In an industry that is feeding us fashion with ever increasing speed it has become all the more important to regularly take a step back, question, and re-think the structures and habits so ingrained into our shopping habits – just as Cheap Monday does with its C/O Cheap Monday (read: Care of Cheap Monday) collections, which can be described as sustainability hubs allowing the Swedish jeans expert to explore and expand the intersections of fashion and an ethical approach to both production and usage. Fittingly, for its just released C/O Cheap Monday 2018 collection the brand looked to one of this year’s key reference points when it comes to clothing: workwear.
As thousands of workwear items get discarded every year despite being in still wearable condition, Cheap Monday made it their task to upcycle these garments, introducing them into a fashion context and thus enabling a second life for the now highly coveted pieces. Apart from the environmental benefits this sustainable approach entails – the process saves on virgin materials, climate emissions, water and chemical use – it also pushes further the conversation around recycling clothing and viewing these items as a treasure rather than a disposable commodity. A mind-set Cheap Monday shares with Re:Textile, a project by Science Park Borås focusing on developing structures for circular processes and redesign in the textile industry – and the brand’s partner for the new C/O Cheap Monday collaboration.
Accompanying the release of the capsule collection is a short documentary, offering a glimpse behind the scenes of the project and the Cheap Monday headquarters by following Carl Malmgren, Creative Director at Cheap Monday, as he takes the viewer through the different steps of the collaboration. “To constantly work towards a more sustainable future is very important to us,” Malmgren explains. “With this C/O Cheap Monday collection, we discovered a significant source of garments that would otherwise be discarded as trash.” Get a first impression of the documentary below – or watch the full version here.
