Up-Wonder merges fashion, experiential education and entertainment with a zero waste approach.
It is a system to up-cycle clothes, a multi-sensorial experience where the attendees are part of a live performance with paint. As a result, all their clothes are renewed and acquire a symbolic image of co-creation, sustainability and beauty.
It is a proposal that not only tackles the waste issue, but also educates, entertains and empowers people from all walks of life to be part of the solution.
National
Germany
At the moment, we are implementing the project in Berlin. However, our intention is to scale it up to other cities and countries.
Mainly urban
It refers to other types of transformations (soft investment)
No
No
Yes
As individual(s) in partnership with organisation(s)
First name: Claudia Last name: Cunha Gender: Female Please describe the type of organization(s) you work in partnership with: Berliner StadtMission, Textilehafen - Social organization that receives more than 10 tones of donated clothes every week
Social Circus School Cabuwazi Altglienicke - Promotes inclusion among children/teenagers from refugee camps or in risk of social exclusion
Zero Waste Berlin Festival - Creates awareness and showcases solutions for a zero waste life
Meet The Good Ones - Youtube channel that promotes local projects with positive impacts in society
Nationality: Portugal Function: Founder and creative director Address (country of permanent residence for individuals or address of the organisation)<br/>Street and number: TempelherrenStrasse, 20 Town: Berlin Postal code: 10961 Country: Germany Direct Tel:+4915780808073 E-mail:hello@up-wonder.com Website:https://up-wonder.com
What?
Up-Wonder is a system to up-cycle clothes through an experiential learning process.
Why?
1. Because there are many garments used only a few times that end up in the landfill.
2. The high price of eco clothes makes them a niche solution.
3. The deep sense of unhappiness, often fulfilled through overconsumption
4. The waste of resources on ephemeral joy.
How?
Organising events where participants learn about textile waste on the personal, local and global level, raising awareness in a practical and positive way. After having firsthand contact with the textile situation, we give every participant the chance to take an active role towards the solution, inviting them to participate in an artistic performance with paint that will up-cycle their used clothes, creating a symbolic relationship with the garments and consequently increasing their lifespan.
At the practical level, clothes will be up-cycled while people relax and have fun.
At the semantic level, Up-Wonder evoques a reborn idea where used garments come alive and acquire a new value, a new beginning. We want to emphasize the idea that every individual is a unique masterpiece and together we can shape society in a positive way.
For Who?
1. Individuals that need a sense of belonging-to-the-group and bonding-with-others experiences.
2. Eco conscientious citizens that want to be part of the solution.
3. Society in general, to raise awareness about textile waste.
Where?
1. In companies, to develop eco-awareness and skills such as assertive communication and teamwork through team-building activities.
2. In highschools and universities, to create eco awareness and promote inclusion among students, also tackling questions about self-confidence and self-expression.
3. In organisations that deal with textile waste and want to increase the public awareness about the topic.
When?
We are ready to organise events in Berlin and able to apply the same methodology all over Europe.
Co-creation of beauty
Joyful awareness
Belonging - bonding together
Experiential education
Multidisciplinarity
1. Reduce existent waste by up-cycling garments, creating new with the old:
We envisioned a system to up-cycle clothes that can be tailored to local cultural specificities and be applied all over the world, using paint in an artistic manner to renew all types of fabrics, both with natural and synthetic fibers.
2. Prolonging the lifetime of our clothes:
According to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, clothes are used on average only seven times before being discarded. Up-Wonder is a multidisciplinary experience that will bring new joy to our wardrobe, creating an emotional connection with our clothes. By providing people with opportunities to learn about and experience the issue of textile waste firsthand, we can help them to understand the negative consequences of overconsumption and take steps to reduce their own textile waste.
3. Optimize the use of resources, inspiring new consumption models:
Making a single cotton shirt requires 2.700 liters of fresh water. By using only 200 ml of water we are able to up-cycle an old shirt, giving it a new symbolic value. Our process avoids the waste of all the resources applied to initially produce the garment, but also the consumption of resources to produce a new one.
1. Experiential education method to raise awareness:
Through all the process we guide the curiosity of participants and feed them with information without being overwhelming.
The first step is a journey of self-examination, where a participant searches for clothes to up-cycle on their own wardrobe, raising questions such as: How many clothes do I have? Do I need them all? Do I prefer to buy a new garment, why is that? Where can I find second hand clothes?
2. Playful artistic approach that mixes entertaining and art-therapeutic techniques:
The experience welcomes people from different backgrounds, allowing them to free their inner-child, playing with paints while interacting with the other participants, performers and dance therapists.
They arrive at the event as individuals and leave as a group, connected by the experience, having their up-cycled clothes as a symbol of this unity.
3. Metaphor about life, demonstrating that each one of us is a masterpiece:
During the paint performance we co-create an abstract pattern that reflects on our clothes, the movements and interactions. We want to illustrate that every individual action has an effect on us and on our surroundings. The end result will likely not be what each initially envisions, but it will still be something beautiful, useful and unique, that can be dressed up as a masterpiece.
People that participate in our events say they want to keep their up-cycled clothes forever because they are a symbol of a moment of happiness and hope.
1. Human centered design:
Our approach considers the planet situation, people's needs and product possibilities.
Reducing textile waste is paramount but, at the same time, it is important to understand and find ways to fulfil the necessity of excitement and happiness that buying new garments often provides. We use entertainment techniques to make up-cycling fun, bringing a new meaning to used clothes, they become a symbol of joy, creativity, self expression and belonging.
2. Co-creation:
Our co-creation process encourages everybody to be part of the solution. Without requiring specific craft skills, we allow people to have fun while building relationships with each other and bringing new life to old clothes.
3. Accessibility:
We want to allow sustainable clothes to be mainstream and for that, we created a system that makes up-cycling clothes a cultural activity accessible to the general public. For a fraction of the price for a new four piece outfit, we provide a full experience to renew clothes, connect with people and have fun while saving the planet.
Our main goals are raising awareness about the textile waste and making sustainable products appealing and accessible. Because of that, citizens and civil society are at the center of our proposal.
We can’t blame people for the overconsumption. Instead, we need to understand what is the motivation behind that behavior and address it in a positive way. Many people buy new clothes because they need excitement and a boost of self-confidence. By combining experiential education and entertainment techniques, we fulfill those needs inspiring a more conscious behavior towards their personal needs and the planet.
Our solution creates new garments without producing them. By doing so, we cut materials, supply chain and transportation costs. Consequently, we can invest the resources into the customer experience. People will participate in a cultural and entertainment activity, and their clothes will be renewed effortlessly. By adding a new, symbolic value to these up-cycled garments, we are amplifying their usable lifetime.
While developing our project, we took into consideration the EU strategy for sustainable and circular textiles, because we want to join efforts and make sustainable products the norm.
We talked with local stakeholders, namely Berliner StadtMission, and were informed about the huge donations of clothes they receive - more than 10 tons of textiles per week only in Berlin. Most of the clothes are not in good condition; however, they still need to be sorted and the organization has to find a solution for them. They created a material pool from where Up-Wonder sources some garments to up-cycle.
During the year 2022, we proved the concept to be needed and well accepted by the general public in four events and with different local organizations in Berlin.
We created a show with the youth group from Cabuwazi Social Circus School - Altglienicke. We teamed up with the Zero Waste Berlin Festival to up-cycle used clothes that were used as the staff uniforms. And more recently, we collaborated with the Youtube channel “Meet The Good Ones”, in an event that connected 20 people involved in positive projects for society.
Now, after exposing the project to 45 participants, up-cycling around 120 garments with only 23 liters of water and seeing the project acceptance in Berlin, we are confident that we are ready to expand and start conversations with national and European stakeholders involved in textile waste management.
In order to create a successful and inclusive experience, we explored many different disciplines such as design, psychology, experiential learning, scenic performance, dance, art-therapie, music, entertainment, photography and video making.
Each discipline brought their own unique perspective and expertise to the table, which helped to create a well-rounded and holistic initiative. By researching and consulting different experts, we were able to create an experience that is not only visually appealing and engaging, but also provides a sense of healing and empowerment to the participants.
During the concept phase, fashion, system and human-centered design were key methodologies to understand the situation and society’s needs.
The experience itself is a mix of entertainment, experiential education and art-therapy techniques, materialized artistically in a performance of dance, movement and sound.
On the communication level, we apply graphic design, photography and video to give a face to what we do, making sure that our messages are accessible and inspiring.
If our starting point is to reduce or avoid the production of new garments and the consequent waste, we can attain it through repair, up-cycling or the second hand market.
Repairing old garments is time consuming and implies handcrafting skills, along with knowledge of fabrics, dying and sewing processes.
The upcycling solutions available in the market tend to be very niche oriented, with small and hard to scale productions. The end products normally have a “DIY” look that is not very stylish.
The second hand market is a bucket of surprises. Buying online means that you can’t be sure about the clothes conditions and size-fitting, the process is not intuitive and you risk losing money and time. Brick and mortar shops are usually messy and unappealing, as it can be hard to find what we are looking for, when we need it and in good conditions.
Up-Wonder merges fashion, experiential education and entertainment with a zero waste approach.
The result is a proposal that not only tackles the waste issue but also educates, entertains and empowers people from all walks of life to be part of the solution.
Up-Wonder was designed as an experiential education tool and an up-cycling system to be replicated all over the world.
The main structure of the event can be directly transferred to other places and, in collaboration with local partners, we can adjust the up-cycling performance in order to meet cultural interaction rules and include traditional elements like music and dance.
Up-Wonder - the exciting way of being conscious - is a methodology to inform, guide reflection, co-create a solution and inspire action.
1. Objective
Raise awareness about textile waste, overconsumption and promote up-cycling.
2. Preparation
Stimulate self-analysis - find clothes to upcycle in your own wardrobe.
Search for local information - if you don't have clothes to up-cycle where can you find them?
Share with the group - ask colleagues for advice.
3. Activity
Playful experience with paint.
Dance and movement therapy techniques.
Exercises to create bonds among the participants.
4. Reflection
Create a metaphor about life and interpersonal connections.
What is the meaning of a stain of paint?
How did my movements affect/paint myself and others?
The four F’s of Dr. Roger Greenaway: Facts - what happened? Feelings - how did I feel? Findings - what did I learn? Future - what will I do?
5. Applicability / results
Act upon the new knowledge - conscious use of clothes.
Use the up-cycled garments - “dress up the solution”.
Feeling more connected with the other participants.
Sense of belonging, excitement of being part of the solution.
6. Social engagement
Share pictures wearing the up-cycled garments.
1. Huge consumption of textiles
Represents the fourth highest impact on the environment and climate change. According to the EU Strategy for Sustainable and Circular Textiles we have to act now.
2. Too many garments used only a few times
According to Ellen MacArthur Foundation it is common for garments to be discarded after just seven to ten wears. In addition, less than 1% of clothing materials are recycled into new garments, representing a loss of more than 100 billion euros worth of materials each year.
3. High price of eco clothes. Is It a real value or greenwashing?
A survey performed by Nosto in the UK and US revealed that while a large number of consumers desire sustainable products, only few people are willing to pay extra for them.
4. Waste of resources on ephemeral joy
Typically, people impulse buy what makes them feel good or has emotional value. Scientists tell us that this happens because such items help us to feel better about ourselves and temporarily reduce our unhappy thoughts and self doubt.
Since the beginning of 2022 we:
1. Worked on the business plan, with market benchmarking and implementation strategies.
2. Had a pilot with three dancers interacting and improvising with paint.
3. Collaborated with the Circus Cabuwazi and co-created a show with their “youth group”.
4. Established conversations with Berliner StadtMission - they receive more than 10 tons of clothes every week - to up-cycle garments from their material pool.
5. Began a partnership with Zero Waste Berlin Festival, with a team building activity to create the staff uniforms.
6. Presented the brand at the Zero Waste Berlin Festival.
7. Launched a website and Instagram page.
8. Performed an event in collaboration with the Youtube channel “Meet The Good Ones”.
So far we held 4 events, with 45 participants, 5 hours of fun, where we spent 23 liters of water and up-cycled around 120 garments.
The feedback is extremely positive. People love the experience and they leave the events more conscious about the impact of their purchases and actions. On the other hand, the up-cycled clothes are very eye-catching and appealing to the general public. We are often enquired about where the up-cycled clothes are available to be purchased.
During 2023 we want to start conversations with local and European organizations that deal with the textile waste, to better understand their needs and how we can adjust, grow and increase our sustainable impact benefiting a broader audience.
Additionally, we want to organize events on a regular basis, starting as team-building activities for companies.
From the project side, Up-Wonder reflects our own take on “envisioning sustainable futures” where we considered all 12 sustainable competencies, with special emphasis on: exploratory thinking, systems thinking and problem framing.
On the implementation side, we want the participants of our events to mainly develop the following competencies:
Valuing sustainability - Enabling participants to reflect on their way of thinking, and their actions.
Systems thinking - We provide a space to reflect on the consequences of their actions on a local, national and global level.
Critical thinking - Opportunity to reflect on how personal, social and cultural backgrounds influence thinking and conclusions.
