Christian Siriano turns the NYFW runway into a resale platform

ThredUp teamed with Christian Siriano to help the designer show secondhand clothing on his New York Fashion Week runway. Siriano selected three of his own designs that were available through ThredUp’s online resale site, which he then repurposed and showed on the runway alongside his Fall 2021 collection.

Siriano’s repurposed pieces included a pink silk dress, which was revamped simply with black bands added to its hems; a mid-length mesh dress that was completely redesigned; and a TK coat with flair and fringe detailing added.

Each piece is adorned with the Thrift Logo, a new symbol recently created by Siriano and ThredUp together. The logo serves as a universal indicator of a secondhand garment, as a means to highlight the importance of recycling clothing and reducing waste.

“There are already so many amazing clothes in existence, and many have never been worn, or worn only a handful of times,” Natalie Tomlin, ThredUp’s consumer communications manager, said to FashionUnited. “By choosing used over new and repurposing clothing through practices like mending, we can fight fashion waste and make the most of the natural resources used to create those garments.

The NYFW acts as an educational platform for consumers

Upcycling is a slowly growing trend among designers in the NYFW circuit. Past seasons have seen instances of designers utilizing upcycled materials in their collections as a means to help reduce the fashion industry’s waste problem. Yet Christian Siriano’s partnership with ThredUp stands out from previous uses of recycled clothing as it sends a message directly to the consumer.

“Christian’s use of thrift in his collection comes at a time when NYFW looks different than ever before,” Tomlin said. “From sourcing recycled materials to embracing thrift, designers are beginning to consider the environmental footprint of their shows. We hope that this is just the beginning. We envision a future where thrift is a part of every designer collection. We would also love to see fashion shows incorporate circularity more broadly, making it easy for attendees to recycle the clothes they no longer wear at the door.”

NYFW’s digitalization in the current pandemic has made the runway as much a consumer-facing event as it is an industry event. Siriano showed the consumers in his audience how fashionable reused garments can be, by breathing new life into his own past designs and placing them alongside newly-created garments.

ThredUp serves as a direct-to-consumer retail platform for secondhand clothing. By sourcing his own designs from the site, Siriano makes a statement to consumers that previously-worn clothing is just as wearable as new clothing.

Images: Christian Siriano Fall 2021, courtesy of Getty Images and Mike Coppola