Trash Fashion - MORPHOTEX

Morphotex fibre mimics the properties of the Morpho butterfly with the iridescent colour of its wings, also similar to that of a peacock feather. The Japanese textile company Teijin have reproduced this microscopic structure using polyester and nylon fibres in alternating layers so that light will bounce and scatter between the layers to reveal a rainbow of colours. As the colour is purely a trick of the light, no dye is needed which cuts water usage, toxic chemicals and energy used to dye the fabric. The fabric will also never fade like dyed fabrics often do.

Trash Fashion - BIO-COUTURE

Designer Suzanne Lee uses natural resources to literally grow a fabric for use in fashion design. She mixes bacteria and yeast with a sugary tea solution which produces fibres that stick together to form a thick rubbery type of substance. It is then dried out and pattern cut, further detail is added by laser cutting and printing using other natural materials such as fruit and turmeric.

I think being able to literally grow your own clothes is about as innovative as it gets with textiles. However, there are still a few problems with BioCouture causing it to not be very wearable, for exapmle getting it wet would make it go slimey. I'm also not sure about the overall appearance of the fabric.

Trash Fashion - KNIT TO FIT

Today, cheap clothes are made to fit the general population, resulting in people buying clothes that don’t fit well. Or they just don’t get sold so end up as land fill waste. Knit to Fit aims at reducing the throw away fashion idea and merge the benefits of bespoke tailoring with mass production. The process involves a full body scan to get the full measurements of the entire body of the customer, in a 360 degree view. Colour, style and fit preferences are discussed and decided beforehand as the information is sent to a specialised knitting machine which creates a 3D garment. This process uses absolutely no waste and creates a perfectly fitting knitted garment. It also minimises the steps in manufacture which leads to less energy usage and no waste from pattern cutting

What I found very interesting was the idea put forward by proffessor Sandy Black (the inventor of Knit to Fit) which was that one day the customer will all have our exact 3D body measurements on individual swipe cards which they can then take to the high street and order a garment that is bespoke to them.

TRASH FASHION exhibition @ The Science Museum

The exhibition explored the latest scientific technology concerned with reducing waste. Designers such as Kate Goldsworthy and Suzanne Lee exhibited their innovative designs and portrayed ways in which they are kinder to the environment and the importance of sustainability in everyday fashion and textiles. I have selected a few to research and put on my blog.

http://antenna.sciencemuseum.org.uk/trashfashion/

Fast Food Fashion by Neda Niaraki

Central Saint Martins graduate Neda Niaraki was concerned with the idea of “throw-away fashion” and the over consumption of fashion in today’s culture. So she created a collection of garments made from a recyclable fibre called Tyvek. The garments are accessible to anyone and everyone as they are “one size fits all” and are designed to be worn up to 12 times before they deteriorate and can be disposed of. This is intended to stop people buying cheap, un-ethical garments, wearing them only a couple of times, and then throwing them away where they will end up in land fill. These garments will satisfy the population’s want and need to buy more as the trends change, but ease the guilt if they did want to throw them out. I think this is a very interesting approach and a great way of overcoming the over indulgence mixed with guilt. Also the fact that they are being disposed of responsibly is important. However, a lot of the time people do buy garments with the intention of wearing them a lot and seeing them through the seasons, and I think if I bought a garment that I really liked and it deteriorated after a few wears I’d be a bit disappointed.

Bridal Lace Dress by Deborah Milner

Designer Deborah Milner used plastic bags to create a lace effect fabric with which she crafted the “Bridal Lace Dress”.  The bags were knotted using the Japanese shabori technique and then ironed between tracing paper which melted away parts of the plastic to reveal the lace design. This was then appliquéd onto silk tulle and made into the eco-friendly wedding dress.

I think the effect of this method incredible as there was a chance that this concept would just look like a dress made out of plastic bags, however, the outcome is really aesthetically pleasing and I would never have guessed the "lace" was actually plastic.

HIERARCHY OF RECYCLING

AVOIDANCE & MINIMISATION

Includes using less materials for longer

Minimum waste when pattern cutting

RE-USE

Includes clothing exchange, charity shops and eBay

RECYCLING

Involves using waste materials that are good quality

RECOVERY

Includes recovering the energy, for example repolymerisation

DISPOSAL

Land-fill

WOOD AS A TEXTILE?

Textile designer Elisa Strozyk has demonstrated how a hard, rigid and not particularly asthaetically pleasing material like wood can be wonderfully crafted to produce a delicate and flexible textile. This beautiful juxtaposition gives importance to nature and enables us to reconnect with the traditional surface but in a new form.

FOOD AS A TEXTILE?

Andere Monjo’s Baked Table piece uses natural materials/ingredients such as flour and water to place emphasis on traditional crafts such as the conceived baking of the bread dough. Detail is added by seeds being arranged in patterns to mimic embroidery. This is an interesting idea as it uses absolutely zero energy but gives a beautifully tactile and decorative quality.

SOUND AS A TEXTILE?

I believe that textiles reach out to the senses and in doing so evoke emotions and call upon memories, through touch, sight and even smell. Designer Berit Greinke has a fascination however with textiles and sound, and while in most cases we observe only the visual and tactile nature of a fabric, Greinke explores the way we cross from one sense to another by introducing the element of sound.

“As textiles are used in order to absorb sound in architecture. Can it work the other way round and textiles become amplifiers for sounds?”

Part of Greinke’s thesis of amplifying sound included research into the Music Textile created by Maurin Donneaud and Vincent Roudaut, which I found very interesting. It involves two fabrics, both with conductive threads woven through in opposite directions. The two fabrics are fixed to a frame and when a person touches it any single point, the two fabrics connect and a current is sent to a computer which converts to sound. This concept opens up possibilities relating to textiles and communication or could be used as a performance piece. If the musical fabric were to be made into clothing, a performer could create sounds through movement. It also could be developed for use with deaf and blind people to help them communicate.

LIGHT AS A TEXTILE?

Aqua Light, designed by Lin Yun-Lien, combines textiles and lighting. Inspired by the bio-luminescent qualities of jellyfish, the curtain uses solar panels, fibre optics and LEDs and intends to help people who are afraid of the dark to sleep easily.

Kathy Schicker also developed a collection of light-emitting and colour changing textiles called Woven Light. The fabrics change colour when exposed to light or emit light when the sun has gone down by using solar powered fibres and threads that glow in the dark. It reacts subtly to the time of day and changing seasons. This is ground breaking technology in terms of sustainable textiles as it requires only sunlight to work.

What Is Textiles?

I think the mind automatically associates the word “textiles” with fabric and flexibility of material. These fabrics are typically woven, non-woven, and knitted etc, but this blog explores a whole range of materials created using new techniques and different resources, which people consider to be textiles. This links in with the highly significant part of textile production that is sustainability. I intend to research textile designer concerned with this issue and find out what they are doing to make textiles more ecological and kind to the environment.

But first of all I will question is this textiles? by looking at contemporary designers and their innovative creations in textiles.