Turn’Em In! Unwanted Clothes Collected at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Russia

Sustainability is going to be the key topic of Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Russia in the Museum of Moscow. This year, MBFW Russia will once again become the place to collect unwanted clothes that upcycling designers will use in their new collections. For the first time ever, these collections will be presented at the Fashion Week catwalks on October 19 and 20. VINA and RigRaiser, sustainable brands, will present their collections based on the clothes accepted during the MBFW Russia in April. The shows will be powered by EcoLine.

Russian Fashion Council together with EcoLine Group, the top waste treatment operator for Moscow and the Moscow Region, and Vtoroe Dykhanie Fund are going to collect unwanted clothes every season, further passing them to upcycling Russian brands, who will use these in their catwalk presentations. Vtoroe Dykhanie Fund is the major Russian nonprofit organization that accepts, distributes and processes textiles.

Anyone can take part in this green initiative and the prize drawing. For that, come to the Museum of Moscow (2 Zubovsky Boulevard) on October 19 through 23 at 2 p.m. till 9.00 p.m. and turn the clothes in at a special reception point in the Museum’s courtyard. No invitation is needed to do that – anyone can visit the reception point. Participants will have a chance of getting invitations to sustainable brands’ shows during #MBFWRussia (for this or the next season), and the most active ones will obtain bags made of upcycled banners and upcycling shirts from the Fashion Week. Clothes that won’t be used in designer collections will be handed over to Vtoroe Dykhanie.

Moreover, Russian Fashion Council together with EcoLine will continue their work on sustainable transformation of the main fashion event in Russia. Separate waste collection bins will be installed in the Museum of Moscow. On October 19 through 23, EcoLine is going to transport the waste collected to a sorting facility with further sending of recyclables to waste procession.

“We are going to send all the wastes to Vostok, the waste management facility where they accept 31 waste types, which is a record number for Russia. However, it is different with textile – you can’t reuse it after it has been disposed with other wastes in a regular bin. According to our recent research, garments and footwear currently constitute over 35% of buried throw-outs. Our collaboration with Russian Fashion Council and Vtoroe Dykhanie Fund is a way of dealing with that situation, representing a reasonable and creative approach to the use of unwanted garments, and it can also help with making slow fashion a new trend. If we had a sustainable clothing collection and recycling sector, it could significantly contribute to waste reduction and help with the ecological situation. We are delighted that these ideas are supported and shared at the Russia’s largest fashion event,” said Evgeny Mikhailov, Chairman of the Board of Directors, EcoLine Group.

“Russian Fashion Council intends to introduce sustainable practices not only at the Fashion Week, but beyond it, too. A growing number of designers taking part in MBFW Russia support sustainable development guidelines. The Fashion Week is working towards the closed cycle as much as it is currently possible. We systematically support digital fashion, having abandoned merch production and working on the event’s carbon footprint reduction in general,” – explained Alexander Shumsky, President of Russian Fashion Council and Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Russia, Co-founder of Fashion Fund.

Specially for MBFW Russia, LitRes – the largest book service in Russia and CIS – has prepared a topical selection of books about responsible consumption, sustainability in fashion and ecological issues in this sector.

For the second season in a row, Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Russia has abandoned its long-established practice of customized T-shirts and hoodies use by volunteers and workers of the organizing team. All the staff, managers and volunteers included, will wear special uniform, namely 200 shirts made by ‘Rishi in collaboration with EcoLine from second-hand garments.

The united MBFW Russia schedule will include sustainable designers and those working towards this title. Participating designers use all kinds of methods in their work – upcycle, recycle, slow fashion, zero waste, and others. These are the brands that are going to present their collections taking care of Earth’s future: Masha Tsigal, RigRaiser, VINA, BLCV, Jenesaq, Sasha Gapanovich, Gerda Irene, Maison Kaleidoscope, N.LEGENDA, MARFAFEDOROVA, Yana Besfamilnaya, ZA_ZA, Agatha Ænter, K/TITOVA, CHRISTOPH RITTER STUDIO, Juan De la Paz, ABZAEVA. NASTYA NEKRASOVA, VALENTINS, kreamonz и LUCAS LEÃO – a participant of Brazil Immersive Fashion Week (BRIFW) meta-platform – will present their digital collections. Moreover, some of the brands will showcase their collections in the video presentation format, thus reducing their carbon footprint. All the presentations and shows will be live-streamed at Russian Fashion Council’s official website and leading international media websites.

Credits: © Courtesy of Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Russia