Shaping Sustainable Fashion: Changing the Way We Make and Use Clothes
Edited By Alison Gwilt & Timo Rissanen
CONTENTS
5 List of Figures
7 Acknowledgements
8 List of Contributing Authors
1 1 Foreword — Amy Rosser
1 3 Introduction from the editors
Chapter 1 Source
1 7 Introduction
19 1.1 ____Remediation: Discussing Fashion Textiles Sustainability — Joan Farrer
35 1.2 ___Case Study: Upcycling Materials for Fashion
39 1.3 ___Case Study: New Materials for Fashion
43 1.4 ___Sustainable Textiles – Nature or Nurture? — Marie O’Mahony
Chapter 2 Make
57 Introduction
59 2.1__ Producing Sustainable Fashion: The Points for Positive Intervention by the Fashion Designer — Alison Gwilt
75 2.2 Case Study: The Tailor’s Craft
79 2.3 Case Study: The Perfect Solution
83 2.4 Zero-Waste Design Practice: Strategies and Risk Taking for Garment Design— Holly McQuillan
Chapter 3 Use
99 Introduction
101 3.1 _Sustainable Clothing Care by Design — Kathleen Dombek-Keith and Suzanne Loker
119 3.2 Case Study: Slowing Fashion
123 3.3 Case Study: Personalizing Fashion
127 3.4 Designing Endurance — Timo Rissanen
Chapter 4 Last
141 Introduction
143 4.1 Textile Recycling Options: Exploring What Could Be — Jana Hawley
157 4.2 Case Study: Reuse in the Fashion Cycle
161 4.3 Case Study: A New Future Fashion Industry
165 4.4 Post-growth Fashion and the Craft of Users — Kate Fletcher
177 Case Study Designer Profi les
180 Resources
183 Editors’ Biographies
184 Index
LIST OF FIGURES
25 1.1.1 Fashion and textile supply chain
26 1.1.2 ReDress – ‘T series’ dresses by Kim Fraser
29 1.1.3 Hooded jacket and dress by Angie Finn
30 1.1.4 Conscience Clothing shoot, showing garment miles to New Zealand and related carbon footprint
34 1.2.1 Romance Was Born, Renaissance Dinosaur S/S 2010
34 1.2.2 Romance Was Born, Renaissance Dinosaur S/S 2010
36 1.2.3 Romance Was Born, The Garden of Eden, with Del Kathryn Barton 2008
38 1.3.1 Experimenting with light responsive woven material and encapsulated within a polyamide monofilament double cloth channel, photographed under UV light
40 1.3.2 Free standing installation consisting of panel woven with spun silk and light responsive elements, tensioned over frame with concealed UV light.
4 1 1.3.3 Close-up stills from projected light transition showing gradual colour change on woven textile from warm to cool stripes
44 1.4.1 Recycled wool carpet and jute from LaRoche
48 1.4.2 The laser sintering process from Freedom of Creation (FOC)
50 1.4.3 Grado Zero Espace’s Vectrasilk hybrid yarn
5 1 1.4.4 Environmental packaging from Mambo
52 1.4.5 Fashion Technology: The Rip Curl Project 2009, Sydney, Australia. Example from student Tara Savi presents the material separated, layered, bonded and fringed
6 1 2.1.1 The fi ve phases of fashion design and production
66 2.1.2 Infl uencing change across the production process: Journey of an ornate sleeve
68 2.1.3 Linking sustainable strategies with the process of design and production
70 2.1.4 Mark Liu, MA graduation collection 2007
7 1 2.1.5 Alabama Chanin Spring 2010. Hand-stitched dress in 100 per cent organic cotton with Anna’s Garden appliqué
74 2.2.1 Stages of a bespoke jacket
76 2.2.2 Bijan Sheikhlary at work
78 2.3.1 Reaching for higher standards by engaging people in an open and transparent way
80 2.3.2 Luxury Redefi ned, from UK knitwear company John Smedley / Better thinking Ltd
88 2.4.1 Initial tesselation idea
88 2.4.2a Reducing tesselation design
90 2.4.2b One possible garment design from tesselation
92 2.4.3 Design in progress, showing established fi xed areas in yellow
94 2.4.4 Hoody/T-shirt embedded design; pattern, line drawing, rendering of possible digital print colourways
103 3.1.1 Laundry as a System of Systems
108 3.1.2 Green Clothing Care (GCC) label
110 3.1.3 The Uniform Project series
113 3.1.4 ‘Suit yourself’ modular/updated suit designs
118 3.2.1 Portrait of Dr Gene Sherman
120 3.2.2 Issey Miyake ‘PLEATS PLEASE’, pleated polyester jacket, Autumn/Winter 1999
121 3.2.3 Gene Sherman’s collection notebook, Sydney, Australia 1999.
122 3.3.1 The Brown dress project series
124 3.3.2 For 365 days Alex Martin wore the same brown dress
130 3.4.1 Fisherman’s coat from Awaji Island from the collection of the Hokudan Town Historical and Ethnographic Museum, Japan
133 3.4.2 Endurance shirt by Timo Rissanen, 2009
134 3.4.3 Pattern layout for Endurance shirt, 2009
137 3.4.4 Shredded Marimekko T-shirt by Outi Pyy, 2010
145 4.1.1 Baled used textiles (sweater)
146 4.1.2 Women cutting buttons off used sweaters to make blankets
148 4.1.3a Blankets being made from used sweaters for IKEA
148 4.1.3b Warp beam of yarns made of used sweaters
152 4.1.4 Junky Styling. VD Mac
156 4.2.1 The clothing donation bank of The Smith Family organisation in Sydney
158 4.2.2 The recycling process of collecting, sorting and distribution at The Smith Family organization in Sydney
160 4.3.1 Wonderland at London College of Fashion
162 4.3.2 Detail, Wonderland spider fl owers
167 4.4.1 Edward
167 4.4.2 Yvonne
168 4.4.3 Andy
173 4.4.4 Ever-growing cycles of production and consumption
173 4.4.5 Steady-state economics
FOREWORD
Education is a key component of the New South Wales (NSW) Government’s commitment to foster sustainable development. Education is a vital tool because it helps people to understand the nature and complexity of environmental challenges and builds their capacity to take appropriate action. The NSW Government’s Learning for Sustainability 2007–2010 plan calls on all sectors to play their part in building a learning society, one in which we are all informed and active contributors to creating a more sustainable future. Within the fashion industry, Shaping Sustainable Fashion: Changing the Way We Make and Use Clothes has achieved this by teaching us how we can match sustainability and fashion in a unique, contemporary and diverse way.
The Environmental Trust, an independent statutory body established by the NSW government, funds projects like the University of Technology Sydney’s Fashioning Now project, from which this book originates. Supported by the NSW Environmental Trust’s Environmental Education programme, Fashioning Now has delivered an array of enlightening learning methods, including sustainability workshops, symposiums and exhibitions featuring innovative research projects from Australian and international practitioners that investigate fashion and sustainability. All of this knowledge has been pulled together in this publication to disseminate the vast range of sustainable solutions currently being explored by designers, researchers and manufacturers.
This book is certainly a step forward in changing the face of a fashion industry that is characterized by a high level of waste among manufacturers and driven by a fast-paced cycle of seasonal products. Shaping Sustainable Fashion raises awareness of the problem of textile waste, and gives consumers and designers the opportunity to learn how to work sustainably through solutions on waste avoidance, waste management and resource recovery. Additionally, by holding both consumers and designers accountable, Shaping Sustainable Fashion demonstrates the importance of making informed choices for the environment.
Shaping Sustainable Fashion’s lessons on how to ‘source, make, use and last’ should be explored and shared by designers, researchers and consumers alike to make for a more sustainable and ethical fashion industry.