Fashion is a powerful and creative industry but like everything else, it has a darker side too. It produces around 92 million tons of textile waste every year. To handle this problem, the idea of zero waste fashion was invented to lessen its environmental consequences. Join us as we dive deep into the aspects of this sustainable production process and find out which companies have started adopting it.
Zero Waste Fashion: A Quick Guide
This sustainable fashion focuses on minimizing textile waste in the clothing industry through eco ethical design, production and consumption practices. This approach benefits the environment, communities and the industry by conserving resources, decreasing pollution and supporting empowerment.
It has its roots in ancient times when people used animal skins or simple fabrics to wrap around their bodies without cutting or sewing. Some examples of historical zero-waste garments are the Indian Sari, the Greek himation and chiton, and the Japanese kimono.
The kimono is well known for utilizing every inch of the single lengthy rectangular fabric, which gets divided into eight parts. Definitely, the best and earliest modern instance of zero-waste fashion is the TUTA, a one-piece jumpsuit recreated in 1919 by the famous Italian artist Ernesto Michahelles, also called Thayaht.
What is the Importance of Zero-Waste Fashion?
With the rise in clothing demand, this eco-friendly fashion is gaining more and more attention due to many factors.
- Since 2000, production of fashion clothing has almost doubled and the products being made from synthetic fibers such as polyester, are not biodegradable.
- They mostly accumulate in landfills or even the oceans.
- Also, in the US, each year 20% of clothes are not even tried on.
- The fashion industry generates 53 million tons of fiber annually. Only a mere 1% is recycled. Additionally, more than 1% of clothing is repurposed for garments.
- Waste in the fashion sector extends beyond clothing to include items, like packaging and byproducts.
- It represents a considerable environmental threat, dispatching 8% of carbon and pouring 20% of wastewater into the global water systems, and the same is forecasted to grow by 50% in GHG emissions by 2030.
Hence, fashion is changing to become more eco-friendly by employing green practices that give maximum benefit to the environment with no waste production. These surface the applications of organic matter, low-toxic dyeing, and quick cycle time. They maintain and support a circular economy by making repairs, recycling and upcycling clothes.
Also, check out the 30 Innovative Eco-Friendly Zero Waste Business Ideas.
What is Zero-Waste Fashion Design?
It implies fabricating clothes that entirely utilize the raw material without dumping any of it out. Designers break up patterns to match the fabric’s width and eliminate scraps.
With zero-waste fashion design, new skills and ideas must be created for the fabric to be maximized. It has 3 main ideas with their methods of creative pattern making, draping, and folding.
Here is a table showing the different concepts of Zero-Waste Fashion Design and their methods:
| Concept | Method | Designer Name |
| Creative pattern making | Embedded Jigsaw | Timo Rissanen and Holly McQuillan |
| Jigsaw | Holly McQuillan and Mark Liu | |
| Creative Cut | Holly McQuillan | |
| Tessellation | Holly McQuillan | |
| Draping | Subtraction Cut | Julian Roberts |
| Minimum Cut | Holly McQuillan, Melanie Carrico and Victoria Kim | |
| Folding | Transformation Reconstruction | Shingo Sato |
| Origami | Kyung-Hee Choi |
What is Zero Waste Fashion Pattern?
This is a technique of designing clothes without any fabric waste, as explained in the table above. It uses all the fabric to make a garment, with no leftover pieces. Instead of the usual patterns, it arranges the garment parts like a puzzle, using shapes, modules, or clever cuts.
Cross-reference: Achieving Sustainability for Fashion Industry-A Review
What are Zero Waste Fashion Techniques?
This technique represents processes by which designers make clothes with less wastage and more value. They employ recycled, upcycled, or abandoned materials and add features like pockets, buttons, or zippers. This helps the environment by utilizing resources, reducing landfills, and creating fabulous and sustainable attires.
Some of the main sustainable fashion techniques are:
- Minimal Seam Construction: Making the garment with fewer seams where it can be sewn. It accelerates the process, reduces material consumption, and makes the clothes more relaxed and easily bendable. Some companies employ machines for joining seams with almost no sewing.
- Upcycling: Changing wasted or unused materials into higher-quality products. It spares resources and curtails the need for raw materials. For fashion, you can use excess fabric, outdated garments, and other waste materials. You have to find factories that use second-hand fabric or industrial waste.
- Deadstock Materials: Makers use materials that were left unattended or discarded, they usually go to the landfills to collect them. It helps the designers reduce waste and their production time without any mishaps. For instance, materials like left-over fabrics, buttons, or zippers are salvageable.
- Design for Disassembly: Designing products that can readily be disassembled and repaired, repurposed, or recycled in the same way. It is economical and it prevents pollution as well. Moreover, the products also have fewer materials and no specific gear for assembly.
- Multi-Functional / Transformational: It demonstrates the manufacturing of versatile products. Garments are designed in such a way that they can be worn from different angles or turned inside out.
- Design for Longevity: Developing products that last longer and can be maintained properly as well as repairable are prioritized. Disposal in landfills can be prevented by creating them so they last long or can be recycled or given away.
Also, learn How can the Fashion Industry be more Sustainable?
Zero Waste Fashion Brand Examples
Several brands incorporate sustainable fashion into their vision and production. Essentially, these brands create their clothes using patterns, techniques, and materials that generate no waste. They are also mindful of sustainability throughout their supply chain and their packaging.
Here are some of those fashion brands that you should know:
1. Hernest Project
They use TENCEL™, a special type of fabric produced from wood pulp and combines everything for the perfect comfort and breathability. Hernest Project is a Canadian brand that makes loungewear and sleepwear for women in eco-friendly fabrics. They also use organic cotton, hemp and linen, and produce everything in their factories in Portugal and Canada, where they have water and energy saving systems in place.
2. RE/DONE
Based in the United States, RE/DONE is a company that converts vintage Levi’s jeans into trendy new fittings and designs. Through this, the existing denim components are transformed into new clothes without any new waste produced. These brands also team up with ethical factories and use water-saving methods and recycled packaging.
3. Swedish Stockings
They produce sustainable tights using recycled nylon as the raw material. Swedish Stockings uses nylon waste from pre-consumer and post-consumer such as fishing nets, fabric scrap and old stockings, then they use solar power factories and eco-friendly dyes to make new goods. They are also a part of a recycling program where customers can mail back their old stockings and get discounts for their next purchase.
4. EcoAlf
This Spanish fashion company, Eco Alf produces garments and accessories out of recycled materials like plastic bottles, fishing nets, tires and coffee grounds. The method they apply is “recycled innovation”, which is to design fabrics that work well and are made from recycled materials.
They use low-impact and vegan materials and they make everything in their own factories in Spain, Portugal, Thailand and Taiwan where they are taking part in social and environmental projects.
5. Zero Waste Daniel
This American line manufactures clothing that can be worn by all genders using fabric remnants. Zero Waste Daniel follows fabric recycling in its unique way of “re-rolling”, that is, the fabric is combined from its different pieces into a new fabric, which they finally cut and sew into a new garment.
These fabrics include organic cotton, hemp, and bamboo, and every item is designed and made in their own Brooklyn studio, where they also bring in people for workshops.
Also See: 12 Best Sustainable Fashion Startups for Your Wardrobe
6. Christy Dawn
Based in California, Christy Dawn is a brand producing dresses and jeans from deadstock fabric and organic cotton. They have a concept of “farm-to-closet” which means they work in cooperation with the farmers who grow the cotton through a certification program. They provide natural dyes, low-impact packaging, and ethical jobs in their Los Angeles factory where community events and sewing classes for the local area are also held.
7. AIAYU
The company produces handmade and luxurious knitwear, homeware, and accessories from the best materials such as llama wool, cashmere, and cotton. AIAYU follows a “zero waste” rule where all parts of the material are used with little to no waste. In addition, all the products are made by local artisans and communities from Bolivia, India, and Nepal, and AIAYU even participates in social and environmental projects there.
8. Rothy’s
This is an American brand that makes footwear and accessories from recycled plastic bottles. Through their method of “3D knitting”, they shape their products with minimal waste and seams. Moreover, Rothy’s utilized eco-friendly and vegan materials in all productions and implemented an environment saving system and water recycling in their China factory.
9. Whimsy + Row
This American company specializes in upcycling deadstock and sustainable fabrics into unique clothing and accessories. Whimsy + Row operates in a method called “Slow fashion” where they make small batches of each item with high quality and durability. Apart from that, they utilize natural and organic fibers, and all of the production is carried out at their studio in Los Angeles, where they also support local and ethical manufacturing.
10. Mud Jeans
The company produces jeans made of both organic cotton and recycled jeans. The old jeans are shredded and made into new fabrics, through their proprietary process also called circular denim. Mud Jeans also uses only ecologically friendly or vegan materials. They have their own factory in Tunisia in which everything is produced.
To conclude, zero waste fashion helps the environment, society, and industries by saving resources and reducing pollution. Moreover, it helps designers to make possible ranges and products that meet the different requirements, tastes and self-expression of people. By using these methods they can create unique and practical fashion that makes a name in the market. To explore such interesting topics, keep reading our blog posts.
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