Ketchup Clothes: Explorations in Recycling

This booklet documents garments made from found and discarded materials under the auspices of ketchupclothes from 2004 to the present day. It is estimated that some 350,000 tonnes of clothes are assigned to landfill every year from the UK alone. This catalogue of ideas hopes to provide inspiration into what can be done with textile and clothing waste.It begins with approaches to different materials such as denim, leather and old t-shirts and progresses through a series of photoshoots that contextualise the clothes within a local, urban environment.

It concludes with current developments by the author into pattern cutting and manufacturing process that have resonance for the wider adoption of recycling practices. All garments have been designed and manufactured by the author on industrial sewing machines. These include a lockstitch, overlocker and coverstitch machine