Brazilian Designer Showcases Dresses Made of Recycled Soda Cans

Sponsors of the Climate Week, which kicks off in Rio de Janeiro on November 4, invited a designer to show clothes made of recycled materials–mainly, soda cans.

Joel de Souza was a poor construction worker who always knew he was an artist. Inspired by his sister’s efforts to make a dress out of the tabs of soda cans, de Souza made a blouse out of the material. “It took me almost 2 months,” he says.

That was the beginning of a new career–one that has already taken de Souza to several fashion shows in Brazil and abroad.

De Souza has learned to use not only the tabs but the whole soda can to make delicate dresses, blouses and jewellery. He says it takes 10 days to make one short dress.