“ Let Our Textiles Tell Your Story™ “
Sans Soucie is an award winning upcycling innovation textile design studio and label founded by Katherine Soucie in Vancouver (2003), relocating in London in 2019 and re-establishing in 2022.
From 2003 - 2019 the Canadian based studio was unique in that it specialised in the zero waste transformation and industrial upcycling of waste hosiery (pre-consumer waste hosiery, castoff pantyhose, tights acquired from hosiery mills in Montreal) into new textiles, garments, accessories, soft furnishings, 3D forms and installations. We were in the process of setting up our sister studio location in London when we received news from our material partner of their mill closure in Canada. This led us to to close our studio in Vancouver as this waste, which was our feedstock material and supply chain, was no longer available. This meant that our unique Canadian cultural textile was positioned to retire.
This material concept that started out as a student project in 2002, led to years material research and development. It is responsible for creating an upcycling textile blueprint that is now part of a new venture working with British sock manufacturing waste. In 2022, we established a partnership with a British sock manufacturer to acquire their manufacturing ends and waste. This is currently the subject of Ms. Soucie’s PhD research at Kingston University London where she is currently focusing on her efforts to transform this resource into a new generation of upcycled textiles for use in fashion, accessories, soft furnishings and installations.
Each Sans Soucie upcycled textile collection, past and present is unique due to the nature of the process. The material research over the years continues to showcase the valuable role that waste textiles has to offer as a tool for fostering sustainable textile research, creative reuse and regenerative design methods.
Our studio focuses on hybrid methods of making where artisanal textile techniques and experimental methods are combined with obsolete sewing/textile machinery and digital technology in order to reimagine the role and use of tools and machinery in the creative remanufacturing of textile waste. What emerges from this process are limited edition heirloom upcycled textiles that connects people with time and place, allowing for a (re)location in practice and consumption.
What sets us apart from other textile upcycling practices is our consideration for upcycling systems thinking and how this is embedded into our approach. We are not just creatively reusing materials, machine and methods - we aim to consider the entire lifecycle and system from which it operates, serves and reciprocates.
Sans Soucie is motivated to design meaningful textiles, collections and artefacts by reclaiming the act of local/regional cultural textile production through creative remanufacturing. Our alternate business model and holistic design approach focuses on wellbeing of the textile throughout its transformation process alongwith that of all of the participants who are involved in the process (people, machines, tools, etc.)
The design studio is based in East London where our current focus is on new material development using pre-consumer sock waste from our material partners, hosiery and sock manufacturers based in the UK midlands. Our textile upcycling blue print is informing our design approach to combine upcycling with regenerative methods, obsolete sewing and textile machinery to create a new generation of UK made upcycled textiles, apparel and accessories.
