MAIUM & GARCIA BELLO introduce a collection of up-cycled rainwear produced from recycled plastic. All garments are made from post-consumer Maium raincoats and redesigned and assembled in the Netherlands by Garcia Bello.
Recycling processes consist of either or both of the following opposite cycles. Downcycling involves converting materials and products into new materials, often of lesser quality. Upcycling, also known as creative reuse, is the process of transforming by-products, waste products, useless or unwanted products into new materials or products perceived to be of greater quality. Both downcycling and upcycling can be perceived as value – adding processes if the alternative (opportunity costs) is to discard materials or products all together – waste.
Traditional process flows of product life cycles, consider post-consumer products or materials as pure waste. Unobserving, or for simplicity’s sake just neglecting the fact that these products potentially still have real value. Recent discoveries point to the fact that in a single warehouse, Amazon is destroying more than 130.000 unsold or returned items each week, including laptops and headphones! Bearing in mind that Amazon is one of the most profitable ventures on this planet, it shows how perverse, a banality really, the incentive to destroy actually is.
Upcycling is merely one of the options available when opening our minds to a product life cycle more conscious of the well being of our planet. The collaboration between Maium and Garcia Bello is a tribute to all sustainable design practices and an attempt to inspire and set an example for brands on how to deal with post consumer products and generally to rethink fashion product life cycles. The collection consists of a skirt, a poncho, waist and tote bags, two jackets and a body warmer.
MAIUM is a fashion label rooted in urban movement. We make stylish raincoats with a strong focus on quality, functionality and durability. Our movement is committed to continuously searching for durable and sustainable alternatives in production techniques, fabrics and raw materials. Rainwear is, by definition, designed to protect us from the elements. Maium is our attempt to restore the link with nature and protect the elements from us.
Style through function and ethics: we are here to defy the conventions and prove that function is style. Fashion designers are the new engineers, with an equal focus on aesthetics and quality. All products are designed for movement and are created for everyday wear. Our raincoats are fully waterproof and have zippers on each side to transform into a bike poncho.
Two friends born in Amsterdam, inspired by years of wet commutes, set out to design rainwear that adapts to unpredictable weather conditions and a busy lifestyle. Maium is a product of its environment, with at least 130 days of rain every year, more than one third of the country being below sea level, and more bikes than people, we have a reputation for creating innovative ways to keep ourselves dry – “Created by bad weather experts”.
“Live life sustainably, a lifestyle that could continue effectively forever”
– David Attenborough
GARCIA BELLO is a sustainable brand inspired by everyday life and the paths we have come along. The concepts in each collection speak of what is ours. The items in the collections are made out of donated hand-me-downs, old or discarded clothes and are being re-produced locally.
Two types of zero-waste patterns are articulated into the pattern design: one of them standardizes like garments while the other makes the most of the roll of cloth and permits to elaborate unique pieces based on disposed textiles. Each piece is genderless and its size adapts to different body builds. These design moves help generate comfortable timeless durable items, with a low-impact on the environment.
The GARCIA BELLO concept originated in Tierra del Fuego province, in the south of Argentina, by Juliana Garcia Bello (a graduate in Clothing Designer from FADU (School of Architecture, Design and Urban Planning, UBA). The brand was later founded in La Plata, Buenos Aires, Argentina in 2017, in the dining room of her grandmother Dora Duba house. Later on, in October 2019, the company moved to Arnhem, the Netherlands. For more information, please visit: www.garciabello.com.ar
