The costume shop at Mason Gross School of the Arts takes on a new purpose on Tuesday afternoons as students gather for an innovative class led by Costume Director Denise Wagner. The course, open to all Rutgers University students, explores the environmental impacts of fast fashion while equipping students with skills to mitigate these effects.
For the past two years, Wagner’s class, “Upcycling: An Artistic Response to the Environmental Effects of Fast Fashion,” has been educating students from a variety of fields about fast fashion and sustainability. “There’s a big problem with fast fashion,” Wagner explains, emphasizing the fast-paced production and promotion of clothing by many brands. “I wanted to delve deeper into that and start putting solutions out there, making change.”
Wagner’s class aims to address the considerable textile waste issue, which sees 92 million tons disposed of each year. The course encourages students to learn about clothing production, the components involved, and the collective effort it takes to create garments.
Throughout the semester, students engage with Maxine Bédat’s book, “Unraveled: The Life and Death of a Garment,” tracing the lifecycle of a pair of jeans through the complex global supply chain of mass-produced clothing. The text details the environmental and humanitarian issues prevalent in cotton farming and manufacturing processes.
For students like Emma Giovenco, studying Information Technology and Informatics, the class underscores the harsh realities of fast fashion. “It’s hard to see the conditions people doing the sewing are under, and learning how low the wages are,” she remarks. “It really affected me.”
The course combines theoretical knowledge with practical skills, teaching students to extend garment longevity through repair techniques. “The more we use what we already have, the more it stays out of a landfill,” Wagner states. “The less we buy, the less ends up there.”
Students experiment with skills such as Sashiko, a Japanese mending technique, and “Make Do and Mend” methods, learning to craft with materials sourced from the university environment. The class also repurposes discarded garments and uses natural dyes from local resources, transforming neglected items into vibrant wearable art.
Jennifer Duarte, a marine biology student, comments on the class’s relevance to modern fashion. “The way fashion has changed, it’s become disposable,” she notes. “People used to hang onto their clothes for a long time.”
Beyond the classroom, Wagner and the costume shop aim to minimize textile waste by repurposing costumes for different productions. Collaborations with organizations like Helpsy aim to implement fabric recycling options on campus. This ongoing commitment reflects the course’s broader mission to foster sustainable practices and awareness in fashion.
