Patchwork Into Craftwork

Hieu Tran is an occasional contributing writer to Ten Pretty Girls, freelancing and living in San Francisco. Today he explains repurposed clothes, a trend first brought into the high fashion world by Imitation of Christ and continued today by designers like Garimpo+Fuxique that's likely to become more popular as we sink deeper into a depression. Here's Hieu's take on how the regular guy or girl can do it at home:

Sewing is my embarrassing feat. A guy like myself has as good of a chance at launching a space shuttle into orbit as he does stitching anything together properly with needle and thread. This is not from lack of trying. I’ve picked up the tools of the sewing trade before—oh yes—to darn that sock that was holding together by only three molecules after years of wear and tear, and, in my able hands, it miraculously became a sweater with three arms. Houdini, eat your heart out. You don’t even want to know what I did with my warhorse underwear. Think tinseled purse.

But with the stock market now dropping faster than Bill Clinton’s pants, and with our environment critically plundered, I’ve just realized that my seamster ability is no longer a topic of ridicule but a skill that may one day propel me into becoming a brilliant fashionisto. That’s right, my consistently multi-colored patchwork outcomes are the future of fashion. Possibly.

Repurposed clothing, the name for my ingenious mistakes, has been around for as long as I know. Coming from a fairly frugal family, my great-grandmother used to be able to turn a t-shirt into a pouch or an old sweater into a wool hat if she were ever so inclined. And even the smaller projects were just as good. She could sew different buttons onto a shirt and redesign the sleeves, and the whole thing would take on a different look. I’m not as gifted to be able to make an article of clothing fit with a planned vision as she did, but if I can turn a sock into a sweater with three arms, that’s a new sweater all the same, right?

But seriously, there are great benefits from repurposing clothes. Firstly, we are helping the environment by reducing the need to collect raw materials to make new clothes. Secondly, we are reducing the amount of trash we’re throwing out, since we wouldn’t be throwing out our old clothes. Thirdly, we can create clothes to our own design. And fourthly, and most importantly, we’re saving ourselves a whole pile of shiny pennies—pennies that were once nothing more than sacrificial offerings for the wish fountain god, but in this economy, are looking a bit more valuable every day.

As for getting the materials needed to repurpose your next fashion masterpiece, if you don’t have the patterns you need for the upcoming marvel on the drawing board in your head, you may shop around on a budget. You could shop those serendipitous garage sales, or go to thrift stores, or even get together with friends and trade fabric. It’ll be like a Christmas gift exchange, but instead of passing around a vintage fruitcake, you can get rid of any garments you don’t want. And you won’t even have to feel embarrassed when you show off your previous taste in clothing, because everyone else there will feel just as embarrassed about the items they’re trying to get rid of.

There are many examples of repurposed clothing out there for us to look at. Many people are proud to show off their latest and crazy inventions. They range from poor (my tinseled purse) to good to outstanding. It all comes down to your eye for fashion and your skill with the needle. With a little practice, I might be able to get close to the good range in quality. But, what I’ve already achieved is being smart. At this time, and possibly far into the future, repurposing your clothes is no longer a necessity due to empty wallets or a bizarre personal statement from artsy people. It is a practical measure we can take to help ourselves and, in some small way, the world.

And even though I didn’t really turn my old sock into a three-armed sweater or my warhorse underwear into a tinseled purse, I know that even with my current sewing skills, I could patch up something not too laughable, perhaps with a bit of expert hand-holding the first couple of tries. But this is coming from a guy who could barely sew the straps back onto his backpack as a kid. Sewing on a few new buttons, as my great-grandmother did, shouldn’t be too hard. I’m sure I could turn an ugly sweater into a more tolerable scarf if I wanted to. The great thing about repurposing clothing, especially for a guy like myself, is that it’s not too difficult. And if I mess up, no big loss, since I was going to get rid of the article of clothing anyway.

Yes, repurposing clothing rewards even my sewing skills. For all my seemingly disastrous attempts at repairing my clothes, for all the mutant garments that have spawned from my hands, for all the bells and whistles that I am capable of stringing onto my jeans, my ability to sew has become my genius. It should be yours, too.