Documentary: ReClothing – Hardworking Fashion

Award-Winning Documentary on Sustainable Fashion Design – Global Skin Prize 2013

Daniel Kroh makes fashion from waste. More precisely: from old workwear that would otherwise be incinerated. He rescues the fabric, gives it new meaning – and turns the marks of hard physical labour into a distinctive design detail. The result: suits, coats, jackets and womenswear that carry a story you can feel, long before they ever reach a shop floor.

»I am a craftsman. Glamour and craftsmanship together« – that is the sentence that describes Daniel Kroh most precisely. Our film shows what that means: not as a self-description, but as lived practice.

From a Hamburg Factory to the MQ Vienna Fashion Week – Three Cities, One Film

The documentary was made between June and November 2012 across three locations: in Hamburg, where Daniel Kroh rummages through second-hand textile depots and factory floors in search of usable material; in his Berlin studio, where the salvaged fabric is transformed into new cuts through meticulous handcraft; and finally in Vienna, where the collection was presented to an audience for the first time at the MQ Vienna Fashion Week. Director Stephanie Drescher and cameraman Uwe Schwarze were the sole film team throughout – working on this documentary with great passion and personal commitment.

This structure was not a logistical necessity – it was the film's dramaturgy. From raw material to fashion show: a three-part arc about craftsmanship, conviction and the question of what fashion can be when it stops discarding and starts thinking forward.

How We Developed the Film

The editing concept emerged from long conversations with Daniel Kroh and the conviction that this film must not become a polished image brochure. What interested us was the person behind the concept – his doubts, his precision, his humour. Lines such as »In search of images of masculinity.« or »The feeling that you've made it never arrives« stayed in the film because they reveal what drives Kroh: not self-promotion, but a genuine struggle for what is right.

Visually, we worked with an observational camera style – close, without staging. The transitions between production phases were deliberately set to tracking shots and electronic music, generating pace and tension without breaking the handcrafted rhythm of the film.

2nd Place at the International Global Skin Competition

In January 2013, »ReClothing – Hardworking Fashion« was awarded second place at the international Global Skin film competition – a competition that recognises films on the themes of sustainability, fashion and social responsibility. At a time when upcycling in the fashion world was not yet a trend, but a conviction.