Soraya Wancour is the inspiration and founder of Studio AMA. A place to replicate an alternative model within the fashion industry. The company strives to adopt the most sustainable and ethical way of working.

To achieve this, Studio AMA uses circular principles in design, raw materials, sales and production. According to Soraya, there is an urgent need to find an alternative to fast fashion. There is still too much under-valued textile waste. With Studio AMA, she wants to develop a second life for it.

The designer is a strong advocate of the short chain. This system is already known in the food industry, but is not yet a determining factor in the fashion world. She wants to change this by working with materials that are already available, in collaboration with Belgian workshops. This gives the designer the opportunity to do everything locally and there is no need for intermediaries.

In addition to ready-to-wear clothing, Studio AMA also offers workshops on the sustainable use of clothing. The target group is offered knowledge and skills for repair and alteration work. The ‘Goed Gekleed’ platform inspires and informs on how to informs on how you can integrate sustainability into your wardrobe.

Soraya participates in TOP-atelier with a new idea around the upcycling of men’s shirts and especially with the preservation of the specific elements of the shirts, namely the collars, the cuffs, the row of buttons, … in the creations.

• Design phase: The material at the end of its life is always her source of inspiration. From this, she developed a linking system by positioning different men’s shirts on different parts of the body. For example, the collar becomes the size of a skirt.
• Choice of materials: Studio AMA chose men’s shirts with a specific colour palette.
• Influence of the technical criteria of the materials on the design: Studio AMA did not start from parts of the model, but from a reconstruction. Collars, cuffs, … determined the size of the final piece.
• Influence of the ‘circular design’ methodology: Studio AMA works with end-of-life materials. For their design, they examined the material, the shapes, the seams, … .