Media
Heke Design Story
Second-hand fashion is booming. From op shops to resale apps, buying pre-loved clothing is rapidly becoming mainstream, particularly among younger consumers. Analysts predict the global resale clothing market will continue growing rapidly and could overtake fast fashion by 2029, driven largely by Gen Z and millennial shoppers embracing thrift culture.
Yet despite this surge in second-hand shopping, New Zealand continues to discard enormous volumes of clothing. Around 180,000 tonnes of clothing and textile waste are sent to landfill in Aotearoa every year – about 34 kilograms per person. In fact, textiles are one of the country’s fastest-growing waste streams, with estimates suggesting up to 220,000 tonnes of textile waste may be entering New Zealand landfills annually.
Heke Design is a sustainable fashion label founded by Bea Lorimer and based on Waiheke Island, New Zealand. The label specialises in upcycled clothing made from reclaimed garments sourced from op shops and textile waste streams. Specialising in denim and merino, each piece is individually redesigned and reconstructed, giving existing materials a second life while reducing textile waste.
Heke Design in the Media
 |
 |
 |
Waiheke Island Gulf News Feature Article
For editorial features, interview requests, or commentary on sustainable manufacturing in New Zealand, please contact us.
Founder Story: Bea Lorimer
For upcycling expert Bea Lorimer, founder of Heke Design on Waiheke Island, the country's landfill figures highlight a deeper issue in the way clothing is produced and consumed.
"Second-hand shopping is growing really quickly, which is encouraging," Bea says. "But there’s still an enormous amount of clothing going straight to landfill. So much of it is perfectly usable fabric." Learn more about Bea here.
A New Generation Driving Change
Younger consumers are one of the key drivers behind the rise of second-hand fashion. Gen Z, in particular, is leading a broader cultural shift toward circular fashion – embracing thrifting, clothing swaps, resale platforms and vintage shopping.
Alongside this trend has been a revival of traditional textile skills. Across social media and craft communities, younger people are rediscovering sewing, knitting, mending and upcycling – part of a growing movement that values creativity, individuality and extending the life of clothing.
For Bea, this shift feels familiar. Long before sustainability became a mainstream conversation, she was already drawn to thrift stores and second-hand clothing as a teenager growing up in Vancouver, Canada. While many of her friends bought their clothes new, Bea preferred the originality of vintage pieces and army surplus finds.
"I loved the idea that you could find something nobody else had," she says. "You could put pieces together in your own way."
Reimagining What Already Exists
Today, that instinct sits at the heart of Heke Design.
Rather than designing garments from new fabric, Bea often begins with second-hand clothing sourced from op shops or textile waste streams. Shirts, dresses and other garments are dismantled, re-cut and transformed into contemporary designs, with each piece becoming a creative puzzle shaped by the existing fabric.
"It’s about looking at what already exists and seeing the possibilities," Bea says. "There’s so much clothing already in the world that can be reimagined."
Before launching her label, Bea spent years travelling internationally in wardrobe roles for major artists including k.d. lang, Leonard Cohen, The Tragically Hip and Diana Krall. Today she works from her Waiheke studio creating one-of-a-kind garments that extend the life of clothing that might otherwise have been discarded.
While the rise of thrift culture is an encouraging sign that consumer attitudes are changing, Bea believes the next step is rethinking the entire lifecycle of clothing.
"Buying second-hand is part of the solution," she says. "But we also need to get better at using what we already have and finding creative ways to keep clothing in circulation."
For Bea, that process begins with a simple shift in perspective: seeing value where others might only see waste.