An eco-friendly fashion brand is paving the way for recyclable clothing by turning tractor tyres and old bouncy castles into clothes.
Broke Boutique, based in Bow, London, saves up to 312kg a year of rubber heading to landfill by creating reworked clothing from odd everyday items.
Inspired by 1970s punk, the fetish fashion company makes chokers, bras, belts and bedroom sets with the recycled rubber.
Owner G Martin, 34, from east London, picks up the materials from a nearby industrial estate in Norfolk, often coated with mud and dust meaning a deep clean is needed before creating the niche garments.
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Some of the more peculiar materials have been tractor inner tubes, tyres and old bouncy castles.
The rubber comes from the material Butyl, which was invented to be long-lasting and durable.
Free from animal products and latex, the material is safe for people to wear.
The company now saves between 3-6kg of rubber from going to landfill every week.
“It’s incredible to think how these tyres and tubes were once used, and now they are designed into the most creative and exciting of garments,” G told Jam Press.
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“The idea came around by chance rather than design. I was already making art and decor from reclaimed materials and someone had given me a huge tractor inner-tube.
“After some weeks of playing with different ideas I crafted a bra top using an old bra pattern that I had laying around.
“When I tried it on, I realised how comfortable and nicely fitted the material was to be made into a garment.
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“Crafting slow-fashion from waste materials, opening minds and seeing people’s faces when they realise what their garment used to be never gets boring.”
G, who is also a carer, says she will continue to do her bit for the planet due to the rising demand for sustainable fashion.
She added: “I think it’s really great that my business is growing because people love the fact that the brand is truly sustainable.
“Millions of very low paid workers are exploited every day to make products that ultimately end up just getting dumped – and roughly 20% of those clothes go unsold.
“The fast fashion industry has got us into the habit of impulse buying cheap clothing that barely gets worn, we then chuck it and it goes to landfill or gets shipped to third world countries, who then have to deal with our waste.
“It’s the cause of 10% of our global carbon emissions.
“I absolutely get why fast fashion exists, there’s lots of people on a small budget and big fast fashion brands offer a quick solution to that problem, but it’s unsustainable and something has got to give.
“So I think it’s important to change our habits, start buying less often but better quality.”
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