Green Fashion: Reclothing Bank puts recycling and re-use in style

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"Out with the old, in with the new" has long been the mantra of the fashion industry. But in this era of recycling and reusing, old unwanted products can make quite the fashion statement. CGTN's Sun Ye visited a designer studio which turns the used and wasted, into the coveted.

The usual trappings of a fashion design studio.

But Zhang Na, the mastermind behind the Shanghai-based brand Reclothing Bank, has built her career on the unusual.

Using materials wasted and discarded by the industry, including used clothes, she says she has been mounting her rebellion against the system.

ZHANG NA RECLOTHING BANK "I'm in an industry that moves so fast, season after season. And then there is fast fashion. I have seen piles of leftover clothing dumped out. And I want to design, actually re-design the used and give them new life."

She started almost ten years ago, at first working with donated second-hand clothing.

And now, she goes one step further back, using actual refuse for raw material.

ZHANG NA RECLOTHING BANK "Many don't realize that you can actually keep costs down with recycled materials, while also keeping your carbon emissions down."

What Reclothing Bank rolls out is not cheap.

And that's part of Zhang's design concept.

ZHANG NA RECLOTHING BANK "We hope the good design and the quality will win over buyers, who will NOT let go of the clothes again."

She says the idea has been taking hold as her clienteles have changed from those with "a high sense of social responsibility" to people from all walks of life, and across China.

For example, one thousand kilometers away in Beijing, fashion aficionado Wang Yuting says the green concept is the icing on the cake.

WANG YUTING "I'm first attracted to the design, especially these prints. I really like the collars. And then I learned about the sustainability behind it, and that's a plus."

Zhang has bigger visions too.

She hopes one day, Reclothing Bank will bankroll the basic necessities of life to become all sustainable and lovable.

SY, CGTN, BJ.