AW 2026

"UNRAVELING A WORN SYSTEM"

FRED RICH X Kai Barry

Every fabric tells a story. Every seam is a decision. Every discarded garment reflects the system that made it so.

We live in a world that discards; clothes, animals, land, people. A system that values only what is new, untouched, not yet lived.

Upcycling is political. But more than that, it is a belief: that everything deserves to be seen, to be valued, to continue.

It speaks a language of resistance; through fabrics rescued from landfills, through handcraft that our world has too little of and at Fred Rich also through an aesthetic deeply rooted in punk: a refusal to be silent.

Patriarchy, Capitalism, Fast Fashion, Exploitation. The connections are no coincidence. And neither is the answer.

(The Knitwear Scraps Jersey was co created with Marlene van Jaarsveld.)