12 circular fashion brands giving old materials a new life

As Circular Textile Days begins, one of the biggest conversations in fashion is back in focus: what do we do with all the materials that already exist?

For years, sustainability in fashion has often centred around finding “better” new materials. Organic cotton, innovative fibres and lower-impact textiles all have an important role to play, but circular fashion asks a slightly different question. Before producing something new, can we use what is already there?

That question is becoming increasingly important as the fashion industry looks for ways to reduce textile waste and keep materials in use for longer. According to the European Environment Agency, the EU generates millions of tonnes of textile waste every year, while only a relatively small share is recycled back into new clothing.

For independent designers, circularity often happens on a much more practical scale. It can mean taking apart an old blazer, recovering leather from discarded furniture, working with vintage denim or reusing beads from jewellery that would otherwise sit forgotten in a drawer.

At Closet.eco, several of the brands we work with are already doing exactly that. Their approaches are very different, but they all start with the same idea: a material does not have to be new to become something desirable.

ETTA Studio: rethinking denim

Denim is one of those materials that often becomes more interesting with age, which makes it particularly well suited to circular design. ETTA Studio works largely with existing denim, reworking it into new garments rather than automatically starting with newly produced fabric.

Using reclaimed denim also means working with what is available rather than expecting every piece of material to be completely uniform. Different washes, textures and signs of wear become part of the finished garment instead of something that needs to be hidden.

It is a good example of how upcycled fashion can move beyond simply “saving” materials. The existing textile becomes part of the identity of the design.

MUSE UM Concept: putting recycled fabrics back into use

MUSE UM Concept approaches circular fashion through recycled textiles, choosing fabrics that already contain material recovered from previous uses.

Recycled fabric is an important part of the transition towards a more circular textile industry because it reduces the need to depend entirely on virgin resources. It is not a perfect solution on its own, but creating real demand for recycled materials helps make textile-to-textile recycling more viable over time.

For small brands, material choices like these can have a meaningful impact because they influence what suppliers produce and which types of fabrics eventually become easier to source.

thehubag: reclaimed cowhide with a new purpose

Leather is an especially interesting material when we talk about circularity because it is extremely durable. Even when the object it originally belonged to is no longer wanted, the leather itself can often remain usable for many years.

Thehubag works with reclaimed cowhide leather sourced from existing products and materials, including pieces that might otherwise be discarded, and transforms it into new handbags.

This allows the material to remain in use without requiring a completely new hide to be produced for every bag. The variations and marks that come with reclaimed leather also mean that each piece develops its own character rather than looking exactly like the next one.

Recurtain: from old fabrics to clothing

Some of the most interesting materials for circular fashion were never intended to become clothing in the first place.

Curtains, carpets or table cloths are a surprisingly interesting source of material: they often contain large areas of fabric that can remain perfectly usable long after they are removed from a home. Instead of allowing those textiles to become waste, Recurtain treats them as the starting point for a completely new design.

Like many forms of upcycling, the available material also influences what can be created. Rather than ordering unlimited quantities of identical fabric, the designer has to respond to what already exists, making each garment naturally more individual.

It is another reminder that circular fashion is partly about learning to see value where we previously saw waste.

Fenn Atelier: making deadstock desirable

For Fenn Atelier, sustainability is not about making fashion feel restrictive. It is about proving that thoughtful materials and strong design can exist together.

The brand creates handmade clothing and accessories using a mix of upcycled and deadstock materials, giving fabrics that might otherwise remain unused or become waste a new purpose. Rather than treating these materials as a limitation, FENN Atelier uses them as part of the creative process, producing pieces that feel individual precisely because the available fabrics are limited.

What also makes the brand interesting is that it does not stop at selling finished products. FENN Atelier wants to encourage people to think differently about clothing and materials themselves, giving them the tools and inspiration to get creative rather than seeing fashion only as something to consume.

It is a broader view of circular fashion: not only making better use of existing materials, but also helping people see the value in what they already have.

VALALAB: turning forgotten textiles into something wearable

Old tablecloths, scarves and other household textiles often sit unused for years before eventually being discarded, even when the fabric itself is still in good condition.

VALALAB works with those overlooked materials, upcycling vintage and second-hand textiles into new fashion pieces. Instead of starting with newly produced fabric, the brand looks at what already exists and uses the character of each material as part of the design.

Because every tablecloth, scarf or textile has its own print, texture and history, the finished pieces are naturally limited and often completely unique. It is a form of circular fashion that feels especially personal: materials once used in everyday life are transformed into something that can be worn and appreciated again.

VALALAB is a good reminder that textile waste does not only come from clothing. Sometimes the next great fashion material is already sitting in a drawer, cupboard or linen closet.

Bam.B.: looking at old materials differently

Bam.B. also works with cowhide leather recovered from previous uses, including old furniture. Instead of treating the leather as waste once the original product reaches the end of its useful life, the brand sees it as a material that still has value.

This distinction matters when we talk about circular fashion. Recycling often involves breaking a material down before turning it into something new, while reclaiming or upcycling can preserve much more of the original material.

In cases where a durable material can simply be reused, keeping it intact can be one of the most straightforward ways to extend its life.

Studio Faffi: from old furniture to handbags

Studio Faffi takes this idea even further by creating handbags from leather recovered from old furniture.

A sofa or chair might no longer be suitable for someone's home, but large areas of its leather can still be perfectly strong and usable. By recovering those sections, Studio Faffi turns an interior material into something completely different and extends its useful life in the process.

It is also a reminder that circular fashion does not have to source all of its materials from the fashion industry itself. Valuable resources can be found in many places if designers are willing to look at waste differently.

MAROU: giving vintage blazers another identity

Vintage clothing already extends the life of existing garments, but MAROU takes things one step further by using vintage blazers as the starting point for new designs.

Instead of producing a new textile from scratch, the brand works with garments that have already been cut, sewn and worn. Through upcycling, those blazers are transformed into something new while retaining some of the craftsmanship and character of the original piece.

This also makes each design naturally more limited. When you work with vintage garments, you cannot simply order thousands of identical metres of fabric. The available materials help shape the collection.

RE-LABEL: turning vintage into contemporary fashion

RE-LABEL also works with vintage garments, particularly blazers, transforming them into elevated and feminine pieces with a contemporary feel.

Each creation is handmade or custom-crafted, so the original garment becomes part of the design process rather than simply a source of fabric. The result feels polished and modern while still preserving the material that came before it.

What makes brands like RE-LABEL interesting is that the final garment does not need to look obviously “recycled” to be circular. Upcycling can simply become another way of designing clothes well.

Atelier Oprecht: circularity beyond clothing

Circular fashion is not limited to garments. Atelier Oprecht applies the same principle to jewellery, working with beads and pearls recovered from vintage pieces and incorporating them into new designs.

Jewellery materials can last for decades, which makes throwing them away simply because the original design is no longer worn particularly unnecessary. A pearl, bead or stone can easily become part of another piece and continue its life in a completely different form.

It is a small-scale example of a much bigger circular principle: before sourcing something new, first look at what can already be reused.

House of RE: transforming damaged clothes instead of discarding them

One of the hardest parts of textile waste is dealing with clothes that can no longer simply be resold. A garment may be stained, torn, badly damaged or no longer wearable in its original form, even if large parts of the material are still perfectly usable.

House of RE works with those damaged and unwanted clothes, deconstructing them and turning them into new garments.

This is important because circularity cannot rely only on reselling pieces that are still in perfect condition. If fashion is going to make meaningful progress, we also need better uses for clothes that have reached the end of their first life but not the end of the material itself.

recycled, reclaimed and upcycled: what is the difference?

These terms are often used interchangeably, but they describe slightly different approaches.

Recycled materials are generally processed before being turned into a usable material again. Reclaimed materials are recovered from an existing product and reused, often with relatively little processing. Upcycling usually involves transforming an existing garment or material into something new while adding value through design.

A truly circular fashion system will probably need all of them.

We need better recycling technology that can turn textile waste back into usable fibres at scale, but we also need to recognise when a material does not need to be broken down at all. Sometimes the most sensible solution is simply to work with what already exists.

A vintage blazer can become another garment. Leather from old furniture can become a handbag. Beads from an unwanted necklace can become a new piece of jewellery. Damaged denim can become something someone wants to wear again.

why Circular Textile Days matters

Circular Textile Days brings designers, manufacturers, researchers, recyclers and other parts of the textile industry together around this exact challenge: how do we move circular fashion from theory into something that actually works?

Large-scale recycling systems and technological innovation will be essential, but the smaller experiments happening within independent fashion are equally interesting. Small designers can test ideas quickly, work with unconventional materials and rethink production in ways that would be much harder for large companies operating at enormous scale.

The brands above show that circular fashion does not have one aesthetic or one solution. It can be colourful, minimal, experimental, polished or completely unexpected. What connects these approaches is the decision to see existing materials as a resource rather than automatically treating them as waste.

At Closet.eco, we believe that is one of the most exciting directions fashion can take. The future of sustainable fashion will certainly involve innovative new materials, but it should also involve becoming much better at appreciating the ones we have already produced.