One day, Herbie Mensah was looking at the clothes piled in the cupboard under the stairs. He sells vintage fashion at Portobello Market in London, and “you get so much excess clothing”. He realised he couldn’t sell them, but couldn’t send them to landfill, either. “It was good-quality, designer labels. But it had holes. I really didn’t want to throw it away. I thought: ‘Experiment. Do something different.’”
He set about his collection of clothing with scissors and pins. He finished one piece – a dress made from shoe pockets – and took it to his market stall. It sold. “You think: ‘This is interesting.’ Next thing, I was getting orders.” He started to make trousers with overlaid prints and sliced and spliced jackets. “My kitchen became my studio.”
