This blue and black outfit was created from a too-short skirt extended by adding bands of black and blue fabric teamed with an op-shop-found silk shirt.

I was in upmarket Perth suburb Claremont shopping for a SodaStream for my friend Pat yesterday and spotted the Jigsaw shop window of blue and black garments equivalent to today’s upcycled outfit.

In the first-world consumer society, we have been conditioned to buy new and buy often but there are alternatives when we turn our minds and energy towards clothes swapping, second-hand vintage or resewing.

Insights into our buying habits were analysed by Cherry Healey in Secrets Of The Sales which aired on ABC2 last night. Healey looked at the retail world from both sides of the counter to discover the tricks of the sales and reveal ways of becoming savvier sale shoppers.  Continue reading →