SINGAPORE - Seven home-grown fashion labels have come together in a new initiative to provide free blueprints for people to turn their old clothes into new designer pieces.

Called Recustom, the sustainability project seeks to support local tailors and encourage people to repurpose old clothes instead of throwing them away.

The blueprints for the 15 designs – ranging from contemporary street looks to ethnic wear for both men and women – include instructions for tailors to construct each look, along with the type and quantity of pre-loved clothes needed to create it.

Depression, Graye Studio, Sabrinagoh, Ans.ein, Baebeeboo, Lark and Peony, and Kebaya by Ratianah are the fashion labels that have created the looks for the project.

The blueprints can be downloaded from Recustom’s website, which was launched on April 11.

Graye’s creative director Xie Qian Qian provided the blueprint for the Shoto Baseball Collar Top, which has adjustable buckles. She suggested using different striped shirts to make this.

Sabrina Goh, founder of her eponymous label, designed the Goen Bucket Hat, which can be made with multiple pieces of fabric of different materials.

The idea for the initiative came from creative agency Tribal Worldwide Singapore, which brought on the fashion designers and the National Heritage Board (NHB).

Tribal’s executive creative director Benson Toh said one of the goals of Recustom is to “rejuvenate old trades such as those of tailors and craftspeople of ethnic wear by makin...