IG-Fashion Chatbot Assistant
3.3 Design for reducing & reusing waste
Design for reducing and reusing waste is a principle that focuses on creating products in a way that minimizes waste and promotes the reuse of materials. This approach integrates environmental considerations into product design to reduce the negative impacts on the environment throughout the product’s lifecycle.
Strategies for design for reducing & reusing waste:
- Design for transformability
- Upcycling
- Designing with deadstock
Designing for Transformability
Design for transformability in fashion refers to the intentional creation of clothing and accessories with features or elements that allow for adaptability, customization, or modification, enabling the wearer to transform or alter the garment in various ways.
Key considerations:
- Modularity: Designing garments with modular components or detachable elements that can be added or removed allows for customization and adaptation based on the wearer’s preferences or changing needs. Aakasha creates modular garments: https://www.aakasha.com/modular-garments
- Adjustable Fit: Incorporating adjustable features such as drawstrings, elastic bands, or adaptable closures allows the garment to accommodate changes in body size or shape, promoting longevity and reducing the likelihood of the item becoming obsolete. Read about Petit Pli: https://shop.petitpli.com/
- Reversible Designs: Designing garments that can be worn inside out or have reversible features adds a layer of versatility, essentially providing two looks in one garment. This approach encourages longer use and minimizes the need for additional items. Splice uses this approach in their designs: https://spliceclothing.com/
- Interchangeable Accessories: Designing accessories that can be easily interchanged or combined with other items allows for customization and personalization. This approach reduces the need for purchasing entirely new accessories. Darcy clothing creates shirts with detachable collars: https://www.darcyclothing.com/collections/mens-collars
Upcycling
Reintroducing an old product into the cycle with the same purpose and value as the old product it was created from is known as upcycling. Generally speaking, upcycling is an endlessly creative process that produces one-of-a-kind creations.
Key considerations:
Versatility: There are many techniques applicable to upcycling clothing, including but not limited to:
- Dyeing, painting or drawing on clothing
- Patching up and/or piecing whole new garments from old ones
- Embroidering
- Alterations through cutting and sewing – adjusting the fit, length, style, or designing asymmetry or giving a garment a new shape
- Merging elements from one or more items
- embellishing or adding new haberdashery
- Creating an entirely new garment (making a skirt from a shirt, boots from jeans, etc)
- Quilting
- Uniqueness: No two upcycled pieces are ever the same, because of the limited resources used to create new clothing, giving upcycled clothes a very fresh and creativelook
- Material sources: Old clothing, unused textiles, thrift stores, discarded fabrics or textile products , unconventional materials and more can be used to create upcycled products – there is no limit when it comes to this technique
Designing with deadstock
Deadstock is excess fabric that has been ordered but never utilized in manufacturing for a variety of reasons, such as the cancellation of a style, production faults, quality problems, overproduction, unforeseen sales trends, poor planning, overordering, and production scraps.
Key considerations:
- Limited range: Due to the nature of the material source, the amount of pieces that can be produced in the same fabric and color are limited to the available quantity – sometimes it’s a big quantity and sometimes it’s a small one, therefore, when using this technique a good range-planning skill is required
- Limited consistency: Deadstock fabrics can vary in fiber content, weave, weight, color and pattern. Understand the characteristics of the material to design garments that maximize the fabric’s potential.
- Adaptable design: Design garments with flexibility to accommodate different fabric types and weights. This adaptability allows for creative expression while working with the available deadstock materials.
Best practices related to design for reducing & reusing waste
Best practices: MUD Jeans, Hu Le Kes, Elementum, Turtlehorn, OCRU, Jeni Style , PUR Clothing, ONE Shirt, Heel, Atelier Sabinne , NVRLG, RIN Atelier
| Name: | MUD Jeans |
| Link: | www.mudjeans.nl |
| Industry sector: | Design for reducing and reusing waste, Circular business models, New textile standards in the EU |
| Location: | Amsterdam |
| Description: | Focuses on a small supply chain with 5 main partners and adheres to circular design philosophy involving reuse, sharing, repairing, remanufacturing, and recycling. Each pair of MUD Jeans is recycled into a new MUD Jean – they are the first circular denim producer. This approach helps extend the life of products and minimizes waste, contributing to a more sustainable fashion ecosystem. |
| Impact in numbers: | 48.7 million liters of water saved in 2022avoided 251 thousand kilos of CO2 emissions in 2022saved 18,363 pairs of jeans from landfill in 202272% less water used in a pair of jeans 41% less CO2 used in producing a pair of jeans 92% less waste |
| Environmental benefits: | Reduction of waste in production, use of sustainable materials like GOTS Certified Organic Cotton and GRS Certified Recycled Cotton. |
| Social & economic benefits: | Adherence to SDGs, ensuring fair, safe, and healthy working conditions. |
| Technological & innovative benefits: | Emphasis on circularity, sustainable material use, and ethical production standards. |
| Other remarks: | Adheres to Sustainable Development Goals and maintains a transparent supply chain, indicating compliance with evolving EU textile standards. |
| Name: | Hul le Kes |
| Link: | www.hullekes.com |
| Industry sector: | RFID & Product Passport, Circular Business Models, Design for Reducing and Reusing Waste, Sustainable Textiles |
| Location: | Arnhem |
| Description: | Hul le Kes operates as a fully circular fashion label, focusing on sustainable alternatives within the fashion industry. The brand employs an in-house Manufacturing Studio and Recovery Studio, sells through its flagship store, webshop, and resellers, ensuring a continuous life cycle for its products. Hul le Kes prioritizes the use of existing materials, such as old bed linens, antique tablecloths, and secondhand clothes, sourced from flea markets, recycling companies, or donations. The design process is driven by the materials, resulting in limited series and unique garments. The brand follows natural seasons for its dyeing process, using plant-based materials. It also offers mending and repair services, as well as a clothing passport. |
| Impact in numbers: | 95% of materials are recovered from existing materials |
| Environmental benefits: | Hul le Kes contributes to environmental sustainability by minimizing the use of new resources, actively seeking materials within Western Europe, and employing natural dyeing processes with items like onion peels and avocado seeds. The in-house upcycling process reduces waste and environmental impact, while the brand’s Repair Friday initiative offers a sustainable alternative to traditional shopping events. By offering Dyeing and Mending Services, Hul le Kes provides options for extending the lifecycle of garments |
| Social & economic benefits: | Provides employment opportunities to people with a distance to the labor market. The clothing passport adds a personal touch, allowing wearers to contribute to the narrative of their garments and share stories. |
| Other remarks: | Practices upcycling existing materials, which is a key aspect of material cyclability. By extending the lifecycle of garments through innovative design and manufacturing processes, they contribute significantly to the concept of circular fashion. |
| Name: | Elementum |
| Link: | https://elementum.store/ https://www.instagram.com/elementum.store/?hl=en |
| Industry sector: | Sustainable fibers, Sustainable sourcing, Design for Longevity, Design for reuse and reduce, Circular business model |
| Location: | Portugal and Netherlands |
| Description: | One best practice that Elementum applies is their use of organic and natural fibers. They source materials such as organic cotton, linen, and hemp, which are grown without the use of harmful chemicals or pesticides. These materials have a lower environmental impact and are biodegradable, contributing to a more sustainable fashion industry. In addition to their material choices and ethical production, Elementum promotes slow fashion and designs garments with longevity in mind. They create versatile and classic pieces that can be worn across seasons, encouraging consumers to invest in quality clothing that will last. Elementum also implements a circular approach to fashion. They offer a recycling program where customers can bring back their old Elementum garments, which are then upcycled or recycled into new products. This initiative reduces waste and allows customers to actively participate in closing the fashion loop. Furthermore, Elementum strives to educate consumers about sustainable fashion practices through their online platform and social media channels. They raise awareness about the environmental and social impact of the fashion industry and provide tips for conscious and responsible consumption. |
| Impact in numbers: | What is the measured impact of this practice? (provide information if possible, if not please delete this row) |
| Environmental benefits: | Sustainable production with lowered waste production and lowered use of resources and energy |
| Social & economic benefits: | Impact on community of sustainable designers, promoting collaboration and sustainable fashion ideologies, ethical working conditions |
| Name: | Turtlehorn |
| Link: | www.turtlehorn.com |
| Industry sector: | Sustainable Fabrics, Design for reducing & reusing waste |
| Location: | Aachen |
| Description: | The brand’s spirit is deeply rooted in urban subcultures, emphasizing community, diversity, and the freedom to express oneself authentically. Utilizes textile waste as new raw materials, focusing on slow fashion and limited production. The brand strives to establish a responsible and mindful fashion approach, challenging traditional norms in textile waste processing. |
| Environmental benefits: | Reduces environmental impact of textile production by focusing on utilizing waste materials as new raw materials, and producing in a slow, sustainable manner |
| Social & economic benefits: | María Voth Velasco, the designer behind Turtlehorn, integrates and supports social projects within her work. Beyond designing collections, she conducts integrative and culture-promoting workshops to foster social and environmentally conscious behavior. Her sustainable mindset aligns with Turtlehorn’s ethos, emphasizing collaboration with craftsmen, technicians, and material researchers for specific projects, thereby contributing to a positive social impact. The philosophy of the brand is also dedicated to helping subcultures find a creative and sustainable way to express themselves through fashion. |
| Technological & innovative benefits: | Innovative use of materials, reducing complexity in production. María Voth Velasco’s emphasis on research and experimentation, especially in examining materials, adds an artistic and thoughtful dimension to the brand. |
| Other remarks: | Their innovative approach to using waste materials as new raw materials offers a sustainable alternative to traditional textiles. This approach not only reduces waste but also contributes to sustainable textile practices by repurposing materials that would otherwise contribute to environmental degradation. |
| Name: | OCRU – Using deadstock to create multiple-use pieces |
| Link: | https://www.dichisar.ro/ocrustudio/despre |
| Industry sector: | Design for reusing and reducing waste, Design for longevity |
| Location: | Timisoara, Romania |
| Description: | The products from OCRU are made from deadstock fabrics with minimalist design ethics, focusing on how to minimize waste throughout the entire production process. All products are produced locally. All their garments can be worn in multiple ways, have no size or gender, and are designed with innovative zero waste pattern techniques. Most of the pieces can be mixed and matched in different styles, being designed with simple lines that fit many body shapes and offer adjustment possibilities on the same article in order to fit the body in a harmonious way. Due to the nature of their sourcing, the pieces produced are very limited editions. |
| Environmental benefits: | Reuse of deadstock material and zero waste patterns are minimizing impact and waste, the multipurpose style of the garments enables a user to wear them for a longer time therefore increasing the product lifespan and decreasing the need to purchase new items (less production and shipping emissions, less use of resources, less waste), less waste due to only making one size |
| Social & economic benefits: | Lower costs associated with using deadstock materials, lower costs from only producing one size, no leftover stock in odd sizes |
| Technological & innovative benefits: | The minimalist, adjustable and multi-purpose, one-of-a-kind design of the products contribute to creating emotional attachment and decreasing the need for buying multiple pieces |
| Name: | Jeni Style |
| Link: | https://www.jenistyle.com/en |
| Industry sector: | Design for reusing & reducing waste |
| Location: | Bulgaria |
| Description: | One notable best practice that Jeni Style implements is their commitment to upcycling and repurposing. They collect pre-loved garments, textiles, and other materials and transform them into new, unique designs. By giving new life to discarded items, they reduce waste and promote circularity within the fashion industry.Jeni Style also emphasizes local production and craftsmanship. They work with skilled artisans in Bulgaria, supporting the local economy and ensuring fair labor practices. By producing garments locally, they reduce transportation-related emissions and maintain transparency and control over their supply chain. |
| Impact in numbers: | What is the measured impact of this practice? (provide information if possible, if not please delete this row) |
| Environmental benefits: | sustainable production with lowered waste, repurposing waste |
| Social & economic benefits: | impact on community of sustainable designers, promoting collaboration and sustainable fashion ideologies, ethical working conditions, local production, awareness raising |
| Name: | PUR Clothing |
| Link: | https://www.pur.clothing/about |
| Industry sector: | Design for reusing and reducing waste |
| Location: | Romania (HQ in Timisoara, but other stores also located in Cluj-Napoca, Sibiu, Brasov and Bucharest) |
| Description: | Pur. clothing, founded by Roxana Puriş, redefines consumer perspectives on clothing. The brand offers cozy, adaptable pieces that cater to individuality while addressing current needs. Puriş and her team are committed to waste reduction in tailoring, repurposing materials for a sustainable approach. Initiatives include: creating the sustainable t-shirt, a statement piece made of rectangular pieces of knitwear;donating the 100% cotton pieces to Ielesânziene, an NGO that aims to educate girls from underprivileged backgrounds about menstruation;workshops for children, through which they learn to make their own textile items;- reusing the center pieces of flared textiles for padding;incorporating very small remnants of 100% cotton into a fertile soil for a local project called “Urban Gardens”;Repurposing textiles workshop for adults |
| Environmental benefits: | The minimization of textile waste, supporting the circular economy model, applying circular solutions for waste minimization |
| Social & economic benefits: | Involving customers in the design process, supporting local NGOs and businesses, teaching children and adults how to use recycled textiles, supporting circular economy by donating waste to other companies that can reuse it |
| Technological & innovative benefits: | Zero waste patterns to create t-shirt from production scraps, contributing to the local “Urban Garden” soil |
| Name: | ONEShirt – Upcycled fashion with a social purpose |
| Link: | https://oneshirt.eu/ |
| Industry sector: | Design for reusing and reducing waste |
| Location: | Timisoara, Romania |
| Description: | The ONE project was founded with the explicit intention of reducing textile consumption and creating something new and timeless—the ONE shirt—from textile waste and clothing items users wish to keep. ONE is a social enterprise that aims to communicate about people, with people, and the environment they live in. It does this by emphasizing the creation of flexible and adaptive jobs, the reuse and repurposing of textiles, and the creation of original stories. For socially vulnerable groups of people who have a history of residing in public residential facilities, ONEshirt offers support and flexible employment opportunities. ONE offers 3 types of services: Collection point for unused clothing and textiles, where users can just donate items they don’t need. Creating “new pieces” from the donations received. Creating custom pieces on request for clients who have brought their own textiles they would like to upcycle). |
| Environmental benefits: | Reducing textile waste through upcycling, providing a point for textile collection in the community, not contributing to production-related emissions through local production and not using any other fabrics except donations they received |
| Social & economic benefits: | Reusing textiles that have been donated significantly reduces the costs of production |
| Technological & innovative benefits: | Creating jobs for marginalized and vulnerable social groups |
| Name: | Heel |
| Link: | https://www.heelshop.gr/en/art-low-waste/ |
| Industry sector: | Design for reducing & reusing waste, Circular Business Models |
| Location: | Athens, Greece |
| Description: | Creation of a special collection exclusively produced by pieces and clothes that are left out of the production process, whether they come from canceled samples or pieces of fabric – items that would otherwise be considered waste. |
| Environmental benefits: | Reusing clothes (samples etc. that go out of the production press), reintroducing material in production. |
| Social & economic benefits: | Equal opportunities employer, providing a fair remuneration system and a healthy and safe work environment, supporting local NGOs |
| Name: | Atelier Sabinne |
| Link: | https://www.sabinne.com/ |
| Industry sector: | Design for reducing & reusing waste |
| Location: | Bucharest, Romania |
| Description: | Atelier Sabinne, founded by Sabina Georgescu, is a Romanian fashion house renowned for its creative and sustainable designs. Georgescu, a visual artist with a master’s degree from the Faculty of Decorative Arts and Design in Fashion and a PhD candidate at the National University of Arts in Bucharest, combines architectural forms with organic elements in her designs. Her work often features unconventional materials, vibrant colors, and strong contrasts. |
| Environmental benefits: | Atelier Sabinne focuses on sustainability, notably through recycling and upcycling, particularly in their denim collections. They aim for zero-waste in their fashion collections, employing techniques like collage, draping, and stitching to repurpose existing materials into new, innovative designs. |
| Social & economic benefits: | Atelier Sabinne’s commitment to sustainable and ethical fashion contributes to responsible consumerism and environmental stewardship. The brand’s involvement in social projects, like supporting atypical beauty and victims of domestic abuse, underscores its commitment to diversity, inclusivity, empathy, and creativity. |
| Technological & innovative benefits: | The brand’s use of bold contrasts in textures, volumes, and colors, as well as its exploration of 3D textile structures, reflects a unique approach to fashion. Its emphasis on sustainable materials, creative recycling methods, and gender-fluid designs showcases a blend of artistic creativity and environmental responsibility. |
| Name: | NVRLG (Never Let Go) |
| Link: | https://www.instagram.com/nvrlgshop/ https://www.etsy.com/shop/NVRLG https://www.nvrlg.com/ |
| Industry sector: | Design for material cyclability |
| Location: | Timișoara, Romania |
| Description: | NVRLG, pronounced NeverLetGo, is a brand specializing in versatile, handcrafted leather jewelry. Founded by Cristina Costache, the brand focuses on using materials like suede, nubuck, and heritage leather. Cristina’s passion for leather is evident in her work, as she recycles leather scraps into beads for jewelry, creating unique and sustainable products. The Leathermonds collection was her first creation, followed by intricately designed leather flowers using traditional manual techniques. She also uses denim to create upcycled products such as hats, shoes and purses. |
| Environmental benefits: | NVRLG demonstrates a strong commitment to sustainability. Cristina uses upcycled materials and traditional techniques to minimize waste. She repurposes old jeans and other materials, such as leather, aiming to reduce the environmental impact of denim production. |
| Social & economic benefits: | The brand’s focus on upcycling and sustainability contributes to a more responsible and ethical approach to fashion. NVRLG’s practices align with the growing global movement towards reducing waste and supporting sustainable consumption. Cristina also places a lot of focus on educating her consumers through various platforms and local events. |
| Technological & innovative benefits: | Utilizing scraps and remnants creatively, the brand transforms unwanted materials into unique, handcrafted pieces, showcasing the potential for innovation in the recycling and upcycling of materials. |
| Name: | RIN Atelier |
| Link: | https://rinatelier.ro/ |
| Industry sector: | Design for reducing & reusing waste |
| Location: | Timișoara, Romania |
| Description: | RIN Atelier is a unique fashion brand that breathes new life into discarded textiles, transforming them into bespoke, eye-catching pieces. Founded by Corina Mocanu, SHoodies stands for more than just fashion; it’s a manifestation of sustainable practices. The brand creates its collection from second-hand draperies and other upcycled materials, emphasizing creativity, sustainability, and the magic of transformation. |
| Environmental benefits: | RIN Atelier is committed to reducing fashion’s environmental impact. The brand’s practice of repurposing old textiles into new fashion items minimizes waste and promotes a circular economy. |
| Social & economic benefits: | By offering upcycled and sustainable fashion choices, RIN Atelier provides an alternative to fast fashion, encouraging consumers to adopt more environmentally conscious habits. The brand also seeks to educate people on sustainable fashion choices. |
| Technological & innovative benefits: | RIN Atelier showcases innovation in textile reuse and upcycling techniques. Their unique approach to creating from second-hand materials and their commitment to handcrafted quality set them apart in the fashion industry. |
