In the third of our guest maker series, we sent fashion designer Melody Uyanga Ramsay an upcycle mystery pack containing a selection of reclaimed fabrics and old garments including gym shorts, denim jeans and tie dyed offcuts.

We challenged Melody to create a new item(s) that will appear in our online shop soon.

In this short interview, guest blogger Thomas Dixon asks Melody about her design inspirations and how she approached this upcycle challenge.

“I find a lot of creativity in having rules and constraints, so this project was amazing.  I only had this amount of fabric and I had to make something from it ….. I wanted to make use of everything”

“I grew up in Mongolia.  Because it’s a nomadic lifestyle …everything you have is used all the time.  Fashion was a whole other world.  You see so much waste in the industry. In my final year [studying fashion], all my fabrics were second hand sourced or offcuts.”

“If anything, COVID has solidified my views and faith in sustainability. I have a positive view of the future.”

The mystery pack

The upcycling process

Location photoshoot

The final collection

Melody’s face mask are available in our online shop.

You can see more of Melody’s work on her website or instagram.

If you’ve been inspired to take on your own upcycle project, we have upcycle mystery packs available from our online shop.