Owners of a sustainable fashion boutique, Trad Collective in Headingley, are turning abandoned tents from Leeds Festival into clothing and accessories.
Their aim is to give new life to discarded festival gear.
In the aftermath of the annual bash held at Bramham Park, hundreds of tents, along with clothing, sleeping bags, and various camping gear were left behind.
James Fenwick and Josefin Wanner, owners of Trad Collective, have embarked on an upcycling mission, repurposing the salvaged materials to prevent them from ending up in landfill sites across the country.
Mr. Fenwick expressed his commitment to utilising the discarded fabric to create “useful things”.
He stated, “I think Leeds fest do a great job by inviting people to collect this stuff, but there’s always stuff left over which ends in landfill so it’s not a completely solved problem.
“If we can get to a point where they’re not putting stuff in landfill and everything was either reused, recycled or upcycled that would be ideal.”
The surplus material is given a fresh lease on life by Josefin, Mr. Fenwick’s partner, who ingeniously redesigns and repurposes it. These transformed items are then made available for purchase in their store.
To date, Miss Wanner has successfully upcycled enough material to create several bags, with further plans to craft coats for both humans and their four-legged doggy companions!
Miss Wanner emphasized the accessibility of sustainable fashion, stating, “Sustainable fashion can be expensive, but it can also be cheap. If you have a shirt lying around with a hole in it it and you haven’t worn it for ages, it can be repaired by us much cheaper than going to the high street and buying a new one.”
You can visit their website here.