New geographies of (re)making: (re)imaginging tools, methods and modes of production through upcycling

This practice-based research explores the transformative potential of textile waste as a catalyst for innovation within upcycling, positioning it as a dynamic collaborator that informs creative processes and challenges the conventional role and use of waste within textile design and sustainable fashion practices. By focusing on pre-consumer sock waste and wool waste sourced from U.K. mills, the study employs a hybrid bricolage approach that combines material-responsive textile experimentation, visual auto-ethnography and Constructed Grounded Theory (CGT) to fuel imaginative creative reuse strategies resulting in an upcycling framework, textile recipes and a re-making textile knowledge system.

Within this context, the research explores metaphorical and material geographies of re making, contributing to a research area within upcycling shaped by experimental methods and the re imagined use of machinery. Drawing on historical practices, the study reimagines older textile machinery as co-creators in upcycling systems, redefining relationships, new roles and uses for existing resources and technology. Central to this investigation is M.E.N.D (Method, Evaluate, Navigate, Design) an upcycling framework and reflective approach aimed at identifying, implementing and assessing upcycling strategies, fostering alternative perspectives on value creation and relationship building through waste.

This study advances upcycling research and practice by reframing waste beyond its conventional role and use as a by-product through systems thinking. It offers new perspectives that support innovation and resource preservation by re-imagining existing tools, methods and machinery. It highlights the invaluable role that upcycling and re-making skills have to offer within current and future sustainable textile and fashion practices.