Member - UseDem

UseDem is the first industrial denim upcycling brand in China which I founded in 2015. I have had over a decade of experience in the denim industry moved to China in 2011 and have lived in shanghai ever since. As a designer, I worked closely with many Chinese denim factories. I witnessed first hand the mass production of denim jeans for the ever growing market across the world and the subsequent negative impact this industry has on the environment. The idea for UseDem came about when I was asked to clear a showroom of jeans and discard them. I told myself I couldn’t throw them away, instead, I used them... or Usedem. The jeans got sent to her flat where she started cutting and experimenting to see what she could make, eventually creating the Buddy Bag. UseDem has one primary aim: to eliminate textile waste. We believe that upcycling is a possible solution to the textile industry’s pollution. Not only this, but by reusing and reshaping old jeans, we can transform the consumer based mindset of our society. What we do: We source used jeans from individuals as well as discarded jeans and fabric from factories and upcycle them into unique, beautiful and marketable products. We allow you to take a pair of jeans that you’re connected to, that have your stories embedded in them and that fit your shape and your style and remake them into something perfect and unique to you. As Xenia puts it; “we give the material a chance to live again”. Our bags and accessories are made in partnership with Home Sweet Home, who operate our factory on the outskirts of Shanghai. They are a not-for profit organisation which provides training and employment for Chinese people with special needs or disabilities. We are challenging the perhaps negative connotations with the term Made in China as our products are Remade in China. We take preexisting fabric, produce high quality, recycled and upcycled products in a sustainable process. In one year, Usedem saves approximately 400 pairs of jeans from landfills, equivalent to saving almost 4.4 million litres of water! Let’s use them! Usedem We have collaborated with brands such as Klee Klee and Hunter Gatherer to make exclusive tote bags and aprons respectively. And we have conducted corporate workshops on sustainability and implementing a zero-waste textile strategy for companies such as KPMG, Hermes, Lululemon