zero-waste fashion

Zero-waste fashion refers to items of clothing that generate little or no textile waste in their production.Gwilt, Alison, and Timo Rissanen. Shaping Sustainable Fashion: Changing the Way We Make and Use Clothes. Earthscan Publications Ltd., 2011. It can be considered to be a part of the broader Sustainable fashion movement. Often, waste is created by throwing out entire pieces of bolt due to a small imperfection in the fabric. Zero-waste fashion strives to eliminate this. It can be divided into two general approaches. Pre-consumer zero-waste fashion eliminates waste during manufacture. Post-consumer zero-waste fashion generates clothing from post-consumer garments such as second-hand clothing, eliminating waste at what would normally be the end of the product use life of a garment. Zero-waste fashion is not a new concept - early examples of zero-waste or near zero-waste garments include Kimono, Sari, Chiton and many other traditional folk costumes.

Pre-consumer zero-waste design

Two general approaches fall under this category, both of which occur during a garment's initial production. In zero-waste fashion design, the designer creates a garment through the pattern cutting process, working within the space of the fabric width. This approach directly influences the design of the final garment as the pattern cutting process is a primary design step. It is difficult to design a zero-waste garment solely through sketching, although sketching can be a useful speculative tool. Zero-waste manufacture, of which zero-waste design is a component, is a holistic approach that can eliminate textile waste without modifying the garment patterns. This approach allows garments and fabric to be fully used with no fabric wasted.

Zero-waste pattern designers

Designers that have used this approach, or approaches to cutting that have an affinity with zero-waste fashion design, include

:Andrew Williams
: Ernesto Thayaht
:Shreya Upadhyaya
:Bageeya Eco-clothing
:Bernard Rudofsky
:Claire McCardell
:Zandra Rhodes
:Emroce
:Siddhartha Upadhyaya
:Yeohlee Teng

:Julian Roberts
:Timo Rissanen
: Holly McQuillan
:Tara St James
:Jennifer Whitty
:Samuel Formo
:Mark Liu
:David Telfer
:Julia Lumsden
:MaterialByProduct
:Katherine Soucie
:Dusanka Duric
:Daniel Silverstein
:Charlene O'Brien
:Baiba Ladiga
:Natascha von Hirschhausen
:Shelly Xu

:Danielle Elsener
:Sookhyun Kim

Zero-waste manufacture

Approaches can include the use of technology such as whole garment knitting, but often waste is eliminated by reusing the off-cuts in other products. Designers and companies that have used these approaches include:
:Alabama Chanin
:August (Direct Panel on Loom / DPOL) by Siddhartha Upadhyaya
:Pretcastle by Shreya Upadhyaya & Siddhartha Upadhyaya
:Issey Miyake
: Sans Soucie
:Worn Again
:Recover Textile Systems
:DaRousso
:Tonle
:Charlene O'Brien

Differences from standard fashion production

The life expectancy of a garment has dwindled throughout the years. This has eroded the quality and decision making during the manufacturing of these pieces. Designers are seeking new ways to reuse existing garments to counter the millions of pounds in annual waste.

A standard garment production process may begin with a drawing of the desired garment, a pattern is then generated to achieve this design, a marker is made to most efficiently use the fabric (without modifying the pattern shapes), the pattern pieces are then cut from the cloth, sewn, packed and distributed to retailers. Standard garment production generates an average of 15% textile waste due to the stratification or hierarchy of the garment production process.

Post-consumer zero-waste

This design approach utilises the remnants of the fashion cycle to produce new garments from second hand or surplus goods. Practitioners include:
:Martin Margiela
: Goodone
:Pretcastle
:Nick Cave
:Sans Soucie
:Worn Again
:Rhetorical Factory

Waste elimination hierarchy

The waste hierarchy consists of the three 'R's' - Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, in order of impact. Zero-waste fashion design eliminates pre-consumer textile waste, while not necessarily addressing waste created during the use life and disposal phase of the garment's life cycle.

During textile production, many pollutants in the form of liquid, solid, and gas are emitted to the environment. The textile and apparel industry is the most polluting and has a low recycling rate of about 15%. The Zero-waste fashion design would significantly eliminate gas emissions during the production process and give any material waste proper use.

Notable contributions

* Dorothy Burnham: '' Cut My Cote'' from 1973 was a seminal text that summarised decades of Burnham's research into cuts of traditional dress.
*Madeleine Vionnet's design approach aligns itself well to zero waste fashion design and many of her garments had minimal waste.
* Alison Gwilt and Timo Rissanen's book '' Shaping Sustainable Fashion'' includes a number of references to zero waste fashion

Exhibitions

*DPOL by Siddhartha Upadhyaya exhibited at London Science museum, Antenna Exhibition for its breakthrough in sustainable and zero waste fashion.
*Bad Dogs by Timo Rissanen, UTS 2008.
*ZERO Waste: Fashion Re-Patterned 2011. Curated by Arti Sandhu from Columbia College, Chicago.
*YIELD: Making fashion without making waste 2011. Curated by Timo Rissanen and Holly McQuillan held at The Dowse Art Museum, New Zealand and Textile Arts Center, Brooklyn.
*AUGUST & AIGHT : A commercial show of Zero Waste / DPOL products exhibited by Siddhartha Upadhyaya and Shreya Upadhyaya at Ethical Fashion Show, Paris Fashion week, Sep 1–6, 2011

References

{{Reflist, 2

External links

Emma Grady for Discovery Treehugger

Clothing and the environment