The Fabric Left on the Cutting-Room Floor Becomes a Tallinn Shirt

Reet Aus, a Tallinn label running since 2012, developed UPMADE, an industrial upcycling method made with the Stockholm Environment Institute Tallinn Center, that turns pre-production leftover fabric into finished garments so no extra cloth is woven. Traditional clothing manufacturing leaves an average of 18% of fabric as leftovers, and the company says each UPMADE garment saves about 75% of water and 88% of energy on average. The UPMADE collection won the 2023 German Ecodesign Award, and the label's Trash To Trend studio runs repair and upcycling workshops. Reet Aus says more than 200 organisations wear its clothing, and in November 2025 it was in its third year of turning Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival banners into new products.