Les Chaussettes Orphelines
While tidying up her two boys' drawers, Marcia, our designer, discovers a whole bunch of orphan socks: a universal but rarely explained phenomenon!
Not wanting to throw them away and therefore pollute, she decides to cut them up and create beautiful textile pictures, or to assemble them into new clothes.
In October 2008, she presents one of her creations at the Grand Prix de la Création de la Ville de Paris.
She then founded the association Chaussettes Orphelines to raise awareness of textile waste recycling through the realization of artistic creations made of socks.
The association also has a solidarity goal: anchored in the Goutte d'Or district in Paris, it organizes workshops for the integration of women from the district.
All the creations are made from socks and only from socks.
From sock assembly to recycling
The project was so successful that, faced with the influx of socks from all over France, Marcia chose to put engineers to work to design an industrial recycling process for these socks. With a French spinning mill, Marcia succeeded in transforming orphan socks into a new 100% recycled quality yarn.
From this yarn, new socks are knitted, but also gloves, hats, scarves, bags, clothes... The brand Chaussettes Orphelines - Marcia de Carvalho is born.
The circular economy is on the move! Through the sale of new recycled products, waste can be reduced and reused.
Portrait of the creator and project leader Márcia de Carvalho
Marcia, is a French-Brazilian stylist and fashion designer, born in Sao Paulo and graduated in fashion design in Paris. She has worked in prestigious fashion houses such as Chloé, Paule Ka, Torrente Azzaro, creating women's knitwear collections.
Passionate about knitwear, lace and natural materials, in love with craft techniques, her cosmopolitan culture and international career have constantly nourished her inspirations and her creative process.
It is her childhood memories and family history that formed the common thread of his professional adventure and her progressive evolution towards entrepreneurship. Since her mother ran a knitwear workshop, Marcia has had an emotional relationship with the materials and machines used to work them since I was a child. Her father, for his part, spent hours in his "inventor's workshop", and from that time on was concerned about recycling and sustainable development issues.
Collaborations with prestigious fashion houses and design offices
Graduated in fashion design in Paris, at the Fleuri Delaporte workshops, Marcia started her career in prestigious fashion houses, such as Popy Moreni, Chloé, Paule Ka, Torrente and Azzaro, as a design assistant for women's knitwear collections.
Her collaborations have taken her all over the world, including Italy, India, China and Japan. Marcia has also worked with influential international style agencies such as Nelly Rodi and Peclers to develop trend books on my favourite materials.
Marcia was awarded the insignia of Chevalier de l'Ordre National du Mérite for her overall work as a committed stylist
Glamorous and ecological fashion: a unique concept!
Do you want fashion that doesn't sacrifice style and respects the environment?
Chaussettes Orphelines offers you socks, clothing and accessories that allow you to combine style and values: all our collections are made from recycling, and not just any socks: sock recycling!!
And soon the recycling of your gloves, hats, scarves, and sweaters ...
They are campaigning for ethical fashion that preserves natural resources!
The bottom line:
- The manufacture of a garment (and therefore of a sock) is polluting.
Cotton production depletes our water reserves. A pair of 60 g cotton socks requires 1350 litres of water, or more than 20 showers!
20% of the world's water pollution comes from textiles, due to dyes.
- The end of life of an item of clothing (and therefore of a sock) is polluting.
90% of used or orphan socks are thrown in the trash.
With an annual consumption of 300 million pairs of socks in France, that's 16,000 tons of waste. The equivalent of 16,000 cars that we would scrap!
Their solution: use what already exists! Recycle!
The most environmentally friendly textiles are the ones we don't produce!
Why recycling socks?
We could have started by recycling sweaters, gloves, hats..., so why start with socks? That's right, why recycle a sock? A sock is so small!
Precisely because it's small and nearly 90% of socks are thrown in the trash (source Eco TLC). We had to act to save them! But we are going to recycle other knitted clothes or accessories very soon!
And then the socks:
- concern everyone (who has never found a sock with a hole in it?): the phenomenon is universal!
- are a fun way to raise awareness about recycling! Thanks to a simple sock, we become aware of the ecological stakes of our planet .... The sock is too strong ;-)
A true model of circular economy!
Want to conserve the planet's natural resources with us? Entrust us with your socks to be recycled and buy our recycled products! Yes, we dare to say it clearly, it is the change in the act of buying that will impact the environment. Giving away your used clothes and continuing to buy only new ones is not enough!
Let's save the planet with our feet!!!!
By buying socks, gloves, an Ipad cover, a hat, a scarf, a bag or a wallet directly from our online shop, you are making a concrete contribution to the recycling action.
Concretely, Chaussettes Orphelines is both an association and a shop.
The association
- Raises awareness of textile waste recycling through sock collections from the public or local authorities/companies,
- Participates in and supports social integration actions.
The shop
- buys the socks sorted from the association (and thus participates in the financing of the association's social activities),
- produces 100% recycled yarn,
- makes clothing & accessories from this thread of recycled socks,
- Makes his creations in France.
From chaussettes orphelines.com
Follow their Instagram.