The No Waste Concept

For the beautiful weather we are having, I thought this article would relate. Repost it is, but this concept will never stop testing my puzzle-loving brain!

When I was at school in Sydney, one of my extremely talented profs was delving into the concept of creating patterns utilizing every millimeter of fabric and eliminating all fabric waste in apparel production. Its a concept that I've always kept in mind, but its definitely a tricky one to achieve. It takes a lot of time, trial and error and creativity in a different form. Think a very difficult game of tetris.

Today there is a short article posted on Etsy about zero-waste which caught my eye. For me, this entire education has actually come around full circle. The article on Etsy talks about a challenge Loomstate presented to Parsons students about zero waste. Who was the faculty advising and instructing the class in New York? Timo Rissanen, my prof at UTS in Sydney is making his brilliance global, and that is my full circle. Fair JAKE will be closely following this brilliant man!

It got me thinking again. At Fair JAKE we use recycled and remnant materials to cut down our waste, and our garbage bins rarely fill, and are mostly topped with thread clippings and tiny snippettes of fabric. But as we introduce and launch new products, the pattern aspect is definitely something we need to consider. While one standard t-shirt pattern my not yield much waste, when producing thousands and thousands of garments, the waste adds up. And not only does waste equal unnecessary toppers to our landfills, but loss of money, and honestly in this economy loss of money is not going to work for anyone.

Keep posted, because as we move into spring and introduce new lines and products, we are going to be keeping the idea of zero waste in mind. So we will see how far we can push the creative boundaries over the next little bit. For now, here is the winner of the Loomstate-sponsored, Parsons the New School for Design zero-waste competition. Congrats Andria Crescioni

 

Etsy blog article: http://www.etsy.com/blog/en/2012/noted-creating-a-zero-waste-garment/?ref=fp_blog_post

Co.Design article: http://www.fastcodesign.com/1668942/loomstate-to-parsons-students-design-a-zero-waste-garment-and-well-make-it