Wiltshire students work with Dorothy House to give unwanted clothes a second life

Fashion, textiles and art students from Wiltshire College & University Centre have teamed up with a hospice charity to save unwanted clothes from the recycling bin and transform them into unique garments. 

The one-off, re-born clothes can then be sold in Dorothy House’s shops to raise money, as well as provide valuable learning for the Trowbridge campus students. 

The project, which will involve first and second years studying Level 3 fashion and textiles and first years studying Level 2 art and design, came about after lecturer Helen Chivers heard about Dorothy House’s Threads For Care initiative. 

The charity, which is marking its 50th anniversary, works with designers who upcycle and rework clothes too damaged or of too poor quality to sell in its 30 charity stores. It is only able to sell around 30 per cent of each bag of donated goods and pays more than £70,000 each year to dispose of waste. 

Over the next two months the 42 students will be using the waste clothes, known as rags, to create new pieces, while developing their own creative skills. 

The first year fashion and textiles students will take inspiration from an exhibition at the V&A Museum in London about Marie Antoinette to create high street fashion versions of grandiose party dresses. 

The first year art and design creatives will be presented with bags of ‘rags’ chosen at random from the waste pile at the charity’s Corsham warehouse. They will cut the clothes into strips and then weave, knit or knot the strips into bags – using decorations, pockets and other details to stamp their own personality on them. 

They will also be using their skills and imagination to upcycle denim clothes, transforming them with embroidery, painting or textiles, and adding a personal message. 

The second year fashion and textiles students will use rags to design and create eye-catching outfits that promote sustainability to be modelled on fashion shoots and at a fashion show at the college. 

Helen said, “Threads for Care fits very well with the ethical and sustainable theme that runs through all of our fashion and arts courses. It felt like a natural fit for us because we want to promote sustainability, recycling and the message of fast fashion excess, as well as an ethical responsibility towards society, by giving back and getting involved in a positive way with our community.” 

All of the pieces will be on the catwalk at the fashion show at the college on 18th June, which will also be organised and run by the students. 

Helen said the project gives the students a “golden opportunity.”

She explained, “Being able to take their work out of the classroom and put it in a real world context, where somebody might buy what they make from an actual shop, is something you can’t create within the college environment, so the value of this project is enormous.

“We’re so grateful to Dorothy House for agreeing to it. Working with their team will give it a very different flavour for the students, they’re going to have to respond and manage themselves in a sensible way, so they’re learning lots of very subtle, soft social skills as well.” 

Katy Hancock, Dorothy House Head of Communications, added, “We’re trying to diversify our retail portfolio and hearing the students saying they love our pop-up store at The Shires in Trowbridge is lovely.

“It’s really fantastic, through the Threads for Care brand, to be able to work with creatives within our community seeking to do something really productive with waste and to repurpose, recycle and upcycle it into brand new, bespoke and very individual pieces. 

“It’s lovely for our audiences and our shoppers, but it also helps us in our mission to reduce the amount of clothes going into landfill and lower the costs of having to dispose of unsaleable donations via rag and waste.” 

For more information about fashion courses at WCUC, visit: www.wiltshire.ac.uk. 

Find out more about Dorothy House at dorothyhouse.org.uk. 

Pictured: Wiltshire College & University Centre students sorting waste clothes at Dorothy House’s Corsham warehouse