A Singaporean designer has found an unexpected use for a once-ubiquitous piece of technology: the cassette tape.
Jessica “J.J.” Chuan is the founder of Singapore-based upcycling social enterprise Rehyphen, and has pioneered a textile called MusicCloth, woven from discarded cassette and video tapes.
The material has been transformed into a range of products, including clutch bags, clothing, and artworks. It has even reached the halls of Parliament: former Minister of State Amy Khor wore a blouse crafted from MusicCloth during a session on zero waste.
We spoke with J.J. to learn how this invention came about and how she is turning obsolete media into a sustainable and functional material.
The start of Rehyphen
J.J. has lived and worked in multiple countries. In 2009, she gained early exposure to the global fashion industry that would shape her approach to sustainability.
While working in business development for a fashion company in Shanghai, she visited a landfill for garment factory waste. There, she saw firsthand the staggering volume of discarded textiles and learned about the greenhouse gases, such as methane, released from such waste.
“This experience was a turning point for me,” she recalled. “It opened my eyes to the impact of the fashion industry and made me question broader human habits that contribute to landfill waste.”
A few years later, J.J. went on to study fashion design at Parsons School of Design in New York and joined renowned American designer Yeohlee Teng in New York as a fellow, where she honed her skills in zero-waste fashion design—experiences that would be key to Rehypen’s founding.
After graduating in 2016, J.J. returned to her home in Singapore. While tidying up her room, she came across a box of old cassette tapes.
Wanting to upcycle them to make space, she experimented first with embroidery and knitting—but only when she tried weaving did the concept come alive, giving birth to the first iteration of MusicCloth. The resulting sheets feel like durable plastic and shimmer with a metallic sheen.
Seeing the potential in her product, J.J. teamed up with her long-time friend Meelee Chiu, and together they spent nine months refining MusicCloth. They eventually developed a proprietary technique that produces smooth, clean edges, and the fabric is woven in a variety of basket-weave patterns for strength, stability, and durability—marking the start of Rehyphen.
Gaining international recognition
In late 2016, J.J. submitted her proprietary MusicCloth prototype to Material ConneXion, a renowned materials library in New York. The library was so impressed that it requested 20 additional swatches for its global branches, signaling the transition from a personal passion project to a brand with international recognition.
MusicCloth has since been showcased in other parts of the world, including the Red Dot Design Museum in Xiamen, China, and has drawn attention from British designer Kevin McCloud.
“People appreciate it when something they once owned is transformed into something useful, which creates a positive environmental impact while giving it intrinsic value,” J.J. explained.
According to the University of Glasgow, since their introduction in 1963, physical cassette tapes have consumed 56 million kilograms of plastic, not accounting for the environmental costs of vinyl or CDs. Rehyphen primarily upcycles discarded cassettes, along with DV tapes, donated by Mediacorp, Singapore Press Holdings, and United International Pictures.
Each piece created by J.J. and Meelee is unique, with cassettes of different colors and brands mixed to produce distinctive tones and patterns. To date, they’ve created a variety of artworks and even functional products like notebooks, though the brand has moved away from clothing due to the material’s plastic properties.
The team remains small, but when there are big projects or large corporate orders, the duo hires freelancers for extra help, often seniors who possess weaving skills.
Rehyphen in action: Mobile Cassette Tapes Museums and artistic engagement
Rehyphen showcases its creations through its Mobile Cassette Tapes Museums both locally and internationally, hosting interactive workshops and offering multi-sensory experiences that blend history, art, and sustainability.
“A mobile museum is versatile; it comes in different forms with various ways for people to engage. The key is we bring the museum to the people, rather than vice versa,” J.J. explained.
For each exhibition, visitors can touch MusicCloth swatches, explore products made from it, and purchase pieces directly. Every show is also curated to reflect the city and theme in which it takes place.
This year, Rehyphen became the only Singaporean brand invited to Paris Design Week, where the focus was on regenerative textiles.
The display featured anti-clockwise clocks crafted from MusicCloth, symbolising “going back in time” and the urgency of addressing climate change. Retro cassettes—from 1940s jazz to Huey Lewis and the News’ Small World—were incorporated as a tribute to musical history.
Other iterations of Rehyphen’s Mobile Museums, like the Walkman Experience, let visitors play cassettes on vintage Sony Walkmans. The brand also hosts workshops at these museums, giving attendees hands-on weaving experiences alongside lessons on sustainability.
Creating unexpected products
Throughout the years, Rehyphen has collaborated with local brands to incorporate MusicCloth into unexpected products. This includes repurposing video tape boxes into soap packaging and producing a 60s movie ticket soap design for Taiwanese soap label DaChun; launching a MusicCloth speaker design for wireless speaker brand Decibelist; and inventing cassette tape lamps with Singapore-based lighting store Shiok Lighting.
Challenges along the way have also sparked innovation. Early on, leftover cassette casings were abundant, but rather than discarding them, the duo created Tweet Tape, allowing customers to embed a 140-character message in any language on a strand of cassette tape within a cassette casing, turning waste into bespoke keepsakes.
Rehyphen also responds to customer nostalgia. Many expressed a longing to hear the music once stored on cassettes, prompting the team to introduce a “scan and listen” feature in 2021 for all MusicCloth products. QR codes embedded in its offerings link to playlists curated by Rehyphen’s team, refreshed monthly with different themes.
MusicCloth has also become a medium for public art. In 2024, Amazon Singapore commissioned Rehyphen to create an art installation for its AWS office.
Over a whole year, the team meticulously wove 500 MusicCloth swatches, each A5-sized, into the AWS logo. Each swatch is linked to its original cassette collection, including classics like Malay children’s folk song Gelang Sipaku Gelang and self-recorded albums from Singapore’s pioneering music community.
A vision for Singapore and the future
Looking ahead, Rehyphen is open to proposals for collaborations with private organisations and brands, aiming to scale the brand’s concept of sustainability to the next level.
As a proud naturalised Singaporean, J.J. is deeply invested in the city-state’s creative landscape. Through Rehyphen, she hopes to inspire sustainable practices in fashion and design, preserve cultural memory, and give discarded materials new life.
Each piece of MusicCloth demonstrates how innovation, artistry, and environmental consciousness can intertwine, proving that even the humblest cassette tape can carry a story worth preserving.
Her mission feels especially urgent in light of sobering statistics: the World Bank projects that global waste generation could reach 3.4 billion tonnes annually by 2050, a 70% increase from today, unless urgent action is taken.
- Learn more about Rehyphen here.
- Read other articles we’ve written on Singaporean businesses here.
Featured Image Credit: Rehypen