Peggy Sagers: For countless reasons, we are beginning to really appreciate the idea of upcycling and repurposing our clothing.

The concept of sustainability is getting more attention in the fashion industry.

Today on "Fit 2 Stitch," Annette Becker from the Texas Fashion Collection will enlighten us on some of the ways designers are taking used or discarded materials and creating new garments.

Designer recycling, today on "Fit 2 Stitch."

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♪♪♪ Peggy: Every time I cut out a garment, I've got that extra, that little bit of extra.

Sometimes it's a lot extra, and do I want a second garment made out of it?

Do I wanna do something else with it?

It's just always a quandary.

Annette Becker from the Texas Fashion Collection from the University of North Texas is here today and, Annette, designers have shown us all kinds of things to do with little pieces of leftovers, sustainability, all that kind of stuff.

Will you take us through that history and what's going on, 'cause I'd love to hear it.

Annette Becker: Absolutely, there are myriad examples at the Texas Fashion Collection, and we have a few here for us to look at today.

Peggy: Oh, great, great.

Annette: So we can start over here with this piece by Hanae Mori.

She's a really special designer, well represented at the Texas Fashion Collection.

As one of the first Japanese designers to work outside of Japan following World War II, she was really thinking about how to represent her own culture and how to keep a lot of the textile culture of Japan alive following World War II, after people kind of stopped wearing kimonos.

So this, to us, reads very much as a late '60s mini dress.

I think for a lot of people, this almost looks like an iconic short dress with a sort of boxy A-line silhouette, sort of standing away from the body.

We can picture Twiggy-- Peggy: Sure, sure, we can.

We can, that's a great image, you can.

Annette: So this really, to us, looks like standard high fashion from the late '60s, from a Euro-American context.

But what's really special about this piece is this fabric was initially created to be used as obi fabric.

So if you picture a kimono, the really decorative wide belt that's worn with that.

Hanae Mori wanted to make sure that the textile producers in Japan who created those really luxurious brocades still had a market for their textiles.

So she used her Japanese textile knowledge and her understanding of Euro-American silhouettes to basically upcycle or reuse fabric that was significant to her into this very beautiful ensemble.

Peggy: Oh, that's--it's fascinating that she felt like she had the responsibility to do that, and that she had the power and the placement to do it.

Because it does--it does look like a dress that Twiggy-- I could see Twiggy in this, completely.

Annette: Exactly, so this is a really, really beautiful dense brocade, so especially if we're thinking about upcycling fabric or finding new uses for it, understanding the qualities of the fabric is important.

You can even see in how far this sleeve is standing away from the body, that this is really dense fabric.

So it's not appropriate for every application, and Hanae Mori was really clever in understanding the qualities of this textile and then finding a style of garment that worked well with that.

Peggy: You know, it's interesting, because so many times women will say to me, "Well, can I do this with this fabric," and I'll just say, "Well, look around and see if it's in the stores.

And if it is, probably so; if not, you're running a risk."

But really, the reality is kind of break the molds.

You know, this is really a mold-breaking situation where they just completely did something that was not there before.

Annette: Absolutely, and I think what you've mentioned is essentially doing research, so going into retail spaces and seeing how other designers have solved, you know, designs problems, they're coming up with their solutions.

And at the Texas Fashion Collection, we often do that with historic garments, allowing researchers, people who are creating garments either for themselves or for the fashion industry more broadly, to look at designers like Hanae Mori and think about how they've purposed textiles.

Peggy: I just think this fashion history is so important for sewers.

I think it's imperative that in-- if we're going to design anything for ourselves, the more history we know, the better, which is why I'd love to crawl inside your head because I think it just really, really helps.

When I look at something like this, it's just beautiful.

It's simply done and yet I don't know that I would ever come up with it.

Tell us about this.

Annette: So this is a really wonderful recent addition to the Texas Fashion Collection.

This piece is by Nancy Johnson, an American designer who started her career in the 1970s.

That was a moment in the American fashion industry when a lot of manufacturing moved from the U.S. internationally.

So a lot of designers were trying to figure out what new opportunities there might be, given the fashion industry that existed in the rest of the world and the textile production that opened up new possibilities.

So this really simple dress, which is something I think a lot of us could even imagine wearing today-- Peggy: Oh, no kidding.

That's why--I think that's why I was so drawn to it.

I could put it on right now.

It's just really beautiful, very flattering.

Annette: It's so lovely and simple.

It's inspired, I think, by undergarments from the late 19th century.

If we think about chemise, if we think about garments, whitework garments from the early 20th century, this is drawing inspiration from that.

But Nancy Johnson's real innovation is what she calls her handkerchief neckline, and we often think of a handkerchief hemline.

Peggy: Yes, which is uneven, and yet this is even, and I'll--you know, I love it, I love it.

Sorry, go ahead.

Annette: So this is a more literal interpretation of a handkerchief neckline, because you can see here that there are sort of rectangles or squares that make up this wide neckline.

Each of those is actually a handkerchief that was created, first, to be a handkerchief, not a neckline of a dress.

So Nancy Johnson, in moving production overseas, recognized that there were other textile production happening and recognized this is an opportunity to bring in really beautiful whitework into her garments in a way that sort of promoted a textile industry that already existed, but worked it into a fashion industry context instead.

Peggy: Well, and I think anytime I look at something like this, I always look at the details because, to me, it's wider here at the bottom.

It's a little narrower which made it able to flow around and yet, at the same time, fit the neck edge.

So she had to have some type of pattern created, cut it up, and then put it onto the handkerchiefs to fit the shape of the handkerchief, so sometimes I think when it looks so simple, which it is, but just a little more thought that goes into it, I find great respect for that little tiny thought, and then just onto a little lace that finishes it all off.

It's just so profoundly simple and pretty.

Annette: It is so simple, so beautiful.

And I keep thinking, especially having grown up on a farm in rural western Kansas, you know, we made do with what we had around.

I remember going to secondhand stores and thrift stores with my mom.

I can't tell you how many times I saw handkerchiefs that looked almost exactly like this, or you know, really beautiful cloth napkins that people just don't use as often anymore.

Like, how wonderful to think that we could, you know, if we're looking for materials to upcycle, look outside of just the fashion materials that are available.

Peggy: Yeah, I think it's breaking that mold again.

You know, getting outside of that mold.

Well, this is one of my favorites.

I love this; I think you brought it 'cause it was one of your favorites, but I just love this just because of how-- what it's done.

Talk about breaking the mold!

Annette: Exactly, yeah, Todd Oldham, an American designer who was based in Texas, is a really innovative creator who really likes taking materials that are sort of common for us and recontextualizing them or putting them in a new situation in a fashion context that makes us consider them in a new way.

So, honestly, if we were to just like focus in on just this fabric, this is men's shirting fabric.

It's lightweight cotton, it's something that we often associate with masculinity, it's really lightweight, it's comfortable, it's easy to launder.

But here, Todd Oldham has taken several different colors of those men's shirting fabrics, which already creates a little bit of beautiful chaos, I think.

Peggy: It does, it does.

Annette: I think it really takes away some of the formality that we associate with men's shirting, and then you can see here that as well as upcycling some of these men's shirting fabrics, that he's also done something really clever with this belt.

So you might notice that the sleeves match the belt, and if we look more closely at this you'll also notice that this is a cuff, with a cufflink at the end.

Peggy: Mm, it actually is a real cuff.

I mean, that's actually-- oh, I see.

Oh, wow.

Annette: Isn't that so clever?

Peggy: So, this kind of is, really, after when we-- the sweater worn around the waist and tied and hanging, but without all the bulk.

Annette: Exactly, exactly.

Peggy: This is really cute, where this is just the look of that because that look became, even today, we wear that a lot today, you you don't have all the bulk.

It's just simply-- it's adorable, the cuffs.

And this belt, you could put onto anything.

It's actually separate?

It goes together with this.

This is amazing; again, just those shirtings, 'cause it could have been several old shirts that he just took and created all together.

Annette: Right, how many of us have been to secondhand stores and seen rows and rows of men's dress shirts and thought, like, "What am I gonna do with that?"

Well, Todd Oldham gives us an opportunity here.

Peggy: And do you find that just being in that collection is just so inspiring?

Annette: It is really incredible that at the Texas Fashion Collection we have over 20,000 historic and designer garments and accessories that have been created by the most famous designers you can think of, but also in our database, we have the designer "Grandmother" listed because there are home sewers who come up with really interesting design innovations.

And in our space, we're really interested in that innovative design, no matter who has originated it.

Peggy: So I have to ask you a little bit about you, because you are curator of this collection and there's 20,000 pieces and I--not that you don't know this, but that's a big responsibility, okay, preserving them, educating, doing all those things with them.

What do you think about it that makes you love all of that?

Like, I love fashion because I love the clothes.

But you don't wear them.

You appreciate them from a distance.

So talk to me about that.

Annette: So, I came to fashion history first through an incredible class I took as an undergraduate student.

My professor, Evolia Avolts, from the first day of class, said that every single person cares about how they dress themselves.

No one showed up to class that day wearing a bedsheet wrapped around them.

So every single person makes decisions every day about how they dress themselves to communicate who they are, how they fit in with their cultural communities, their artistic communities, their communities in their town.

Peggy: Even if it's really not on the top of their surface knowledge.

It's either subliminal or conscious.

Annette: Exactly, like even having grown up on a farm and, you know, my dad wears blue jeans every day, but he sure wears a different pair of blue jeans to church than he does feeding the cows.

Peggy: Oh my gosh, that's so funny.

So he's a blue jean fashion kind of guy?

And has he-- have you ever had that conversation with him?

Is he conscious of those differences?

Annette: You know, it's interesting.

I think at first he, like many people, thought, "Oh, Annette is in this, you know, high fashion context.

This must be only for specific people who have really elite backgrounds or access to really exclusive information."

And I think he's come to understand that he participates in the same fashion system that people who purchase things from Paris Fashion Week do.

We're just coming at it from slightly different places, but we're all part of this bigger conversation.

Peggy: I couldn't agree more.

It kind of goes back to that movie, "The Devil Wears Prada," where Meryl Streep is talking about the blue and the color blue and how she doesn't even understand why she's selecting what she's selecting 'cause somebody else is kind of subliminally helping her with those selections.

So I just wonder-- that's a great story about your dad, I love it.

So let's go to current.

As far as is-- do you feel like the designers are doing more sustainability today or do you feel like it's going to the wayside?

Annette: You know, I think designers today are far more conscious of their ecological footprint, their carbon footprint.

They're really thinking about ways, through the entire system of fashion being created, to be more sustainable.

So, especially if we think to fashion history, people's wardrobes used to be really small compared to what we have today.

And I'm sure many of us have seen documentaries about the incredible waste that's produced by the fashion industry.

Peggy: It's tremendous, it is tremendous.

Annette: Especially if we think about fast fashion, people buying things inexpensively, that are made with design economies, that they fall apart quickly, that are made in a faddish way so people aren't getting a lot of use out of them.

I think it's really important for fashion consumers to be aware of sustainable brands or brands that are taking steps to make the industry more practical and sustainable long-term.

Peggy: Are all fibers, fabrics, recyclable and sustainable in one way or another?

Annette: So I think most are, but not all, especially as we have fibers that are blended, especially if we think about maybe like, blue jeans that now often have, like, Spandex or Lycra or something that makes them stretchy, those fabrics are much, much harder, almost nearly impossible to recycle.

So brands like Eileen Fisher-- Peggy: Because of the mix?

Annette: Exactly, exactly.

Yeah, so maybe that's something that textile industries in the future will be able to sort of innovate with, but right now the recycling industry hasn't quite caught up to some of those things.

There are other ways of thinking about how to extend the life of an object, of a garment.

So, for example, Eileen Fisher, rather than just thinking, "Are these textiles recyclable?"

is thinking, "After someone's done wearing this, what happens to it next?"

So, actually, if you go to Eileen Fisher stores, you can sell back Eileen Fisher pieces that you've purchased and they're then inspected, they're cleaned, and then the pieces that are up to the brand's standards can be resold.

So, also if Eileen Fisher might be at a higher price point than you're comfortable with, the secondhand pieces that are for sale through her store might be a little more accessibly priced for you.

Peggy: Got it, I mean, I just find that fascinating that we are--that the vendors are paying more attention to it.

And I know that it sometimes costs us a little bit more to do that, but--and yet, in fact, it's really helping all of us do that.

So let's say designers, as they take all these fabrics and put them all together, is their--do you think their first priority, from seeing this collection and all these years of histories, their first priority was always selling, selling, selling.

But do you think you can see a change in that happening currently?

Annette: Mm, that's a really interesting question.

So I think there have been some movements to encourage people to buy less.

You know, I think there are questions about the authenticity of that as a marketing move.

Peggy: Yeah, I was gonna say, that's gotta be a real contradiction of the two, because we have a lot of high-end brands who are, you know, who have been accused or-- of burning their fabrics so that they can keep the prices up when they produce extra, and then they take it away and they don't donate it, they don't use it, they don't recycle it.

And I'm wondering if that's getting more and more of a negative or if they'll eventually stop that process and figure out plan B. Annette: You know, something that I really appreciate is that we are all parts of a bigger fashion system, so we have designers, manufacturers, homemakers.

We have consumers.

But we also have the fashion media who are serving as sort of watchdogs for things like that.

So it's been a long practice for luxury brands to, basically, destroy their excess stock to maintain an exclusivity.

So if we get out of the mentality that exclusivity is something that we desire, those brands might not be encouraged to function that way.

Peggy: That's a fair statement.

So we really do have a little more power than we think?

Rather than going to those labels and wanting those labels-- going for the independent.

And I think that's what sewers do, that's what we do.

I wanna go back to this one garment, if we can, for just a second.

I wanna ask you about it.

This one, when it was created, would this handkerchief, do you think-- do you ever find out or how do you find out what the fiber is?

Annette: Oh, that's a really great question.

Peggy: I burn, but you can't burn.

You can't burn a piece of this garment.

So how do you have a way of figuring out what the fibers are?

Annette: So there are a lot of ways that we use, basically clues that the garment is giving us to understand what it's made of and how it was constructed.

So, throughout American history, there have been different moments when labeling is required, usually to protect different industries, so to make sure, for example, that it's, like, virgin wool that's being used, and that's being advertised as a way to promote the wool industry.

There are also standards for how to care for textiles that have been worked into labels.

Luckily, Nancy Johnson pieces all were created after the point that those labels were required.

Also, this piece was donated by the designer, so she was able to tell us a lot of stories about how she created this piece, sort of the behind-the-scenes story of the object.

Peggy: Sure, and that's clearly really helpful in doing all that, but I just look at these and I think they flow so beautifully.

This one, when we ever have this, I call it the Lurex, the thread, because I know that can actually be done with a cotton.

It doesn't--a lot of people look at that and think it's polyester and therefore it's negative or whatever, but I know it can be done with cotton.

I've burned fabrics that have Lurex on them and they're 100% cotton, and I find that really shocking, as to how that is done.

Maybe not--so if this garment would be older, would chances be it would be more cotton as opposed to polyester?

Annette: That's a good question.

So for this specific piece, the label tells us that it's made out of polyester and then out of Lurex, and my understanding of Lurex is that it's basically very thin sheets of plastic that have a very thin bit of metal in between them and that's what makes it reflective.

The Lurex itself is synthetic, and with this specific piece, I think especially because polyesters, especially in the 1960s, could handle a lot of tension, and they were materials that people were sort of experimenting with, especially in textile industries that were innovating and pushing sort of beyond the scope of traditional dress.

I'd imagine in Japan in the 1950s and '60s a lot of textile producers were really interested in using synthetic materials.

Peggy: And yet, we know Japan to have a lot of silk.

So I always assume the belts and all of that was done out of silk, but no.

Annette: So I think historically, kimonos and obis were made out of silk, and silk was so precious that sometimes old kimonos were unwoven to reuse the silk, that silk thread was so precious.

Peggy: Unwoven, they actually-- to use the silk thread?

Annette: Yeah, which was really incredible to think about historically.

Peggy: That really is.

I've never even heard of that.

I've heard of fusing scraps, but actually unweaving and using the threads to then weave something else.

Annette: Exactly, exactly.

Peggy: Wow, you talk about time-consuming.

Annette: Right, and I think it's really interesting that we have conversations about sustainability today within the sort of context of the fashion industry, within the context of how designers work today, but if we go back to, for example, the 19th century, we have examples like that.

Can we imagine unweaving fabric to then use the threads again?

Peggy: Well, I imagine the threads would not be very long either and that you'd really, you'd have to retwist and redo them all over again, almost like the yarns were being manufactured.

So it does seem like that would be almost not worth the end result, but I guess if the materials are free in the first place, then you have no cost in actually the materials; it all becomes the labor.

This whole idea is just incredible to me that something can be reworked or reimagined, and I think that's very challenging for us as we design garments to do that.

So all of these ideas are really good ones.

All right, so you are the Texas Fashion Collection.

You've been there for a number of years.

What motivates you to-- what motivates you to keep bringing this collection to the view, to the front view?

Annette: You know, I think this collection represents everyone in some way.

With nearly 20,000 garments and accessories, we have something in our collection that can touch anyone on a personal level.

Peggy: Even jeans for your father?

Annette: Exactly, exactly.

Yeah, my touchstone in the collection is not a lot of the high fashion pieces, even though I've come to love designers like Hanae Mori and Todd Oldham.

But really, my touchstone in the collection is a tiara that we have from the 1930s that's made out of chicken wire, glitter, and glue.

It's a really incredible piece and, having grown up on a farm, you know, chicken wire is common there, and I could imagine maybe me as a child making a tiara out of chicken wire, trying to feel maybe a little extravagant and elegant.

And I think understanding that mentality with that piece makes me then be able to make that mental leap to understand why someone would wear some of the really beautiful evening dresses made by famous designers.

I can tap into that emotion, that feeling, and then connect with the feelings that other people who are unlike me have had.

There's deep humanity in the clothing that we wear.

Peggy: There is, and I want you to tell me the story, 'cause we had visited earlier, and you had mentioned to me of one reason that you felt clothing was so important is it was a bridgeway to art.

And so, reflect on that.

Do you know--remember what I'm talking about?

I loved that.

If you'll share that, I really would appreciate that.

Annette: So when I was an undergrad, I started out studying art history but, having grown up on a farm, far away from most museums, I didn't feel a deep connection with those things.

So, through my first fashion history course, I really started thinking about dress, fashion, clothing, as the art of our everyday lives and, you know, every day we make decisions about how we dress ourselves, what things we wanna purchase to add to our wardrobes, and those are everyday forms of art criticism.

And I think if we start feeling empowered with those decisions and we become more conscious of them, we can become aware of more of the design world.

And fashion design can become sort of like a gateway art and design form for us to understand other forms of art.

Peggy: I really do, I like that because I do think as I go into art museums and, you know, I have sons, and I'm taking them to art museums, they feel a little discomfort.

They don't understand it, they don't know what to look for, they don't know how to critique it.

It's not that they don't enjoy it; they don't really understand or how to appreciate it.

So I think fashion is a great bridge to learning about it, loving it, figuring out what part of it you love, and then take it to the arts, because then you really open up and expand your whole world and I think, you know, Coco Chanel has said it many, many times about how fashion is everything.

It's not just the clothing.

It's in everything we do and everywhere.

And so I can imagine that this collection for you is just exactly that.

Annette: It certainly feels that way, and with every person that I get to connect with through the collection, I learn more about their personal stories, I learn more about the history of our artifacts through just the stories that people tell me on a day-to-day basis.

I get to connect with quilters in their 80s, with 12-year-olds who wanna become fashion designers, with really bright-eyed students at the University of North Texas.

And through all of their perspectives I develop an even deeper love of this collection.

Peggy: I just really appreciate you sharing your knowledge with us.

It's so deep and so diverse, I just really appreciate it.

Annette: Well, thank you.

Peggy: Thank you.

You know, the reason for fashion, in my opinion, is simply for all of us and I know that sometimes we watch, as sewers, and we say, "But I don't want fashion.

I just want clothes."

And so the goal is to really help us understand that clothing is fashion.

It's our fashion, it's our personality, it's our interpretation.

And all of those things, as we learn in today, those are important.

Our personality coming out is important.

Our stamp on the world is important.

So that's our goal, is to help you understand how important this all is.

Color, as in all visual arts, plays a major role in fashion.

The colors we choose to wear and how they make us feel can influence our success.

Next time on "Fit 2 Stitch," we do a color analysis live.

Join us.

♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ announcer: "Fit 2 Stitch" is made possible by Kai Scissors.

♪♪♪ announcer: Reliable Corporation.

♪♪♪ announcer: Plano Sewing Center.

♪♪♪ announcer: Elliott Berman Textiles.

♪♪♪ announcer: Bennos Buttons.

♪♪♪ announcer: And Clutch Nails.

♪♪♪ announcer: To order a four-DVD set of "Fit 2 Stitch," series 12, please visit our website at fit2stitch.com.

♪♪♪