Nicole Akong is a fashion designer, a secondhand fashion influencer, and a finalist on the 2020 series of the BBC’s Great British Sewing Bee. During Akong’s childhood in Trinidad, imports of clothes were limited, which is why Akong grew up around dressmaking. She now operates from London. Akong has discovered a middle ground between ready-made attire and homemade clothing, which consists of transforming secondhand clothing. She believes that clothes can be expressive, classy, and enjoyable. Preloved fashion is gaining popularity among the public in response to a cost of living pinch and a surge in eco-friendly thinking. The secondhand market may account for 10% of global sales, while eBay has just eliminated the preloved garms seller fee.
After appearing on the BBC’s Great British Sewing Bee, it took Nicole Akong quite a long time to give herself validation to purchase ready-made apparel. But, a few summers ago, Akong participated in charity shopping at the request of her tween-aged daughter, who had been joining friends on charity shopping trips and requested Akong to accompany her. Akong felt as if she was doing a kind act by supporting a charity, but she also understood that she was purchasing something that would have gone to landfill otherwise. She started to view sewing patterns as restricted, and creating everything from beginning to end was taxing for her. Now Akong changes what she doesn’t like or elevates the attire to something that is more suitable for her. It is more fulfilling, and she finds it more enjoyable as a creative process.
In her practice, Nicole Akong prefers the term “transformation” to “upcycling,” and her garments reflect that. While others might merely add a simple patch to cover the burn holes on the red-striped shirt that she purchased at a local kilo sale for £1, Akong shortened the whole garment, replaced the cuffs, and decorated it with mirrored panelling, sequins, tassels, tape, and embroidered ric-rac. Embellishment is her signature, as evidenced by her self-made tassel-front trousers. She told Positive News that she has embraced a more colorful and flamboyant side as she has grown older, which she may not have had the confidence to in her 20s and 30s.
Finally, Akong describes her sewing abilities as empowering, but she motivates everyone to embrace transformation, even those who do not sew. There are people out there with those skills who enjoy using them, so why not let them? Buying a used garment extends its life by an average of 2.2 years, reducing its carbon, waste, and water footprint by 73%, according to research by Vestiaire Collective. Make-do and menders have boosted sales of patches, colour dye, and thimbles. The John Lewis department store sold out of darning needles in 2023, and sales of repair products, such as patches and repair tape, were up 61%, according to reports
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