textile Archives

Spotted: Reports that consumers buy around 60 per cent more clothing than they did at the beginning of the century help to explain the vast amounts of textile waste generated around the world. Much of that waste ends up in the global south, compounding the problems those countries have with their own production excesses. While researchers expect the global textile recycling market to grow significantly in the next few years, to just under $10 billion (around €9.6 billion) by 2030, more still needs to be done to extend the life of clothing.

In South Africa, startup Faro has partnered with a number of different fashion brands to create a new supply chain. Rather than dilute current markets with unsold goods, the company redirects overstock and returns to markets throughout the African continent. Pieces are sold for up to 70 per cent less than the original retail price.

Faro helps reduce textile waste by preventing goods from being sent to landfill while also reducing the reliance that many communities in developing economies have on fast fashion. With much of fast fashion made from virgin fibres and synthetic materials, the re-commerce model brings products from reputable brands to communities that would otherwise buy knockoffs.

Faro manages the entire process, beginning with buying from international fashion brands. The clothing is then sorted and, if needed, reconditioned, before being distributed to micro-merchants for direct-to-consumer sales. Such retailers are able to reach customers who are farther away from urban hubs and who generally have less disposable income. In addition to reselling clothing, Faro pledges to save an equivalent amount of textile waste from landfill through repurposing and upcycling by local artists.

The company recently secured pre-seed funding and plans to open its first retail outlet in October 2023. Up to 20 stores are already being planned for, with at least five to open by mid-2024.

Other solutions showcased in Springwise’s archive of ways in which innovators are reducing textile waste include an easy-to-remove yarn for fast disassembly and artificial intelligence (AI) size recommendations to help reduce returns.

Written By: Keely Khoury

Reference

Architecture

Productora converts Mexico City textile factory into artist spaces

By Zarkon Group,06/10/2023

Mexican architecture studio Productora has restored a concrete industrial complex in Mexico City into a series of studios including its own office.

Productora has been gradually renovating the building, which was originally a textile factory built in the 1920s, since it moved its offices to the structure following an earthquake in 2017.

The studio originally took up residence in an empty “nave” in the factory in Mexico City’s Doctores neighbourhood along a furniture company.

Since then, the studio has been “slowly rebuilding the complex while inhabiting it” and more than twenty other companies have moved into the complex, which is now called Laguna,

Concrete and green trim in Mexico City — New buildings were added to the cleared courtyards in the middle of the complex

For the renovation, the studio focused on the interior of the complex while leaving the street-facing, painted-concrete exterior, generally untouched so that one might not know the complex is there at all.

The complex is now orientated around two courtyards that were cleared of existing structures to create new circulation and gathering areas.

Green metal screen with concrete breeze blocks — The site was once a textile factory

Within these courtyard spaces, a mix of newly built concrete workshops and the renovation of existing brick-and-mortar and concrete buildings will continue to take place over the next several years. The studio said it hopes that the project will be one of “constant adaptation and transformation”.

Now, the most significant aspects of the renovation have been the cleared courtyards and added buildings, as well as expressive walkways and a new freight elevator that towers above the site.

Green detailing was chosen because it was prominent in the trim of the windows and roof on the facade of the original structure, and these green details continue along the causeways and in the gridded window frames.

People on benches in Mexico City art space — Gathering spaces have been included in the courtyards. Photo by Camila Cossio

Social spaces have been installed in the courtyards so that members of the various companies can gather.

In the future, Productora plans to build wooden workshops on top of the preexisting structure to create flexible and modular extensions to the current program.

Jozz Gómez, a coordinator for Laguna, said that the presence of the complex has also positively changed the environment around the complex.

“It started to bring more employment, but also changed the neighbourhood,” she told Dezeen.

“It was known to be a very dangerous neighbourhood, but after the project started, you can see foreigners, students, and young people walking around the streets.”

Office spaces in industrial spaces — It holds office space for creative studios. Photo by Camila Cossio.

Productora was founded in 2006 and has additional offices in Brooklyn. Recent projects include a hotel in San Miguel de Allende clad in red and green tile as well as a bright-blue cohousing project in Denver, Colorado, USA.

The photography is by Pablo Manjarrez. Top photo by Camila Cossio.

Reference

Sustainable News

AI spots defects in textile production

By Zarkon Group,13/09/2023

Spotted: The fashion industry has been in for a lot of criticism over its poor environmental record – and with good reason. Textile production makes up 10 per cent of global carbon emissions and produces more than 20 per cent of global wastewater. Luckily, awareness of these issues is leading to innovations that are driving change in the sector.

One of the companies working to make textiles greener is Smartex, which has developed a suite of software tools that make fabric production more efficient. Smartex’s Core platform uses cameras, artificial intelligence (AI), and machine learning to make fabric production more efficient. The system identifies defects before they can create waste, aids in article management, and creates digital twins of textile rolls produced, among other features.

At the same time, the company’s more recently unveiled Loop platform provides suppliers with precise data down to each roll of fabric, enabling greater transparency across the supply chain. The result is much greater efficiency and communication between suppliers and brands – all of which reduce waste.

The increased interest in making fashion more sustainable means there is a big demand for this type of platform. Smartex completed a $24.7 million (around €23 million) series A funding round in 2022, building on a $2.9 million (around €2.7 million) seed round in 2019.

Smartex’s Taylor Bradley told Springwise that the company “will continue to tackle enormous, pervasive problems across the global textile industry by providing tailored AI, software and hardware solutions which will help the industry become modernised and digitised. Our goal is to provide essential tools for every Modern Textile Factory.”

The fashion industry has been working to improve its environmental track record with a wide number of innovations. In the archive, Springwise has also spotted 3D weaving to reduce textile waste and leather alternatives made from brewing waste.

Written By: Lisa Magloff

Reference

Sustainable News

Natural Material Studio creates “flexible” bio textile from waste bricks

By Zarkon Group,19/04/2023

Copenhagen-based Natural Material Studio and designer Zuzanna Skurka have created an installation at Milan design week from soft bio textiles made from surplus bricks.

Called Brick Textiles, the project is on display at Alcova – a travelling exhibition platform for independent design that is held at a different disused site in Milan each year.

Natural Material Studio worked with Polish designer and researcher Zuzanna Skurka to create the textiles from highly porous repurposed bricks that were classified as waste after demolition projects.

“Rule one is, you should work with materials that are already there,” studio founder Bonnie Hvillum told Dezeen in Milan.

Slabs of biomaterial at Alcova 2023 in a former slaughterhouse, by Natural Material Studio — The project is on display at Alcova in Milan

The textiles were made from a combination of crushed bricks bonded together with Procel – a home-compostable, protein-based bioplastic of natural softener and pigments developed by Natural Material Studio.

Featuring a distinctly reddish hue, the textiles were divided into large, roughly-cut slabs that hang suspended from the roof on metal bars in a room at Alcova to form a dramatic installation illuminated by skylights.

Swirly pattern on reddish-hued Brick Textiles by Natural Material Studio — Swirly patterns made by the crushed bricks characterise the textile

Natural Material Studio and Skurka drew upon traditional weaving techniques to create the textile, which was made by incorporating bricks and Procel into a “biomaterial matrix”, according to Hvillum.

The material owes its strength, colour and texture to the bricks, which create unique swirly patterns on each slab that are produced randomly during the “fluid casting process”, she explained.

Hanging textiles that form a "biomaterial matrix" on display at Milan design week — Hvillum described the product as a “biomaterial matrix”

“We were very curious about this question of how can architecture be flexible, more simple and translucent even? added Hvillum. “It’s all the opposite aspects of a brick.”

“When we think of brick it’s like a solid, rigid, structural wall,” she continued. “But how can we make more flexible and fluid architecture today?”

Hanging textiles and old bricks at Alcova — Examples of the bricks the designers used are positioned underneath the textiles

Holes were pierced into the corners of the slabs so that they can be linked together.

While the water-resistant textile is already being used by interior architects as room dividers, Hvillum said that the studio hopes that one day it could form whole walls.

“The way we build and how we live in the built environment shapes us, so if we can build a more flexible and organic biomaterial, we want to start the exploration of what that experience is,” she continued.

This year, the Alcova exhibition takes place at a former slaughterhouse in Porta Vittoria. The formation of brick-based textiles hangs from metal bars where meat once hung at the site.

“There’s something funny and a little bit rough about that image,” acknowledged Hvillum.

Hanging reddish hued bio textiles by Natural Material Studio — The textiles hang where meat was once suspended in the former slaughterhouse

The materials specialist explained that Brick Textiles intends to salvage something from the past and propose fresh ways of thinking about an existing resource.

“It’s new materials we’re developing, so we still don’t know everything about them,” she reflected. “And that’s the beauty and honesty of it.”

Established in 2018, Natural Material Studio has created a number of repurposed materials for wide-ranging projects. These include crockery for a seafood restaurant made from leftover scallop shells and clothing created with algae, clay and foam.

Brick Textiles is on display at Alcova from 17 to 23 April 2023 as part of Milan design week. See our Milan design week 2023 guide on Dezeen Events Guide for information about the many other exhibitions, installations and talks taking place throughout the week.

Reference

Sustainable News

Fluff Stuff is a plant-based textile filling that isn’t just “serving hippies”

By Zarkon Group,13/09/2022

Fluff Stuff is a textile filling created from plants cultivated on rewetted peatlands in Finland, which has been designed by students at Aalto University and was on display as part of Helsinki Design Week.

Co-founded by engineer Lukas Schuck and designer Tea Auramo, who are currently studying master’s degrees at Helsinki’s Aalto University, Fluff Stuff is a range of prototype soft homeware and clothing.

These products include various colourful cushions and duvets as well as jackets, bags and a hooded hat that are stuffed with cellulose fibres.

The pieces are filled with typha latifolia, a type of plant commonly known as broadleaf cattail, which is defined by its long cigar-shaped seed heads and is typically found in Finnish peatlands – a type of wetland.

Cattail plants — The products include cattail plants extracted from rewetted wetlands

Each product is stuffed with plant fibres instead of traditional, carbon-intensive down filling. According to the Fluff Stuff team, cattail absorbs 66 per cent less water than down and dries twice as fast.

“Typha fibres are naturally coated by a wax layer, making them highly hydrophobic,” they explained.

Currently, the plants are harvested from rewetted peatlands in Finland using the team’s first prototype device – a handheld machine that abstracts the cattails through suction.

“Drained peatlands account for 50 to 60 per cent of agricultural emissions in Finland,” said the Fluff Stuff team, explaining that the project aims to restore rewetted peatlands while also providing a more sustainable solution to creating textile filling.

“Fluff Stuff rethinks Finnish peatland management and the Finnish textile industry by connecting bio-based material innovation with regenerative agricultural practices,” the designers added.

Designer Auramo explained that the team is currently using textiles it has sourced for the project, but in the future, it plans to make its own textiles in which to use the filling, as Fluff Stuff has plans to become a commercial range.

“We chose colours [for the textiles] that would fit with our own dyed colours, so you can see beige and blues and red tones so that they will fit later when we do more prototypes,” the designer told Dezeen.

She also explained that they chose green as a colour for some of the products, due to its “fit in more modern homes”.

“We also chose a more modern colour – lime green,” said Auramo. “We definitely aren’t just serving hippies. We want to speak to different customer groups.”

Plant-filled clothing — The project intends to find a sustainable solution to down

Other recent similar student projects include fabrics created from plants grown in seawater and dissolvable ramen packaging that turns into edible sauce.

The photography is by Aalto University, Mikko Raskinen and Anna Berg.

Helsinki Design Week took place from 1 to 11 September 2022 in Helsinki, Finland. See Dezeen Events Guide for an up-to-date list of architecture and design events taking place around the world.

Reference

textile

A fashion re-commerce platform tackles textile waste in Africa

Productora converts Mexico City textile factory into artist spaces

AI spots defects in textile production

Natural Material Studio creates “flexible” bio textile from waste bricks

Fluff Stuff is a plant-based textile filling that isn’t just “serving hippies”

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