Revive and reuse: Repair Shop encourages creative sustainability in Shanghai
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Poster of The Repair Shop's three-day event. Scan the QR code to register.
Ti Gong -
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Imagine living in a world where you could repair and repurpose items, from a pair of jeans to a vintage electrical piece. Join this circular economy through The Repair Shop, a three-day event hosted at the Design Innovation Institute Shanghai from Jan 19 to 21.
"The beauty of reformation can be applied to all different things that are part of our daily lives, be it our phones, computers, transportation, or clothing," said Simon Collins, an influential fashion educator and the chief creative at DIIS who started the event. "Everything that we interact with on a daily basis has the potential to be upcycled or regenerated."
Following a career that led him from being creative director for some of the world's leading brands to the former dean of the School of Fashion at Parsons in New York, Collins is now based in Shanghai, leading the creative team at DIIS. Located in the North Bund central business area of Hongkou District, the DIIS was founded in 2020 in cooperation with the Shanghai Commission of Economy and Informatization, Shanghai Education Commission, Hongkou District Government, and Hillhouse Investment.
Since the beginning of 2023, the heritage building of the Henry Lester Institute of Technical Education has been home to the DIIS, a non-profit advanced research institution dedicated to creating world-leading design innovation with real-world impact.
In addition to his role at the DIIS, Collins also runs his own consultancy company, The House of Collins. Additionally, he is a distinguished visiting professor at both Tsinghua and Donghua universities.
The Design Innovation Institute Shanghai is located in the North Bund central business district of Hongkou District.
The concept of circularity is far from novel, Collins said.
"I live in a lane house here which reminds me of where I grew up in England in an equivalent house. My mother and my family, along with those grandmothers who live in the lanes of Shanghai, don't throw things away – they fix things, and they are used to that. I want to remind people about that culture."
The motivation for organizing The Repair Shop was "to celebrate the positive outcomes that arise from repairing."
"Repair doesn't simply mean putting a big patch on your knee but making something better out of the old," he said.
One participating brand at The Repair Shop is Times Remake. They take vintage Levi's jeans or American workwear and embellish them with print, embroidery, paint, or patchwork to make them look much cooler and more desirable.
"They are not repairing or upcycling; they are reviving and recreating in a way that enhances desirability," Collins explained.
HOTO, a Shanghai based tool company that repairs, recycles and revives items will supply tools for the event. Other participating brands include Moovi (foldable bikes, scooters, and skateboards); TRASHAUS (creating 3D printing artwork from recycled materials); JALAB (an organization focusing on research and design of jewelry using plant-based materials); PADDYPOST (a fashion company utilizing recycled fabrics to make postcards); Da Nao Bu (creating through recycled materials); Xin Chen Jian (the first hackerspace in China and an active non-profit maker community); and Xin Yu (reviving patchwork art from the Chinese Loess Plateau).
Simon Collins – a design thinker, speaker, writer, educator, designer, and advisor – is based in Shanghai as the chief creative at the Design Innovation institute Shanghai and has his own creative consultancy company, The House of Collins Shanghai.
JALAB is an innovative organization focusing on research and design for jewelry.
Xin Chen Jian is dedicated to encouraging the general public to engage in creation and to transform their enthusiasm into reality.
Brands from many fields will showcase their products and demonstrate how they can be customized, repaired, and upcycled. Through fixing, painting, styling, tailoring, embellishing, and more, on-site artisans will show how items can be improved and kept in circulation, minimizing wastage.
Among the live demonstrations, a tattoo artist will paint skateboards; a team from Tongji University will use reconstituted plastic for jewelry making; there will be on-site 3D printing; and artisans will transform fabrics into postcards and bags.
"When I look at the different players I brought in to The Repair Shop, I don't know what they're going to create when they are together and I'm really excited to find out," Collins said. It will become a kind of engine for creativity and innovation and that's what I'm looking forward to. The Repair Shop is about building a community, both in terms of the participants and the audience. I want people to connect and exchange ideas."
PADDYPOST is a fashion company using recycled fabrics to make postcards and other items.
It's often said that sustainability is not a destination but a journey.
"You can't be sustainable but what you can do is to act more sustainably and that applies to all of us, from farmers using organic pesticides, to recycling their waste, through to designers using raw materials appropriately but, more importantly, designing for circularity because you can't achieve circularity if you didn't design for it in the beginning," Collins said.
The panel discussions during The Repair Salon will focus on two topics: "Make the old better than the new," and "How to design better from the start."
Collins advises brands and companies, governments and institutions, and gives major speeches at global conferences.
The future of the design industry is identified by Collins as embracing sustainability, diversity, and technology.
"Sustainability has to be a vital aspect of companies' futures. I'm confident we are going to be working toward a good solution and I see China going to be at the forefront of that solution," said the design thinker and speaker, who considers himself as a catalyst for brands, companies and institutions. "I see AI being a fantastic tool. I'm not scared of it and I don't think people should be. People should look for ways to work with it."
What Collins finds exciting in Shanghai is that young people have the ability and opportunities to create their own concepts and make them happen.
"The costs of starting a new concept is way too high in the West but here, you can still do that. When I look around where I live downtown, there are so many stores, little restaurants run by two or three people – they got together and they make it happen for themselves. That's so liberating."
Event Info
The Repair Salon
Date: Jan 19, 6pm-8:30pm
The Repair Fair
Date: Jan 20-21, 10am-6pm
Venue: Design Innovation Institute Shanghai
Address: 505 East Changzhi Rd | 东长治路505号
