This Ugandan fashion designer is up cycling donated clothes and selling them back where they came from

Posted: May 12, 2022

By: Philip Drost

    Bobby Kolade, a Ugandan fashion designer, takes clothes that have been sent to Uganda, and upcycles them into new items to be sold back. He says that this is in an effort to “battle a culture of excess that… has infected and degraded Ugandan culture and fashion.” Almost 80% of clothing is second hand fast fashion, and many items, such as jackets or heavy suits, aren’t able to be put to use due to the Ugandan weather. The donations, which first started as helpful charity, have morphed to a business that pushed out local Ugandan designers. Now, he takes pieces that were donated, upcycles them, and puts them on his website. Each of his pieces include a “passport”, which “explains the origin of the items used for the piece.”  He hopes to educate people on the larger implications, and that they can help by buying his “sustainable creations.”

    I feel as though this article is a perfect example of the growing attention that is being shed on fast fashion. For Bobby, he has seen first hand the effects of overproduction and overconsumption within the fashion industry, and has tried to use these negative effects to create art. Overconsumption has become a huge problem, and hundreds of thousands of pounds of clothing are gotten rid of every year, and yet we rarely take the time to consider where these clothes are going. By reusing the discarded clothing, and adding the passport, he is shedding much needed light upon the negative effects that fashion has had upon our world and environment. 

 https://www.cbc.ca/radio/thecurrent/the-current-for-may-12-2022-1.6448201/this-ugandan-fashion-designer-is-upcycling-donated-clothes-and-selling-them-back-where-they-came-from-1.6448203