On Friday, the 11th of April, an unusual performance will take place in Vilnius—students will make reusable bags out of old clothes at a Humana shop. The organisers, Vilnius Tech and Vilnius City, are trying to draw attention to the huge pollution in the fashion world and to encourage residents to find new uses for old items.

Can art inspire change?

The performance Seam by Seam, which will take place at Humana, 17 Konarskio Street, Vilnius, was conceived by Vilnius Tech students Evita Nevedomskytė, Simona Charitonenkovaitė, Armantė Kiškytė, and Jekaterina Lancova, and will be realised in collaboration with Vilnius City.

‘Our aim is to promote sustainable consumption and textile recycling. Giving new life to old clothes is a way to do that. We want to involve the community in the creative process and inform them about responsible consumption. After all, art can be a tool for great social change,’ believes A. Kiškytė, one of the organisers.

Anyone can come to Humana to pick up a bag. The organisers of Seam by Seam will be making the bags out of old clothes that they have brought with them and that have been donated by pupils from 11-12 grades of Vilnius Žemynos Gymnasium and other Vilnius residents, and they encourage others to do the same. In this way, clothes that are no longer worn will find a new use instead of going into the bin. And somewhere else, a cloth bag will remain unpurchased because the owner has made one themselves.

‘The performance is not just about recycling a few garments, but about visualising the message that textiles can be recycled and that unused clothes do not have to become rubbish. If more people saw new options in their wardrobes instead of outdated clothes, it would be much easier to reduce the pollution caused by the fashion industry,’ says the Vilnius Tech student.

April is a month of sustainable fashion

The show is timely, as April is globally recognised as a month of sustainable fashion. During this month, various sustainability-related organisations organise activities to help reduce pollution in the fashion industry by giving people ideas on how to reuse old clothes instead of buying new ones.

The scale of the problem is hard to comprehend, with an estimated 90 million tonnes of textiles discarded worldwide every year. This means that statistically, a truckload of clothes intended for landfills is dumped on the planet every second. Moreover, the fashion industry is responsible for as much as a fifth of the world’s water pollution.

To contribute to the promotion of sustainable fashion, ‘Vilnius—the European Green Capital 2025’ is organising various activities in April: free textile repair workshops, wardrobe organisation lectures, and similar events.

Jurga Pociūtė-Mikūtienė, Project Manager of ‘Vilnius—the European Green Capital 2025’, says that the most important change is to make sustainability fashionable.

‘Over the last fifteen years, the average number of times when a garment is worn has decreased by more than a third. We are used to buying quickly and throwing away just as quickly. But if we want a change of style, we don’t have to rush to buy. Old clothes can be changed into new ones, swapped with friends, or donated. The most important thing is that the urge to use and throw away goes out of fashion, and the thought of ‘how can I use what I already have?’ comes into vogue,’ says J. Pociūtė-Mikūtienė.

The performance Seam by Seam will take place in Vilnius, at 17 Konarskio Street, Humana, on Friday, the 11th of April, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Seam by Seam

11th of April, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Humana, 17 S. Konarskio Street

A performance/sewing ritual during which your unique tote bag will be born

Vilnius Tech, Faculty of Creative Industries

Vilnius—the European Green Capital 2025