The Corset Revival Project Turns Historic Corsets into Sustainable Wearable Art

Approximately 150 corsets destined for landfill arrived in Andrea Benahmed Djilali and Dr Esther Pugh’s hands in August 2025 and, since then, the Corset Revival Project has transformed more than 100 of them into wearable art. Dr Esther Pugh, a fashion marketing academic at Leeds Beckett University, captures the project's alchemy in one line: "Born from an extraordinary stroke of serendipity, the project has transformed more than 100 discarded corsets into unique works of wearable art, each one honouring the past while pointing towards fashion’s circular future."

The project is organised by the Circular Fashion Incubator CIC, a Leeds-based community interest company founded in 2023 and described in project materials as a not-for-profit working "at the intersection of the circular economy, fashion, and cultural heritage." Andrea Benahmed Djilali is named as the founder of the Circular Fashion Incubator CIC and has shepherded the initiative's relationship with an international network of makers and curators.

Production and participation followed a tight schedule. CuratorSpace timeline entries list the dispatching of corsets in Autumn/Winter 2025, the return of completed designs in February 2026, and exhibitions plus an International Circular Fashion Week Conference showcase in March 2026. A publication collecting the project’s outcomes is slated for Summer 2026. Those dates frame the project's rapid lifecycle from rescue to exhibition-ready pieces in under a year.

The collaboration was pitched as both a creative and professional opportunity. CuratorSpace states, "By joining this project, artists will be part of an internationally connected network working on creativity, heritage, and sustainability, while building professional visibility and contributing to a charitable cause." That language reflects the incubator’s broader activity: organising the International Circular Fashion Week Conference and the International Circular Fashion Competition alongside workshops and exhibitions that support emerging and established artists.

Visually the project leans into craft and repair; one image credit supplied on social media names a corset by Chloe Haywood, captioned "Corset by Chloe Haywood. Image courtesy of The Corset." The Costume Society framing asks the durational question that drives the work: "What happens when historic garments are rescued from the waste stream and placed in the hands of today’s most imaginative makers?" The Corset Revival Project supplies a concrete answer through tangible pieces moving from landfill risk to gallery and wardrobe.

Exhibitions and the ICFWC showcase in March 2026 will be the project's next visible moment, followed by the Summer 2026 publication that promises documentation of process and outcomes. For now, the record stands: a Leeds-based circular fashion incubator, two co-creators, a rescued batch of roughly 150 corsets from August 2025, and more than 100 newly reworked garments making the case that heritage restoration and adaptive reuse can be both sustainable practice and wearable art.