The starting point of Fiona Capdevila’s work was to find the nexus between sustainability or environmental friendly actions and design, style, and creative expression. Her desire was to open a new way of producing, more economic in terms of resources and energy.

Fiona Capdevila knew about the existence of huge amounts of discarded clothes in many places so she thought that there was a mix of materials that could be explored. She started to work with collectors, asking for some materials. The result was “new” garments made with discarded clothes.

Nowadays Fiona designs and produces her own upcycled collection of clothes for women and soon for men; she designs upcycled/eco products for other companies or NGO’s (ecocú, ciclotie, made in purple); she produces upcycled/eco products for other companies (cyclotie) and she lectures about upcycling fashion ( deltraves workshops / Laboratorio de alquimia textil 2013-14– first one year program specialised in upcycling in spain-).

How does Fiona Capdevila build a better environment?

The most important is perhaps that Fiona’s procedure is valuable in terms of knowledge, economics and ecology. Finding creative and useful ways to reuse materials is something interesting from many points of view.

She reuses or recycles textile and many other materials, creating almost 100% upcycled new designs with a collection concept where the selection of materials is very important. This meaning that she also saves water in the sense that reused materials don’t need to be grown and watered or made in factories, both processes consuming great amounts of water.

How does Fiona Capdevila create economic value for her community?

Fiona started a culture festival in the street with the local business called “Lluna Vivent” from 2007 to 2010, and now she is part of MSBCN creating BEFF (Barcelona Ethical Fashion Festival). She also leads an art research project with Rosa Solano about Haute Coutûre Seamstresses that worked in the big ateliers of the 50’s, with a show and charity auction taking place in november/december of 2015. Finally, she works with a social workshop to produce part of her collection.