Zero Waste Fashion

Zero waste fashion design refers to design that results in garments that contain all of the fabric used to make them. Conventional approaches waste approximately 15 per cent of the fabric used in the design and make of a cut and sew garment. The responsibility for this wastage belongs with manufacture, which is constrained by what has already been designed. The economic systems that underpin fashion design and manufacture are such that there is little economic incentive to be con-cerned with this wastage. This article reviews key points from my doctoral research, completed in 2012 and conferred in 2013. Significant historical sources are discussed, followed by contemporary zero waste fashion designers. My study demonstrated that zero waste fashion design could generate new opportunities for collaboration between fashion design and fashion manufacture. Here I review some of the systemic challenges that wider adoption of zero waste fashion design would require.

Sanayileşme, teknoloji ve hızlı moda kavramı ile birlikte artan tekstil üretim sürecinde ve tüketim sonrasında pek çok atık ortaya çıkmaktadır. Sürdürülebilirlik kapsamında bu atıkların imha edilmesi ile ilgili çalışmalar yapılmaktadır. Bazı çalışmalar; tüketici öncesinde yani üretimde oluşan atığın azaltılması yönündedir. Bir giysi oluşturmada günümüzde en fazla kullanılan teknik; dikiş ile kumaş parçalarının birleştirilmesidir. En büyük tekstil atığı da bu üretim bandında oluşmaktadır. Güncel pastal serim programlarında bile bu atık ortalama %15 civarındadır ve dünya tekstil endüstrisinde tekstil atıklarının sadece %15’i geri dönüştürülebilmekte, kalan %85’lik kısmı çöplüklere gönderilmektedir. Giysilerin sadece pastal aşamasında değil, parçaların birleştirilmesi esnasında, prototipte, dikiş sonrası giysinin temizlenerek tüketiciye sunulmaya hazır hale getirilmesinde pek çok lif, iplik ve kumaş parçası atık haline gelmektedir. Sürdürülebilirlik kapsamında ‘daha az hammadde atığı’ ile giysi üretmek mümkündür. Bu kapsamda çalışmada; daha az atık kavramına uygun şekilde tasarlanıp üretilen giysi örnekleri verilmiştir. Tüp dokuma tekniği, yuvarlak örme, keçeleştirme gibi teknikler ile kullanılan liflerin özelliklerine bağlı uygulanan bitim işlemleri ile giysilerde farklı formların daha az atık ile oluşturulabildiği görülmüştür. Bu üretim yöntemlerinin yaygınlaşması ile sürdürülebilir tasarım kavramının benimsenmesi hedeflenmektedir. / During the textile production that increased with the industrialization, technology, and concept of fast fashion and after the consumption plenty of wastes are emerging. Within the scope of sustainability, studies are carried out for the destruction of these wastes. Some studies aim at reducing waste in pre-consumer in other words in production stages. At the present time, the most commonly used technique in creating a garment is stitching. The largest textile waste is also come to exist in this production line. This waste is an average of 15% in current garment spreading programmes and only 15% of textile waste can recycle in the world textile industry, 85% sent to the dumps. Many fibers, yarns, and fabric pieces are becoming waste not only during the garment spreading process but also during the assembly of parts, in the prototype, after sewing of garments in making them ready to be presented the consumer. It is possible to produce garments with ‘less raw material waste’. In this study, the garment samples that designed and produced in accordance with the concept of less waste have given. It has been seen that different forms in the garments can be formed with less waste by using different techniques such as tubular weaving, circular knitting, and felting. With the expansion of these production methods, it is aimed to adopt sustainable design concept.

Zero waste fashion design (ZWFD) refers to design practice that incorporates pattern cutting to eliminate fabric waste as a byproduct of garment manufacture. ZWFD can be a lens to examine the fashion system through. Integrating pattern cutting into fashion design can enrich the related roles and facilitate new forms of collaboration. ZWFD requires close collaboration between design and manufacture, which can benefit both in unforeseen ways. ZWFD poses challenges and opportunities for fashion design education. It points towards fashion design being a rich range of problem-solving practices, by uncovering new questions about the fashion system as a whole.

The practice of zero-waste fashion design, which aims to eradicate fabric waste on garment production, emerges as a solution for the massive textile waste generation in pattern cutting and for the programmed obsolescence imbued on clothes at the manufactures’ creation stage. By scientifical bibliography that wreathes zero waste fashion design, apparel industry, sustainability in fashion, together with use of narrative complementary references, this monograph aims a creation of a zero-waste method garment collection project rested on both theoretical, reflexive and analytic study, elucidated at the essay’s initial moments, and a concise market research. The theoretical study is balanced by industrial process analogies, which grounds the intended fabrication viability of the collection project’s products to conventional clothing manufactory, in order to insert the zero-waste design method into the industrial scenario.

Günümüzde sanayileşme ve teknolojinin gelişmesi ile birlikte tekstil sektöründe hammaddenin hızlı tüketilmesi ve seri üretim sonucunda fazla atık ortaya çıkmış ve atığın yok edilmesi ekosistem için giderek büyüyen bir tehdit haline gelmiştir. Ekonomik, çevresel ve sosyal perspektifteki Sürdürülebilir Kalkınma Modeli’nde tekstil atıkları ekolojik açıdan tüketici öncesi ve sonrası olmak üzere incelenmektedir. Özellikle hızlı moda kavramı ile birlikte, tekstillerin kullanım ömrünü tamamlamadan ‘atık’ olarak nitelendirilmesi sonucu ekonomik ve çevresel bir tahrip söz konusu olmuştur. Tüketici öncesi üretimde; geri dönüştürülemeyen hammadde kullanımları, zararlı kimyasal kullanımları, tüketici sonrasında ise geri dönüşümün yetersiz kalması gibi pek çok sebep buna örnek olarak gösterilebilir. Bu nedenler ile Sürdürülebilir Kalkınma Modeli doğrultusunda, 6R prensibi ile tekstil sektöründe de atığın azaltılması amaçlanmaktadır. Bu çalışmada; üretim sürecinde, tüketim süreci ve tüketim sonrasında ortaya çıkan tekstil atıklarının azaltılması, dönüştürülmesi, yok edilmesi konusunda benimsenmesi gereken yaklaşımlar ve gerçekleştirilen çalışmalardan bahsedilmiştir. Tasarımcının ve üreticinin sürdürülebilir bir ürün ortaya koymasında ve ekonomik olarak sürdürülebilirliğini sağlamasında günümüz sorunlarının üzerinde düşünmesi ve uygulaması neredeyse zorunlu hale gelmiştir. Bu doğrultuda sadece tasarımcı ve üreticinin değil tüketicinin de çevreci yaklaşımları benimsemesi önemlidir. Bu çalışmada; ekolojik bir yaklaşımın sonucu olarak geliştirilen ve ürün tasarımında benimsenen ve gittikçe de yenileri eklenen altı kavram/prensibin (reduce, recycle, reuse, rethink, repair, refuse, replace, recover, reject, rot, upcycle) tekstil tasarımında uygulanabilirliği araştırılmış ve bu doğrultuda gelecek nesiller için bir farkındalık oluşturulması hedeflenmiştir. / Nowadays, excess waste has emerged with industrialization and technological development as a result of the rapid consumption of raw materials and mass production in the textile sector. The destruction of these wastes has become a growing threat to the ecosystem. Textile wastes are examined ecologically as pre-consumer and postconsumer in the Sustainable Development Model in economic, environmental and social perspectives. In particular, with the concept of fast fashion, textiles are considered to be ‘waste’ before completing their lifespan, resulting in economic and environmental destruction. Non-recyclable usage of raw materials, usage of harmful chemicals before the consumer in other words in production, and insufficient recycling after consumer are some examples of this destruction. For these reasons, 6R principles aim to reduce waste also in the textile sector in line with the Sustainable Development Model. In this study, the approaches which are adopted and the studies carried out about reducing, recycling and refusing of textile wastes that emerged the production process, consumption process are mentioned. It has become almost imperative to thinking and practicing problems of today to provide a sustainable product and ensure its economic sustainability by designers and manufacturers. In this respect, not only the designers' and the manufacturers' but also the consumers' adoption for environmentalist approaches are significant. In this study, the application of six principles which is added to new ones in time (reduce, recycle, reuse, rethink, repair, refuse, replace, recover, reject, rot, upcycle) developed as a result of an ecological approach and adopted in product design was investigated in textile design and, in this direction, aimed to create awareness for future generations.

Inspirację do wystąpienia stanowią książki Bei Johnson Pokochaj swój dom. Zero Waste Home, czyli jak pozbyć się śmieci,  a w zamian zyskać szczęście, pieniądze i czas (2017) Amy Kost Styl życia Zero Waste. Śmieć mniej, żyj lepiej (2017), Katarzyny Wągrowskiej Życie Zero Waste (2017) oraz Sylwii Majcher Gotuję, nie marnuję. Kuchnia Zero Waste po polsku (2018). Analizie poddane zostały praktyki proponowane przez autorki: od zakupów, przez przyrządzanie posiłków, po sprzątanie. Celem wystąpienia jest przyjrzenie się proponowanemu przez autorki stylowi życia oraz podejściu do reinterpretacji pojęcia „śmieci” czy odpadki. Co ich zdaniem jest śmieciem, a być nim nie musi? Czy redukcja i recykling lub upcykling to jedyne metody zmniejszające produkcję śmieci? Jakie są przyczyny rosnącej popularności „filozofii” (ruchu) Zero Waste? Czy możliwe jest całkowite wyeliminowanie produkcji odpadów?
Ta interesująca propozycja pozwala bowiem zaproponować inne podejście do codziennej ludzkiej działalności i dokonać przewartościowania potrzeb.

Zero waste fashion design (ZWFD) refers to design practice that incorporates pattern cutting to eliminate fabric waste as a byproduct of garment manufacture. ZWFD can be a lens to examine the fashion system through. Integrating pattern cutting into fashion design can enrich the related roles and facilitate new forms of collaboration. ZWFD requires close collaboration between design and manufacture, which can benefit both in unforeseen ways. ZWFD poses challenges and opportunities for fashion design education. It points towards fashion design being a rich range of problem-solving practices, by uncovering new questions about the fashion system as a whole.

Zero waste fashion design refers to design that results in garments that contain all of the fabric used to make them. Conventional approaches waste approximately 15 per cent of the fabric used in the design and make of a cut and sew garment. The responsibility for this wastage belongs with manufacture, which is constrained by what has already been designed. The economic systems that underpin fashion design and manufacture are such that there is little economic incentive to be con-cerned with this wastage. This article reviews key points from my doctoral research, completed in 2012 and conferred in 2013. Significant historical sources are discussed, followed by contemporary zero waste fashion designers. My study demonstrated that zero waste fashion design could generate new opportunities for collaboration between fashion design and fashion manufacture. Here I review some of the systemic challenges that wider adoption of zero waste fashion design would require.