The beginning was almost the end. While still studying fashion design, Nils Neubauer designed a jumpsuit as a semester project. The material: suit fabrics that he had received from the Berlin City Mission. The idea: to use discarded but well-preserved materials for something new. The reaction: his lecturer doubted whether she could evaluate this design at all. Upcycling, i.e. the upgrading reprocessing of old materials, was not part of the curriculum at that time. And Neubauer wasn't sure whether this course of study, whether fashion design was really the right thing for him.
That was five years ago. Today, the now 29-year-old receives in a light-flooded shop in Berlin's Ostbahnhof. Above the entrance and on the clothes and accessories inside the store, "Moot" is written in large letters. The abbreviation for made out of trash is the program of the label, which Neubauer founded together with Michael Pfeifer in spring 2020 and which stands for T-shirts and dresses, bags and coats made of fabrics that used to be bed linen, woollen blankets, pillowcases or even seat belts. With T-shirts made of jersey bed linen, the friends who have become business partners advertise right at the entrance to their shop.
Upcycling is now on the timetable
Walk-in customers find their way here as well as convinced fans – and fashion students. Neubauer is particularly pleased about their visit, he has also given lectures at his former university, and upcycling is now also on the timetable there. "It's great that something has moved, but I had to fight for it," says Neubauer. When he describes himself as a pioneer, it doesn't sound boastful, but more like an almost perplexed statement. Probably also because the idea behind Moot is good, but not new.
Or as Michael Pfeifer puts it: "Upcycling is not rocket science, it's been around for a long time." But in contrast to most parts that are produced using the upcycling process, the Moot individual pieces are not intended to be niche products, but to reach the masses in the long term. Pfeifer and Neubauer have already found strong partners in their project, such as the Thalia bookstore chain. She sells Moot's tote bags – the material was formerly used for cushion covers.
The company's own store, which the founders opened at the end of 2021 as part of a Deutsche Bahn start-up program, also corresponds to the concept of upcycling suitable for the masses: water pipes have been converted into clothes rails, bags and belts hang from construction fences, and tightly laced textile bales serve as seating. But the whole thing doesn't come across as the usual patina chic of gloomy Berlin factory halls, which are often rented for fashion events, where garbage bags draped into robes are presented as upcycling, but look more like cryptic art.
Here the lines are clear, the walls bright, the explanations of the products, materials and their origin are omnipresent on panels and walls.