A Reflection Through Fashion Upcycling

The Archive in Pieces

Rachael Cassar

$371.95 $297.42

Hardback

Forthcoming
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English

Routledge
19 November 2025

Theory of art; History of Art & Design Styles; Museums & museology; Fashion & society; Textile industries

A Reflection Through Fashion Upcycling: The Archive in Pieces stands as a seminal work at the intersection of fashion studies, material culture, and sustainability discourse. Authored by a distinguished, award-winning practitioner, this groundbreaking text offers a richly detailed examination of fashion upcycling through a historical and material-culture lens.

At its core, the book transcends the traditional confines of sustainable fashion discourse by delving into the profound complexities of reuse and material culture. Drawing from a curated archive of garments dating from the late 19th to early 20th centuries, it traces the symbolic and tactile journey of deconstructing clothing and repurposing through contemporary design. The book’s originality lies in its synthesis of academic research and studio practice, positioning fashion upcycling as an intellectual and ethical act. By re-contextualising garments through experimental design, it offers fresh insight into the potential of upcycling as a means of historical preservation, critical inquiry, and cultural storytelling. The author combines rigorous scholarship, studio-based experimentation, and intimate engagement with historical artefacts to uncover layered narratives embedded within textiles. By challenging narrow interpretations of sustainable fashion, the work presents upcycling as a nuanced dialogue between past and present, ethics and aesthetics, and materiality and meaning. Through its interdisciplinary approach and meticulous scholarship, it charts a path towards a more considered, sustainable, and conscientious future for the fashion industry.

Bridging design, history, practice, and ecological awareness, A Reflection Through Fashion Upcycling offers a rigorous yet accessible examination of fashion upcycling as a site of intellectual inquiry and ethical engagement—making it essential reading for scholars, researchers, and practitioners alike, and perfect for fashion enthusiasts and anyone intrigued by stories woven into fabric.

By: Rachael Cassar
Imprint: Routledge
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 234mm, Width: 156mm,
ISBN: 9781032906133
ISBN 10: 1032906138
Pages: 206
Publication Date: 19 November 2025
Audience: College/higher education , Professional and scholarly , General/trade , Primary , Undergraduate
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

Rachael Cassar is a pioneering upcycling designer and a lecturer at the University of Technology Sydney. Her work merges sustainability with high-end fashion, challenging fast fashion and embracing creative reuse. Her research interests are rooted in a long-standing commitment to fashion and sustainability, shaped by her extensive experience designing exclusively with archival fashion, textiles, and accessories. Since 2006, Rachael has pioneered the integration of “upcycling” as a core methodology within fashion, creating high-end fashion from discarded garments and enhancing students’ understanding of sustainable design principles. Internationally recognised, she champions a future where fashion is both environmentally conscious and artistically expressive.

Reviews for A Reflection Through Fashion Upcycling: The Archive in Pieces

A Reflection Through Fashion Upcycling is one of the rare books that explores how to build an intuitive relationship with worn garments that bear the texture of time. Rachael Cassar examines the aesthetic and emotional dimensions of touching the past through every detail-from stitch marks to fragments of thread. This work serves as both a creative journal and an inspiring, transformative resource for those interested in deep partnerships with archival objects. By positioning upcycling not merely as a technique but as a critical, reflective, and practice-driven methodology, the book makes a significant contribution to the fields of fashion, design, and memory studies. Dr. Sanem Odabasi, Assistant Professor of Textile and Fashion Design at Eskisehir Technical University