The ’90s and ’00s fashion revival inspired AG to embark on one of its own. The premium denim brand dropped The Revival Workshop collection, a range of archived denim inventory marked for recycling that has been reinterpreted for today. The collection spans denim shorts, jeans and jackets for men and women, and features hand-finished details like dip-dye effects, frayed hems and distressing.
The Revival Workshop first launched in June 2020 with a limited-edition run of shorts cut from archived inventory, and its success inspired the brand to turn it into an annual occurrence.
Retailing for $145-$245, the collection includes light-wash denim shorts with a cutoff waistband and frayed hem, stonewashed black denim shorts with front paneling, and a two-toned sleeveless denim jacket for women. For men, distressed straight leg jeans with a rolled cuff and cargo pants anchor an otherwise shorts-dominated range. Cutoff denim shorts in light indigo and white and a pair of green cargo shorts round out the collection.
Hitting just in time for festival season, the limited-edition line channels all of the retro fashion that was on display at Coachella last weekend. As part of its sustainability focus, the popular festival organizer encouraged concert-goers to repurpose clothing they already had, as festival fashion is notoriously wasteful. According to resale platform ThredUp, 42 percent of 2022 festival-goers planned to buy a new festival outfit—translating to 26.9 million new outfits—and 40 percent of Gen Z respondents indicated that they were unlikely to re-wear said outfits.
Reinterpreting vintage styles has become a key strategy for fashion brands. Last month, Atelier & Repair co-founder, CEO and creative director Maurizio Donadi reinterpreted Dockers ’80s-style pleated khakis for today. Through the Transnomadica upcycling initiative he launched in 2020, Donadi redesigned the khakis to offer them in the original khaki color, an un-dyed twill and a patchwork combination of the two. A more casual version of the pant with an elastic waist was also part of the collection.
Breathing new life into existing garments helps brands work through unsold inventory, as fashion’s waste problem becomes more prominent and governments slap top offenders with fines. In 2020, France became the first country to ban the destruction of unsold non-food products. Its anti-waste law forbids companies from sending their unsold goods to the landfill or incinerator, and instead forces them to reuse, donate or recycle them. Some companies turned to repacking inventory into “mystery boxes” for consumers looking to update their wardrobes, while finishing technology firm Jeanologia developed its “reTECH” concept to update deadstock using its laser technology.
AG’s Revival Workshop collection is now available online.