Transforming Fashion & Design news - September 2023

🌿 Embracing Change: Path to a Cleaner Future

Hello,

I hope you had a fantastic summer break, although it seems like far away already. I recently visited Chamonix and explored its sports stores against the breathtaking backdrop of the Mont Blanc glacier. On my way to Chamonix, I listened to a thought-provoking podcast about Parley for the Oceans and its founder, Cyrill Gutsch. This former product designer and branding expert founded Parley in 2012, driven by a mission to tackle ocean plastic pollution and climate change. Mountains and oceans may seem distant, but they are part of the same ecosystem, influenced by human activities.

Innovative Solutions for a Cleaner Future

Cyrill's journey led him to collaborate with Adidas to phase out single-use plastics, sparking innovation in design and materials. This partnership showcases the potential for the sports industry to make a significant impact.

Rethinking Materials and Design

We're at a critical juncture. Cyrill emphasizes that we should no longer use virgin plastic; recycled plastic is the way forward. Parley's innovative projects, like Bananatex, Biomason, and Air Company, highlight the possibilities of new materials and eco-friendly solutions.

A Call to Action for the Sports Industry

The sports industry, heavily reliant on petroleum-based plastics, has a great opportunity to lead the way to change how we design and manufacture sports gear. Material innovation and strategic decision to built more responsible offer is not only a competitive advantage but also ‘must have’ for future success.

Listen to the Parley Podcast

To explore this crucial topic further, I recommend listening to the Parley podcast that inspired this conversation. Listen here.

As we enter autumn, I'm here to explore how we can collaborate to create a more responsible future for the sports and outdoor industry. Your insights and ideas are invaluable in this journey, and I'm eager to hear your thoughts on making positive changes together.

Published May 23rd, 2023

What are the key sustainability considerations for apparel designers?

Key sustainability considerations for designers are to understand the importance of the design regarding sustainability as around 80% of a product’s environmental impact is locked in the design phase (Subic et al. 2009). To ensure as much sustainability as possible products designers should have a holistic view of environmental, social, economic, and technical aspects and impacts to make reasonable and measured choices. Here are some key aspects where the designer can have a maximal impact. The overall goal is to design towards circularity, minimize waste, and keep materials in use repeatedly. (More info: https://www.eea.europa.eu/publications/textiles-and-the-environment-the)

Source : Image by Mariya from Pixabay

Material choice

How about using waste, upcycled or discarded materials that would go to landfills or downcycled other vice?
The first question to be asked is about using discarded or waste material that would end up in landfills or downcycled (losing the value of original use). Such materials can be leftover stocks, unused colors, and cut-offs from other production lines.

Where do materials OR raw materials come from?
How are materials treated? How much water is used?
Consider material choice and especially raw materials’ origin (even agriculture processes if possible), and possibilities to recycle or even upcycle material at the end of life. Also, the impact of materials needs to be considered for example how textiles are treated and how much fresh water is used in these processes. (Example of sustainable cotton farming: https://www.cottoninc.com/quality-products/nonwovens/cotton-fiber-tech-guide/agricultural-production/)

Are materials certificated? What are ethical options?
When using other nature origin fibers like viscose/rayon the origin of the material is a key and a certification of forest-friendly material. (NGO Canopy, https://canopyplanet.org/)

Can non-animal alternatives be used? What are ethical choices on animal-based materials?
Respecting nature, the designer can make ethical choices and not use skin, leather, fur, feather, or other animal-based raw materials. Similarly, when using, for example, wool, the origin of the wool and ensuring that it has been grown animal and environmentally respecting way. (Examples of leather alternatives: https://www.alive.boutique/pages/industry-changing-vegan-leather-alternatives)

How is it possible to separate and circulate different fibers at the end? Can they be recycled at the end?
It is not only considering how mono-material products evolve in the circular system but how several different fibers can be separated at the end if needed. When building the circular system at this stage the designer needs to consider the possibility to design out of waste and using recycled or discarded materials or garments. (Example of fiber separation system: https://www.ategroup.com/textile-engineering/product-family/product-description/fiber-separator/)

When using PE, the designer needs to understand the impacts of using PE and how it’s produced and recycled. (Useful info: https://www.commonobjective.co/article/fibre-briefing-polyester#:~:text=Factories%20producing%20polyester%20without%20wastewater,not%20biodegrade%20like%20natural%20fibres.)

How to increase the use of local materials in production?
Locality in material choices reduces environmental impacts if the final production and distribution are nearby. Favoring local materials has a positive impact on local economies.

How are social aspects considered i.e. people involved in the process and respecting their rights?
Eventually, when deciding on raw material choices there are also social aspects to be considered like how people in farming/growing/processing/manufacturing/mining etc. are treated, compensated, and respected and ensuring that their working conditions are up to good standards and that child labor is not used in any stage of the process.

Design phase

Multifunctionality: Is the product usable for different occasions/contexts/sports?
Instead of designing only for a very niche use (which sometimes is of course necessary), could the product be used in different occasions? How could a product be amended so that it is suitable for different situations? Is your sports tee usable for many sports and still fulfilling the needs of different moves?
Longevity: How design and material may last time?
Is the product potentially lasting time and wear? Some of the aspects to consider are the use of prints, logo size, and placement.

Wearability: Is the product wearable by different genders?
How about morphology and adaptation to different bodies (ie. arm length)?
Is the product wearable by different genders? What makes it unisex or not? How to ensure that product design is adapted to different body shapes?

Durability: How the product is constructed, what technologies are used, and what material is selected to enhance durability? How may the product easily transit to a new life cycle?
Reparability: How easily the product can be prepared (construction, material choice), and by whom?
Durability is one of the key aspects when considering sustainability. The longer the product is in use the better it is. Therefore, using technologies and construction that favor potential reparation and durability is key. For example, glued elements are more difficult to prepare ie. in sport shoes than stitched elements. Reparation centers are better facilitated now for technical constructions too. What is more annoying than having a hole in your favorite running shoe which is not reparable due to badly thought construction?

Color choice: How trends are affecting your choice of color? How do you use color-blocking in the product VS mono-color options? What about dying products and processes used for color options?
More about natural dying: https://books.google.fi/books?hl=en&lr=&id=PLqZDwAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PA29&dq=natural+dyeing+textile&ots=CVUJ95N5tC&sig=10DXZn09fj7UART6tq_mFsdY8LU&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=natural%20dyeing%20textile&f=false)

Pattern crafting: Considering what shapes and constructions are beneficial to optimize material use and drive for zero waste.
Collaborating closely with your pattern maker (unless you are doing it yourself) is the key to understanding the impacts of different design choices and how in pattern creation waste can be reduced or even avoided. Take care of the mini markers too.

End-of-life: What happens to the product when it meets its end? How the product can be recycled/dissembled if needed?
This point comes back to the material choice and construction decisions.

Designer’s vision: How shall you imagine a future product that last time, is durable, creates an emotional connection, is usable and has the possibility to continue into new cycles?
This is linked to the brand vision and desire to make products that last. The designer has an important role as well as other stakeholders involved until the user’s input.

#desing to last #out of waste #diversity #designer as a social agent

Published May 15th, 2023

Slow fashion principles and the Designer's role

The term slow fashion notably means to be the opposite to fast fashion but what does it really mean and involve for companies? Much more than just speed… To get started and unlock new business opportunities, here are the key slow fashion principles:

Authenticity (tailored product/small-scale production/handcraft techniques)
Equity (working conditions/fare trade/living wages)
Exclusivity (rare/unique/identity building) characters
Functionality (durability/timeless design/multifunctional use)
Localism (local production inc. labor and materials)

Quality is often used as the main characteristic when referring to slow fashion. Tailored products are still rare, but we can expect that this approach together with customization could advance with new digital technologies and business models. Local production is challenging to do due to high pricing and required a high level of competence and technologies (especially for technical garments). On the other hand, we can argue that consumer education is a key here to justify the “real” price of a garment or demonstrate how much a jacket should cost when created and produced according to the slow fashion principles. We shall remember that consumerism including cheap prices and ever-changing trends known today is dated back to the millennium only. Getting used to it has not taken us any effort but reverting shall be more complicated but not impossible.

Here it is relevant to highlight the role that designers hold. “Approximately 80% of products’ environmental impacts are determined in the design process” (Subic et al. 2009). Therefore, including the slow fashion ethos already in the designers’ education is key to helping future creators to design products with distinctive identities and characteristics into the products. That permits users to have a more distinctive choice and increases the chance that products will be used longer. Although adapting to each stage of slow fashion principles may be challenging for designers as well as companies, they are useful sources of inspiration and more time spent in each stage may provoke higher change to go towards better products in terms of usability, durability, emotional attachment as well as supporting more ethical social norms involved in the process.

You can read more about slow fashion principles applied notably in three sportswear brands in the following case study

“Slow Fashion in the Sports Apparel Industry”. (Sorelund & Berg, 2015)

Here are some key ideas from the study.

As stated in the conclusions small-size companies have an advantage with the slow fashion approach. Especially equity seems like the biggest challenge to applying to bigger size companies as they are mainly producing in low-cost countries far away. Similarly, authenticity and exclusivity are nearly absent in studied brands.

Functionality scored the highest in this study. Material testing is quite strict which also means that eco-friendly materials are often dropped for durability reasons. Also, the material’s hand feel may be “drier” on eco-finished materials. Different treatments such as water repellency or anti-bacterial treatment give certain functional characteristics to the product. These treatments are often heavily chemicalized and wash out when washing the product.

Also, timelessness should be considered in sports apparel design, especially in technical outerwear which is often expensive. What may often limit the timelessness are seasonal trendy colors or color applications within the product, which may be out of fashion too quickly. Mono-colored products are easier to mix and match with other products.

On the other hand, repair can be challenging in technical apparel. Seams are often taped, and glued elements are very popular, especially in outerwear. For example, water-repellent zippers are difficult to replace due to gluing construction. However, repairability is one of the key challenges as well as opportunities to move forward towards circularity, especially for costly technical apparel.

“[...] Fashion, especially throw-away fast fashion is moving at a rate which is no longer sustainable.
If you want to buy effectively – buy less, but buy well. Invest in quality, which will outlast these faster-manufactured items by an average of three times.” – Charles Daniel McDonald

Sources:

Sorelund, M. and Berg, A., 2015. “Slow Fashion in the Sports Apparel Industry”.

Subic A., Mouritz A. and Troynikov O., Sustainable design and environmental impact of materials in sports products. Sports Technology. 2009;2(3-4):67-79.

Source : Sorelund & Berg, 2015