katcha's profile
Name: katcha bilek
Gender: Female
Birthday: 28th August 1972
For the past 10 years I have been designing and making fashion accessories from recycled materials and each item was an instant success. At first it was more of a hobby, supplementing my income when I was working in Prague and then in Barcelona. I started to set up my own company when I returned to the UK in 2007. It was an easy choice to make; it's something I love doing, it creates value out of worthless materials and promotes awareness of our environment and of the resources and materials we use daily. It is an interesting process; each item becomes useful instead of being another scrap of landfill.
I have developed a new range of fashion accessories, endeavouring to bring recycling to consumers without compromising on style.
My collection is called re-Collect. The bags and purses are made of truck inner tubes collected from local tyre repair centres. The straps on them are old car seatbelts from local car scrap yards. The belts are made of bike tyres from local bike shops. Everything is hand made locally, cut and sewn by hand with no use of electrical machinery or children. One hundred percent vegan, the materials are an ecologically sound alternative to animal products and due to the nature of the material each product is unique. A bag can be cut from the same pattern as another but the outcome will be different.
