Introducing Rachael Cassar

As we get ready to start another session of our popular Intro to Fashion + Sustainability course, we took some time to chat with Rachael Cassar. Designer, prolific upcycler, and experienced lecturer, students taking our course have the privilege of learning with this powerhouse of a sustainability leader.

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CoE: What is your design philosophy?

RC: My design philosophy incorporates a dialogue with the past to inform future fashion ideas. I approach upcycling as a form of preservation of a material’s life. Working with a garment’s biography inspires the desire to preserve not only the physical fabric of the garment, but also specific attributes intertwined with the lives of past individuals, the passage of time, and the diverse wearing experiences speculated through traces found within worn materials. Engaging with materials in this way inspires creative processes and methods for my designing. It is a very deep and interesting process which produces a particular sustainable mindset that is of value.

When did you first start designing with the environment in mind?

I have always designed with materials from the past. At university I drove my tutors crazy as I would cut swatches from vintage garments and upholstery and propose using the material for garment designs, even though our assessments were limited to sourcing new fabrics off the roll.

I have always been pulled towards materials from the past. After learning about the impacts of industry on our environment at university, I decided to persevere with my skills of reusing and explored upcycling for a fashion range in 2006. My aim was to re-define the sustainable fashion aesthetic which tended to be more basic and less fashion forward at the time. I wanted to showcase that everything that we love about fashion as a form of expression does not have to be compromised with sustainability. At the time sustainable fashion was a very new concept, and there were only several practitioners recognised for exploring upcycling globally. This meant that it was very difficult and risky to explore such an alternative way of producing fashion at university, even harder to convince experts that you could make it high end. Thankfully times have changed and the Fashion and textile course at UTS now encourages upcycling and processes connected to reuse, which I get to teach!

You are well known for your designer upcycled pieces, do any favourites stand out?

Below are some of my favourite moments.

What you like about teaching this course for the CoE?

I love that I get to have proper conversations around all facets of sustainability from materials, economics to citizen mentality. I think the course is excellent in introducing industry to key and accessible information in and around sustainable developments, supported by inspiring practitioners in the field working towards a circular fashion system, and that’s very exciting! I love that the Ideas that my practice explored 20 years ago aren’t new or alternative ways of thinking now, that the shift is happening, and the CoE is an example of that shift! I am so proud to be part of it.

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And we are so thrilled to have her be part of it, too! Looking forward to seeing you all in class soon.

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