Eighteenth International Conference on Environmental, Cultural, Economic & Social Sustainability

Abstract

This project explores alternative production systems in garment manufacturing, focusing on re-integrating textile waste streams from a systematic design level perspective with the ultimate goal of phasing waste out. Through ancient handcraft methods such as loom weaving, I propose to expand the up-cycling techniques within the existing industrial context and fashion system as we know it, speculating on new approaches to redirect fabric scraps back into the production line and ultimately fully up-cycle garments. This research takes a look at the potential of production by-product as a “raw material” with the aim of extending textiles’ longevity and life-span and re-looping the unwanted textiles into both the garment design and manufacturing processes. By leading with an experimental and design-by-doing approach, as well as a phenomenological approach, I address the challenges in re-wiring the fashion industry and transitioning to systems that don’t have such a fatal effect in our environment. ANTHROPOWASTE proposes the re-visiting of the roots of garment making, by looking at the way fabric is woven, and redesigning the process of garment manufacturing to implement the use of the so-called textile “waste” (fabric scraps) as raw material to weave textiles back together and create fully up-cycled garments. With doing this, I question the systems in place within designing and manufacturing in the fashion world and invite the reader to dismantle these with me by introducing methods that work within a scarcity mindset and rely on innovation and creativity to gradually re-haul the existing structures in place.