Luxury upcycled fashion brand Byt, from Hong Kong NGO Redress, has made its debut at Barneys New York, Lane Crawford and on its own online platform, bytlife.com.

Its inaugural collection of jackets uses unwanted luxury-brand fabrics to promote the message that fashion, as one of the world’s biggest environmental polluters, can be a force for good. Global textile production is on a huge scale, says Redress. China, which is responsible for more than half of global textile production, has an output of more than 80 billion metres of textiles annually.

Meanwhile, the fashion industry’s total annual textile waste stands at an estimated 92 billion tonnes.

From emerging designers Kevin Germanier and Victor Chu, the inaugural BYT limited-edition collection features timeless lines with a twist offered in black, ivory, blue, houndstooth, pinstripes and tweed in upcycled light-weight wool, cady crepe and denim. There is also an exclusive capsule of crafted pieces using rescued brocades.

Redress’s 10-year legacy of pioneering work to reduce waste in the fashion industry set the scene for Byt. To maximise impact, 10 per cent of Byt’s profits will be donated to Redress.

Byt co-founder Christina Dean says the brand is based close to the world’s fashion production powerhouses, where most clothes are produced along with associated waste.

Byt worked with environmental consultancy Reset Carbon on a carbon footprint life-cycle analysis. The results suggest a typical Byt upcycled jacket has a 60 per cent reduced carbon footprint compared with a similar jacket created from virgin materials – equivalent to diverting 14,882 plastic bottles from landfill.

Byt’s product offerings will soon expand with a luxury upcycled knitwear collection, designed by Kate Morris, winner of the EcoChic Design Award. This will be launched on the Byt e-commerce site next month.