Alex & Dåda is a business focused on textile reuse, upcycling and sustainable design. The company combines a conscious approach to sustainable consumption with practical production, sales and social inclusion.

Circularity and sustainability at the core

The business is dedicated to giving new life to used clothing and textiles. Materials sourced from second-hand shops, private individuals or estates are sorted and transformed into new garments or products, often with new design and function.

By reusing existing textiles, Alex & Dåda minimises the need for newly produced materials and contributes to reducing textile waste.

For materials that are in too poor condition for upcycling, a recycling route is used: fibres are sent to specialised actors that can process them into new materials, such as insulation. This underlines a circular perspective even for textiles that cannot be reused as they are.

The business has a “zero-waste” orientation, with a strictly limited residual waste stream (for example, only half a sack per month sent for recycling) and an ambition to further reduce the remaining waste.

Production, design and sales

Alex & Dåda produces new garments both for its own sales channels (webshop and physical store) and for retailers, with collections tailored to different target groups, styles or values (for example artists and performers, medieval-inspired styles or feminist-oriented collections).

Customers can also order made-to-measure garments, for example based on their own favourite items, either newly produced from recycled fabrics or through the remaking of existing garments. This offers an alternative to buying new and supports more sustainable consumption.

Children’s clothing is offered at particularly accessible prices, making it easier for families to choose reused products despite the significant amount of manual work behind each garment.

Social sustainability and inclusion

The business has a strong social dimension: Alex & Dåda engages people in work training, often through municipal labour market programmes or similar initiatives. Participants gain work experience, new skills and practical knowledge, with opportunities for future employment or self-employment.

The business has previously collaborated with initiatives such as SFI (Swedish for Immigrants) and provides a space where hands-on practice, learning and social recovery are combined with environmental sustainability.

Local and global interaction

Alex & Dåda cooperates with local associations, second-hand actors and private individuals for the collection of textiles, which means that the textile flows are often local and connected to social networks and communities.

Through sales via its webshop and through retailers in different parts of Sweden — and sometimes internationally, for example through collaborations with festivals and retailers abroad — the business contributes to the dissemination of circular fashion beyond the local area.

The business also supports regional development by participating in local projects to make the area more attractive to residents and visitors, including offering a shop, a gallery and a local meeting place for courses and creative activities.

Education and awareness-raising

Alex & Dåda organises workshops, gives lectures and takes part in initiatives to inspire people to rethink their textile consumption. The ambition is to increase awareness of the environmental and social costs of textiles and to demonstrate alternatives through reuse and redesign.

By combining practical work, design, sales and social inclusion, the business demonstrates that fashion and textiles can have a sustainable, creative and socially conscious place in society.