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Ling Low

In the basement of a shopping centre in Kuala Lumpur, you’ll find one of Malaysia’s most unusual fashion ateliers.
Biji Biji is a brand which creates fashion almost entirely from upcycled materials – or as other people might put it, from trash. From surplus seat belt straps to discarded plastic banners, this is where the old becomes new.
In a small workshop, sewing machines hum as the team works to create satchels, tote bags and other accessories. Look closer and you might guess at the origins of the materials.
“Biji Biji started as friends who were living together and wanted to contribute to society, the environment,” explains 28-year-old Ambika Sangaran, managing partner of the Biji Biji brand.


The original enterprise focused on more than fashion. Named after the Malay word for “seed”, biji, the group began with a broad mission to explore sustainability through upcycling, for example by making furniture from wooden pallets and other industrial material.
But when they were commissioned to create upcycled bags for the World Innovation Forum in 2013, the team realised there was a market for fashion accessories. Today, there’s a dedicated team of four people working on the fashion line alone, under the broader Biji-biji Initiative.




















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Sustainable fashion is the best choice for you and the planet, so rock it and own it!⠀ .⠀ Our Peony tote bags are ethically handcrafted using sustainably-sourced seat belts. They are so sleek and spacious!⠀ .⠀ #handbags #totebag #sustainablefashion #slowfashion #ethicalfashion⠀ #fairtrade #fashion #fashionrevolution⠀ #sustainable
A post shared by Biji Biji (@bijibijiethicalfashion) on Jan 14, 2020 at 2:42am PST



“We started by trialling and testing,” explains Sangaran, who previously studied sustainable tourism. “We looked for ideas online and our in-house tailors reverse engineered some products.”
The team was also joined by trained designers who shared a vision for sustainable fashion. Since Biji Biji works almost exclusively with waste materials, it means they always have to adapt the designs to the material – rather than the other way round.
Not all the material is sourced from industrial production. Biji Biji was given a boost when the Japanese textile manufacturer Nakakoma Orimono, established in 1947, donated a shipment of vintage kimono fabrics. The fabric, from the manufacturer’s old stock, has enabled the team to create even more one-of-a-kind pieces.

Since then, more possibilities have opened up. Last year, Biji Biji decided to expand beyond accessories and created a full fashion collection for the first time.
At a local arts and crafts market, they spoke to Tengku Syahmi, an established Malaysian designer whose brand, Tsyahmi, is known for elegant, contemporary tailoring.
Having championed sustainability in fashion since early in his career, Syahmi was enthusiastic about collaborating with Biji Biji – especially when he saw the kimono fabrics.
It’s batik, but not as we know it – what would grandma say?
In August 2019, the Biji Biji X Tsyahmi collection was presented at KL Fashion Week in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia's capital. The show brought together two very different worlds, as the city’s well-heeled celebrities saw the work of the social enterprise up close.
“It’s a different crowd, not the environmentally conscious or social enterprise ones,” says Sangaran. “It was an experience to get to know this scene, a whole different market to explore.”
Modelled by both men and women, the collection features vivid, billowing structures inspired by Malaysian Nusantara warriors and Japanese samurai and geishas. Straps sourced from seat belts and hiking safety gear are used to dramatic effect, their sturdy fabric reinvented as stripes of urban armour. Elsewhere, the vintage kimono fabrics are layered for soft tailoring and draping.

The runway collection has certainly brought more attention to Biji Biji, with some pieces being worn by local influencers on Instagram in the months since the show.
While upcycling isn’t a new concept in fashion, it’s far from mainstream. At London Fashion Week last year, Stella McCartney showed a collection which incorporated fabric from her older collections, embroidered onto new pieces. At the show, the designer described the upcycled materials as “donated by the past” and “dedicated to the future”.
McCartney is perhaps the fashion industry’s most well-known advocate for sustainability, and her brand is working on reducing waste through a circular approach to materials and resources. This year, the company aims to transition all its nylon fabrics to ECONYL®, which is made from recycled fishing nets.

Other brands have also found innovative ways of reducing waste. French sneaker brand Veja produces trainers made from recycled plastic bottles, while the outdoors brand Patagonia prides itself on having used recycled polyester for its apparel as early as 1993.
Yet the fashion industry at large still depends on – and perpetuates – a linear production system where large amounts of waste are created.
According to the Ellen McArthur Foundation, 87 per cent of material used for clothing production ends up being burned or dumped in landfill. While the fashion industry has doubled its production in the last 15 years, the time that a piece of clothing is worn before being discarded has fallen by 40 per cent, which means that every new purchase quickly leads to waste.

The Biji Biji team know that there’s a long way to go. There are a lot of challenges to creating upcycled fashion in a market that’s primed for fast fashion tastes.
Due to variance in their raw materials, it will always be hard to create bulk orders that are exactly the same. They also can’t follow particular fashion trends – especially those that involve unsustainable fabrics and embellishments.
But Biji Biji see themselves as part of a bigger picture. “We want to make changes in the fashion industry, but it’s not about having just one ethical fashion label,” says Sangaran. “It’s about exposing your cause to other people and getting other designers, anybody, to think more consciously.”
“Putting out a collection that’s entirely made of waste materials may not change the entire industry immediately, but it might open the minds of people who see it.”


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Fashion

Malaysian fashion brand Biji Biji upcycles seat belts and plastic trash into runway collections in the name of sustainability

A look from the Biji Biji X Tsyahmi collection.

Biji Biji backpack made from discarded seat belts

The Biji Biji fashion team, including Ambika Sangaran, Managing Partner of the Biji Biji brand

Biji Biji X TSyahmi collection: designer Tengku Syahmi  of Tsyahmi working with Biji Biji team on their collaboration

A men's look from the Biji Biji X TSyahmi collection

Biji Biji Co Founder Norashahera Mertens and Assistant Designer Ardi Shirh working on a collection

Models show looks from Biji Biji, a Malaysian brand that creates clothing and accessories almost entirely from upcycled materials, and which wants to change the fashion industry.

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Future of New York’s garment district in doubt as manufacturers driven to Paris, Milan and London – or simply just shut

A worker at Ferrara Manufacturing in New York’s garment district. Shops in the district employ mostly Asian and Latino migrants. Photo: AFP

The 8-foot bronze permanent sculpture called "The Garment Worker", created by Judith Weller, is seen at 555 Seventh Avenue (also known as Fashion Avenue) between 39th and 40th Streets in midtown Manhattan on January 16, 2020. - Sewing machines hum and steam comes off irons as thousands of workers, mostly Asian and Latino migrants, make clothes in the few surviving workshops of New York's threatened garment district. The small neighborhood, nestled amid skyscrapers close to Times Square, has lost 95 percent of its workforce since its heyday in the 1950s, when it employed hundreds of thousands of people. Exorbitant rate increases have forced many manufacturers to move production abroad; not to China but to Paris, Milan, and London. (Photo by TIMOTHY A. CLARY / AFP)

Dress forms are seen at Ferrara Manufacturing, a company founded more than 30 years ago in the Garment District of New York City, on January 16, 2020, days before New York Fashion Week (NYFW). - Sewing machines hum and steam comes off irons as thousands of workers, mostly Asian and Latino migrants, make clothes in the few surviving workshops of New York's threatened garment district. The small neighborhood, nestled amid skyscrapers close to Times Square, has lost 95 percent of its workforce since its heyday in the 1950s, when it employed hundreds of thousands of people. Exorbitant rate increases have forced many manufacturers to move production abroad; not to China but to Paris, Milan, and London. (Photo by TIMOTHY A. CLARY / AFP)

A worker uses an iron at Ferrara Manufacturing, a company founded more than 30 years ago in the Garment District of New York City, on January 16, 2020, days before New York Fashion Week (NYFW). - Sewing machines hum and steam comes off irons as thousands of workers, mostly Asian and Latino migrants, make clothes in the few surviving workshops of New York's threatened garment district. The small neighborhood, nestled amid skyscrapers close to Times Square, has lost 95 percent of its workforce since its heyday in the 1950s, when it employed hundreds of thousands of people. Exorbitant rate increases have forced many manufacturers to move production abroad; not to China but to Paris, Milan, and London. (Photo by TIMOTHY A. CLARY / AFP)

Lifestyle

Fashion & Beauty


Named after the Malay word for seed, the group began with a broad mission to explore sustainability through upcycling
87 per cent of material used for clothing production ends up being burned or dumped in landfill, according to the Ellen McArthur Foundation



Biji Biji, a Malaysian brand which creates clothing and accessories almost entirely from upcycled waste, wants to change the fashion industry by getting designers to think more consciously.


Malaysia

Conservation

Green living

Malaysian fashion brand Biji Biji upcycles seat belts and plastic trash into runway collections in the name of sustainability

Named after the Malay word for seed, the group began with a broad mission to explore sustainability through upcycling 87 per cent of material used for clothing production ends up being burned or dumped in landfill, according to the Ellen McArthur Foundation

Named after the Malay word for seed, the group began with a broad mission to explore sustainability through upcycling

87 per cent of material used for clothing production ends up being burned or dumped in landfill, according to the Ellen McArthur Foundation