.00
Available
Product Ref. (e.g. ISBN, SKU)
9781032906133
Published:
19 Nov 2025
Format:
Hardback
Number of pages:
290 pages
Dimensions:
234mm
Weight:
0.000kgs
Author:
A Reflection Through Fashion Upcycling: The Archive in Pieces stands as a seminal work at the intersection of fashion studies, material culture, and sustainability discourse. This book is essential reading for scholars, researchers, and practitioners alike, and perfect for fashion enthusiasts.
A Reflection Through Fashion Upcycling: The Archive in Pieces stands as a seminal work at the intersection of fashion studies, material culture, and sustainability discourse. Authored by a distinguished award-winning practitioner, this groundbreaking text offers a richly detailed examination of fashion upcycling through a historical and material culture lens.At its core, the book transcends the traditional confines of sustainable fashion discourse by delving into the profound complexities of reuse and material culture. Drawing from a curated archive of garments dating from the late 19th to early 20th centuries, it traces the symbolic and tactile journey of deconstructing clothing and repurposing through contemporary design. The book's originality lies in its synthesis of academic research and studio practice, positioning fashion upcycling as an intellectual and ethical act. By recontextualising garments through experimental design, it offers fresh insight into the potential of upcycling as a means of historical preservation, critical inquiry, and cultural storytelling. The author combines rigorous scholarship, studio-based experimentation, and intimate engagement with historical artefacts to uncover layered narratives embedded within textiles. By challenging narrow interpretations of sustainable fashion, the work presents upcycling as a nuanced dialogue between past and present, ethics and aesthetics, materiality and meaning. Through its interdisciplinary approach and meticulous scholarship, it charts a path towards a more considered, sustainable and conscientious future for the fashion industry.Bridging design, history, practice and ecological awareness, A Reflection Through Fashion Upcycling offers a rigorous yet accessible examination of fashion upcycling as a site of intellectual inquiry and ethical engagement - making it essential reading for scholars, researchers, and practitioners alike, and perfect for fashion enthusiasts and anyone intrigued by stories woven into fabric.

About the Author: Rachael Cassar is a pioneering upcycler designer and a Lecturer at University of Technology Sydney. Her work merges sustainability with high-end fashion, challenging fast fashion and embracing creative reuse. Her research interests are rooted in a long-standing commitment to fashion and sustainability, shaped by her extensive experience designing exclusively with archival fashion, textiles and accessories. Since 2006, Rachael has pioneered the integration of 'upcycling' as a core methodology within fashion, creating high end fashion from discarded garments and enhancing students' understanding of sustainable design principles. Internationally recognised, she champions a future where fashion is both environmentally conscious and artistically expressive.

More Information
Number of pages 290

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