What is Zero Waste?

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Creative Studio

What is ZERO WASTE FASHION?

Over the years zero waste living became a quickly growing trend as the awareness of the waste produced and our global waste and plastic pollution as increased and more people are aware of the effect it has on our environment.

 

What is zero waste fashion?

 

Currently waste management system is mostly concentration on reduce, reuse, and recycle rather than eliminating waste altogether.  Zero waste fashion compared to other zero waste products is that zero waste aspects start with the design and the production stage and other products are on the use stage where the items are being reused or repurposed to a different object.

 

‘’Zero waste fashion is about using existing materials to their full capacity and not producing textile or other material waste.’’  (Elizabeth,2020. 2nd Ed)

Fashion is always reusable, unless is a poorly made fast fashion item that is warn once and tossed out. Zero waste fashion is more about hot the garments are produced, and material sourced.

 

Pre-consumer Zero Waste Fashion – brands use recycled materials and/or cut their patterns in the way that results in no material waste.

 

Post-consumer Zero Waste Fashion – is about using recycled, clothing and accessories that already exist through buying second-hand.

 

(Elizabeth, (2020). Zero Waste Fashion: What it is + 7 Brands Implementing It Today. Conscious Life & Style. https://www.consciouslifeandstyle.com/zero-waste-fashion/)

 

 

 

Zero Waste Pattern Cutting

 

One of the most visible moment of waste production happens in the process in the cutting room, as the pattern blocks are laid out and cut. The negative space between the blocks is a waste and tossed out. Between 10 to 20 % of fabric can become a waste in the process of cutting out depends on the final layout efficiency. A great way to reduce the wastage is to scan the pattern pieces and use a technology program such as ‘Optitex’ software to lay out the pieces and create the best efficiency layout.

Designers such as Timo Rissanen or Holly McQuillan have been working on alternative formats of clothing constructions in which lays out and shape of the pattern pieces is created to reduce to zero waste of material during the layout and cutting process. The result is pattern pieces with repositioned seams, exaggerated lines and changed aesthetic.

 

In a book sustainable fashion and textile, Fletcher includes a photograph of a shirt by Andrew Hague, referencing ‘’ zero-waste pattern cutting concept shirt to address wastage.’’ ‘’The basic shirt is manipulated to fit the entire fabric, affecting the proportions of the new garment and its design’’ however the patterns or the final layout is not shown to present the zero waste and the efficiency of the lay out, which makes me think is the zero-waste concept is actually true. (Fletcher, 2008. pg131)

 

Figure 1

 

Moving Forward

As discussed in a book of K, Fletcher ‘’Sustainable Fashion and Textile’’ a zero - waste vision for fashion and textile changes he goals and rules of the bigger industry system, it wants to align zero waste with sustainability. The change requires a big innovation of change the way fibres and fabrics are designed, produced, consumed and discarded. (Fletcher, K. (2008) 

 

My personal approach to Zero Waste Fashion

 

My own zero waste work has developed in my BA Undergraduate fashion design course. For my project I have started to develop and research zero waste tailoring, however I did not see much pattern layouts for tailoring that are fully zero waste.

I have developed a collection which focuses on zero waste however, it was my first time looking at this method of making it was not completely waste free as I would like it to be at the end of the production process.

As a student, studying MA in Creative Pattern Cutting I would like to research and develop a 100% zero waste tailored garment. Also research if the grading of the pattern pieces will affect the final layout and change the efficiency when the size changes, as the width of the fabric has specific length which could have a huge impact on the layout and cut process.

 


References 

  • Elizabeth, (2020). Zero Waste Fashion: What it is + 7 Brands Implementing It Today. Conscious Life & Style. https://www.consciouslifeandstyle.com/zero-waste-fashion/

  • Fletcher, K. (2008). Sustainable Fashion and Textiles Design Journeys (1st ed.). Earthscan.

  • Fletcher, K. (2008). Sustainable Fashion and Textiles Design Journeys (2nd ed.). Earthscan.


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