School of Visual Arts

Thesis Project

Indivisual Project

4.17.2025

Advisor: Peipei Bao

JOEY is my MFA thesis project that explores sustainable fashion through the upcycling of old denim. By transforming worn-out jeans into custom, stylish bags, JOEY encourages people to rethink waste and rediscover value in what they already own.

The project provides a design-led service where customers can send in their unused denim and receive a one-of-a-kind accessory in return. Each bag tells a story—of memory, transformation, and conscious choice. Leftover materials are also reused to create small accessories, ensuring minimal waste throughout the process.

Why I start JOEY

Denim is meant to be strong, durable, and long-lasting — but fast fashion tells us to buy more and throw things out faster.

This mindset creates massive textile waste. Every year, millions of garments end up in landfills, wasting resources and polluting the environment. And yet, many of those clothes still hold value — not just in fabric, but in memory.

That’s why I created JOEY.
To give meaningful pieces a second life.
I started with denim because it’s timeless, personal, and worth saving.

The
Story

Meet Emma.
She’s 28, lives in the city, works in creative marketing.
She shops at vintage stores, brings her own tote to the farmers’ market.
She doesn’t chase trends — she chooses meaning.

One weekend, while cleaning her closet, Emma found an old pair of jeans — soft, faded, frayed at the knees.
She had worn them on road trips, first dates, solo walks. They still felt like her.

She sent them to JOEY.

A few weeks later, a package arrived. Inside was a custom bag — cut and stitched from her denim.
The tag read No. 123456. She looked it up on the JOEY site, and saw what the leftover fabric became: a small cardholder and a pouch, made for someone else.

It wasn’t just a bag.
It was part of her story — carried forward, piece by piece.

One day, she’s cleaning her closet and finds a pair of old jeans she no longer wears.

Just as she’s about to toss them, she sees a JOEY ad on Instagram: "Got old jeans? Turn them into your next favorite bag."

She clicks in, Emma sees inspiring before-and-after photos of upcycled denim bags. She also sees story behind every bag.

She learns that every bag is made from your own jeans, and each one is completely unique. There are three different sizes, small, medium and large.

Emma chooses the medium size. She uploads a photo of her jeans to make sure they’re a good fit for the bag she wants. After she gets approved, She receives a prepaid shipping label from JOEY.

She sends in her jeans, and over the next few weeks, gets little updates as they’re being turned into something new.

Let’s step into JOEY’s world. Watch how Emma’s old jeans become a brand-new Joeybag.

A few weeks later, her JoeyBag arrives. It’s beautiful. It’s practical. And it’s hers—designed from something that used to sit in the back of her closet. Inside the package is a small card with a number.
She learns that leftover fabric from her jeans was turned into small accessories—like card holders or AirPods case. With her bag number, she gets 10% off to collect a matching piece.
It’s how we make sure nothing goes to waste!

Emma also finds out we’re hosting pop-up events in different cities. There, customers can: bring in their jeans in person, watch denim being upcycled live,

And if you’re in the first 100, a street artist will add a custom graffiti tag to your bag

Emma had a great experience—but this is just the beginning. To ensure quality, we currently focus on denim redesign.
But as we grow, we plan to expand to more fabrics, like corduroy, leather and wool.

We also plan to expand to more product types.

We’re also exploring collaborations with luxury bag brands, where their designers will use your own jeans to create exclusive, high-end designs—made just for you. Isn’t that exciting?

Kangyi Joey Wu

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©Kangyi Joey Wu 2022—’25

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