1st Edition
A Reflection Through Fashion Upcycling The Archive in Pieces
1. Introduction: Material Entanglements and the Archive of Memory 2. Methods of Upcycling 3. Reading of the Piece: The Experience of Working with Materiality Belonging to a Deceased Estate 4. The Leftovers: Archive Object Detritus 5. Designing with Decaying, Unravelling Materials 6. Good Flowers Debris: Caring for Process Rubble 7. The New Archive (2023) 8. Conclusion: An End But Also a Beginning
Biography
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.
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
