Visit of Science Museum1

TRASH FASHION

Visit to the exhibition was very good opportunity for me as I had never think about how fashion and textile relate to the environmental problem before and it is now being quite serious issues.

I was shocked when I first saw the screen instruction about the dyeing pollution and noticed that studying textile is not only doing textile design and think about fabric but also there are so many issues that could be approached from the textile industry such as sustainable resources, environment pollutions and development country’s problem.

SUGER RUSH　

Source: David Andersen, Danish Fashion Institute, featuring fabrics from the CLASS (Creativity, Lifestyle and Sustainable Synergy) eco library
This dress made by INGEO, a plastic called polylastic acid (PLA).

PLA is made from PLANTS(Such as corn, wheat, sugar beet compare
 to that of polyester is OIL.

HOW TO MAKE PLA

CONE KERNELS→ground and cooked→SUGAR→micro-organism→LACIC ACID

→join together in a chemical reaction→POLYLACTIC

MERITS

① Fully RENEWABLE

② BIODEGRADABLE : won’t break down in normal way BUT biodegrade nicely in large industrial composing facilities, though UK currently dose not have much facilities.

③     Can be made out of any sugar or starch, this means no need to use new flesh food.


LITTLE BLACK DRESS
                                          

Source: DyeCat Ltd (fibre), Elizabeth Gaston (dress designer)

The fabric used to this dress was dyeing without water at all.

Nowadays, textile dyeing occupies 17-20% industrial water pollution,

as cleaning and reuse colored water is expensive and developing

countries tend to just dump it to river and stream.

HOW TO DYE WITHOUT WATER

Building in color as plastic is made rather than to produce the raw material.

It makes cutting out the polluting dyeing step altogether.

 

MERITS

① NO WATER POLLUTION

② NO DAMEGE WITH PLA：PLA is easily damage in harsh dyeing conditions

      BUT this technology doesn’t damage PLA fabric.

WOVEN WONDER

Different pieces of this jacket were woven to be exactly the right shape

and size by DPOL(Direct Panel on Loom). It means that there was no waste fabric!!!

HOW TO MAKE JACKET WITH DPOL

Up load the design on to PC attached to a loom→

Loom weaves fabric panels according to the dimensions.

 

MERIT

① SAVE RESOURSES: cuts down on energy, water, dye and other high toxic chemicals. Also save 70-80% of water　→　help conserve natural resources and reduce the harmful effects.

② SAVE TIME AND MONEY: because of combining the weaving, fabric cutting and patterning all into one process.

Source: Siddhartha Upadhyaya, August Fashions