All About the "Reworked Collection" with Mackenzie

This Collection was made by hand, as a labour of love for you and the environment. It took us over a year to prep, collect, sew and launch these 1 of 1 reworked jeans. We are her to welcome you to our newest collection of reworked denim. 

Please welcome a little Q and A with founder and creative director Mackenzie Wavryk

Q. Who did you work with on this collection?

Ira and I worked with a local seamstress by the name of Julianna. She is phenomenal in her work. She was the one who we bounced ideas off of, told me what I could and couldn't do. It was a great working relationship. 

Q. How long did this collection take start to finish?

Over a year. We launched something similar back in 2021 but since then we (ira and Mackenzie) wanted to up our game on what we could do with all our donated jeans. 

Q. Where do you get all the material?

its all donated jeans from Upcycle. Ira and I had an "intake list" for our staff that gave them the requirements from the donated jeans. We only use 100% cotton denim for our collection because it wears better and its easier to work with. So, when we were pulling jeans for our collection that was our main deciding factor. The shop gets a lot of really good items but it also get donation items with stains, holes, rips in them and we wanted to do something with those items that are of good quality. 

Q. What inspired this new Reworked Collection?

The inspiration is constantly changing; I feel. However, we started this project for 2 reasons, to reduce clothing and textile waste that was coming from Upcycle. But also, to come up with our own product or item that really showed the world who WE are. Upcycle is a community clothing hub where textiles are reused. We wanted to truly play into our name and community by offering something upcycled by us.

I (mackenzie) initially choose the name Upcycle Clothing Collective because I wanted the shop to be a hub of second hand items. Over time we have hosted, local designers, upcycled items, second hand items and sustainable goods. I feel like us making our own collecting was the missing piece to my vision. 

This collection in specific is inspired by fashion workwear, patch work and Japanese denim. 

Q. What will be offered in this collection?

We have sizes ranging from waist measurement 24 to 40. The idea was to create something new while being as inclusive as we could with the materials we had to work with. The jeans are inspired by work wear with a gender neutral take on a classic patchwork pant. We want durability or the jean but also fashion with different overlay options and color combinations. 

We only have 40 jeans in total; and while we are now in the planning stages of our next collection the styles, material and sizes will all differ. 

Q. What is your favourite thing about this collection? 

My personal favourite thing is that we now have a few styles to work with. This collection embraces the uniqueness or 1 of 1 of reworked and second hand fashion. I also love the creative process. I love working with our designer to brig our visions to life. 

Q. When can we get our hands on this collection?

Friday August 25th. The jeans will officially be in store for try on. 

Q. Will they be available online?

unfortunately not yet, we still have kinks to workout. I will update everyone on that more later! For now, They will be in store only.