A London-based designer is creating eco-friendly fashion – using materials destined for landfill.
Laura Zabo crafts belts, jewellery such as earrings and necklaces, and home design furniture from discarded bicycle and car tyres. Her creations are particularly popular with vegetarians, vegans, cyclists and fashion lovers.
Zabo says: “The abundance of trash is a tremendous problem for us and our planet, and we need to make more room for ideas that help us get rid of it or transform the excess, instead of producing more and more. I was inspired by seeing items made by the Masai for sale in the markets in Tanzania. I realized that I could create fashion that was beautiful but also that would use materials that were destined just to be thrown away, take generations to break down and poison the earth. Now we can not only save, but also celebrate, these tyres and tubes.”
Individually collected, retooled and reborn, Laura Zabo’s fashion range is an embodiment of the recycling, low waste movement. Whilst her belts and jewelry may ease the conscience, the look and style is paramount to her – this is not ‘make do and mend’ but rather a couture makeover for something that would otherwise just be binned.
The business has outgrown its roots in Spitalfields and Greenwich Markets and is now located at the new Cadiz Art Gallery on the Greenwich / Deptford borders which will open at the end of October 2016. Cadiz Music, a successful music and film company has embraced the freestyle fashion style and is helping to develop the Laura Zabo brand across the world. A North American licensing deal is about to be agreed in the next few weeks.
A new product range is coming to the market after tyre manufacturer Schwable showed their support and gave thousands of rejected tyres to Laura to upcycle. These tyres will make belts and accessories in many different designs and colours.