Usedem: Upcycled Denim, Remade in China

Every month, over 20,000 pairs of jeans are exported from China, inevitably leaving behind vast quantities of waste denim fabric in its workshops and factories. The UseDem project is the brainchild of designer-turned-upcyclist Xenia Sidorenko who takes waste denim out of China’s factories and transforms it into lines of practical and stylish backpacks and travel accessories.

UseDem are the first industrial denim upcycling brand in China and are fast making a name for themselves by collaborating with big-name brands like Lululemon and Hunter Gatherer. Their ultimate goal is to make us as a society think twice about what we throw away, and pay attention to how we consume in order to save resources like water, which is used in vast quantities in the denim industry.

In this video, we caught a few precious moments of Xenia's time out on the road, to hear how she approaches fashion with a zero-waste mindset.