Trash Fashion: Designing out waste
Antenna Gallery, Science Museum, LondonSW7 2DD
www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/trashfashion
http://antenna.sciencemuseum.org.uk/trashfashion/
Britain loves high-street fashion. Tempted by rock-bottom prices we’re buying a third more clothing than we did a decade ago. New looks on the catwalk and cut-price competition in the high street mean greater turnover – but more than a million tonnes of textiles end up in landfill each year. Dyes run, polymers break down and toxic chemicals ooze into the environment.
The new exhibition investigates how the latest design and technology will help to create wear without waste and what we can do to reduce the impact of throwaway fashion.
How can the latest design and technology help to create wear without waste? And what can we all do to reduce the impact of throwaway fashion?
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To dye for
That flash of high-fashion colour has a dark side. Dyes and finishes cast fashion’s largest environmental shadow – more than 70 toxic chemicals are flushed into the world’s water systems. Many will stay in the water cycle for ever.
How can technology light up a look and cut the chemical runoff?
Powerful laser beams were used to cut, join and decorate this polyester shift dress. The laser-melted fabric provides its own finish, keeping it pure and free from chemical coatings. This makes recycling the material much simpler.
Some designs make colour without any dye. This one reflects light to create the shimmer of a butterfly’s wing. An innovative fabric called Morphotex mimics a technology fashioned by evolution, and copies the nano-scale structure of the cobalt-blue wings of the morpho butterfly. No dyes are used in the dress – or the butterfly.
Normal dyes soak into the fibres. The brilliant black tint in this dress is cleverly bonded to the raw plastic that the synthetic fabric is made from. So no dyes contaminate the water, less water and energy are used, and there’s no chance that colour will run in the wash!
Can technology work with nature to make better fabrics that are easy to recycle and quick to break down?
Stinging Style
Source: Textile Engineering and Materials (TEAM) Research Group, De Montfort University
With a little ingenuity, stinging nettle fibres can be turned into clothes as soft as cotton – but stronger. Nettles are native to the UK and need little water or chemicals to grow, making them soft on the environment too.
The transparent layers in the skirt are little more than candyfloss. They are fashioned from Ingeo®, a ‘bioplastic’ produced from plant sugar. The rest of the dress is made of organic cotton. Unlike oil, the source of most synthetic materials, Ingeo® is fully compostable and will break down rapidly in the right conditions.
Is this jacket just your cup of tea? It’s fashioned from sheets of sugary ‘biofilm’ produced by the microbes that ferment green tea. The fabric was grown in bathtubs, dried and then moulded to fit. When it wears out it can go straight to the compost heap.
Transforming cloth into a killer cut is a wasteful art. Fashion designers leave 15% of the fabric on the cutting-room floor. These ‘offcuts’ end up stuffed into cushions or languishing in landfill.
How can clever design keep razor-sharp lines and create cloud-like ruffles without adding to the scrapheap?
This nifty knit was made as one seamless piece based on individual measurements made in a 3D body scanner. An electronic eye could replace the tailor’s tape measure and make precision-customised clothing affordable for all.
This jacket was produced in a unique process called Direct Panel on Loom (DPOL). This weaves made-to-fit sections of the garment and dramatically reduces the materials and dyes used. The sections include design detail and are simply stitched together.
Just one sheet of cloth is cut into jigsaw-like pieces that fit seamlessly together to form this intricate catwalk creation. Every inch of fabric is used in the process: there’s no waste.
Digital Print
Off the cuff 
Out of print Source: Melanie Bowles and Kathy Round, Textiles Environment Design, Chelsea College of Art & Design
Old textiles get a new look with digitally printed design. The delicate patterns on this recycled silk dress are inspired by vintage motifs from a worn-out silk gown, extending the life of a favourite frock. The new pattern pieces were printed to order – this cuts down on cloth and chemicals.
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Daily Fashion
Source: Yuliya Kyrpo/Science Museum
Ever worn a dress once and then thrown it away? This fabulous frock is made of old Metro newspapers carefully folded into a thousand origami cranes. Consider it a headline-hitting comment on throwaway fashion.
Drop-dead dress
Source: Pia Interlandi, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology in conjunction with SymbioticA and the Centre for Forensic Science, The University of Western Australia
After 50 days underground, this dress vividly shows how different materials degrade over time. Bacteria in the soil have eaten up the hemp into the seams, but the polyester cord and embroidery look as good as new. (Note – this is not an accurate representation of landfill conditions)
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