INNOVATION IN FASHION SCHOOLS
A few Great fashion programs (that include sustainability):
CCA
SF State University
SF Academy of Art University
University of Delaware
London College of Fashion
Parsons
CCA
SF State University
SF Academy of Art University
University of Delaware
London College of Fashion
Parsons
FOCUS ON CCA
California College of the Arts (CCA) is helping to produce a new generation of fashion designers that consider social and environmental responsibility an integral part of fashion design. They push the conceptual limits of fashion design, not trying to integrate environmental responsibility into the same product you could buy anywhere, but really trying to let the idea of sustainability influence design.
Below you will find a few examples of CCA student & grad work. Below that, you will find links to other great fashion programs that integrate the idea of ethical fashion.
Below you will find a few examples of CCA student & grad work. Below that, you will find links to other great fashion programs that integrate the idea of ethical fashion.
A Blossoming
By designer Karina Michel
Scrap / Remnant Fabric
The pictured outfit designed by Karina Michel utilizes waste generated by garment production at Pratibha Syntex, knitted apparel manufacturer in India. Assigned to reduce Pratiba’s waste which currently runs at 30% (including ends of runs and rejects) Michel uses a reverse appliqué technique, sandwiching several knit fabrics together with machine stitching, and then cutting sections away to reveal the multi level of colors beneath. The transformation of factory waste into exquisitely crafted garments exemplifies the power of design to innovate within limited resources and redefines our notions of 'waste'.
Photo Credit: Sean Michael
The pictured outfit designed by Karina Michel utilizes waste generated by garment production at Pratibha Syntex, knitted apparel manufacturer in India. Assigned to reduce Pratiba’s waste which currently runs at 30% (including ends of runs and rejects) Michel uses a reverse appliqué technique, sandwiching several knit fabrics together with machine stitching, and then cutting sections away to reveal the multi level of colors beneath. The transformation of factory waste into exquisitely crafted garments exemplifies the power of design to innovate within limited resources and redefines our notions of 'waste'.
Photo Credit: Sean Michael
No Wash Dress
By designer Lauren Devenney
Silk & Cotton
This dress presents a new perspective on the faux pas of dirty clothing. The pieces are designed to resist smell and encourage stain. Linen and cotton jersey allow the body and garments to breathe. The billowy silhouettes and deeply cut arms and neckline allow for additional circulation, reducing perspiration and body odour. The garments are pre-stained in a semi random splatter pattern, which is refreshed, rather than degraded, by each further accidental spill.
Photo Credit: Sean Michael
This dress presents a new perspective on the faux pas of dirty clothing. The pieces are designed to resist smell and encourage stain. Linen and cotton jersey allow the body and garments to breathe. The billowy silhouettes and deeply cut arms and neckline allow for additional circulation, reducing perspiration and body odour. The garments are pre-stained in a semi random splatter pattern, which is refreshed, rather than degraded, by each further accidental spill.
Photo Credit: Sean Michael
Low to No Waste Jacket
By designer Sam Forno
Wool
The pictured jacket by Sam Forno reduces waste by 75% and used 1/5 of the yardage usually required for a jacket. The design resulted from melding design and pattern-making processes together and morphing pattern pieces into the negative space on the fabric layout. This process generated a garment with a unique eco-modern aesthetic where the interlocking pattern pieces formed design lines and directed the mode of fastening up the center front. Sam’s experience in developing this design exemplifies a new role for designers; one of facilitator: As Sam realized, ‘The jacket designed itself. I don’t always have to be the one in command’.
Photo Credit: Shidume Lozada
The pictured jacket by Sam Forno reduces waste by 75% and used 1/5 of the yardage usually required for a jacket. The design resulted from melding design and pattern-making processes together and morphing pattern pieces into the negative space on the fabric layout. This process generated a garment with a unique eco-modern aesthetic where the interlocking pattern pieces formed design lines and directed the mode of fastening up the center front. Sam’s experience in developing this design exemplifies a new role for designers; one of facilitator: As Sam realized, ‘The jacket designed itself. I don’t always have to be the one in command’.
Photo Credit: Shidume Lozada
Modular Snapped Dress
By designer Crystal Titus
Cotton
Sustainability in fashion requires that we question not only the materiality and processing of products, but the product itself as well the fashion system that dictates cultural behavior. Fashion thrives on change and speed and is often viewed as the antithesis of sustainability. Yet in this garment, Crystal successfully merges pleasure and fashion with awareness and responsibility. Modular snapping panels are designed to accommodate removal and replacement with different colored, printed or shaped pieces.
For modular products, designers have to ‘let go’ of expressing their own style or leaving their mark on the world…and instead plan for flexibility and the individual expression of the wearer. The designer’s intent shifts from developing a resolved product to developing a resolved concept. The design genius becomes the system or mechanism of assembly and disassembly, rather than the product itself.
This garment not only offers alternative ways to consume, but also demands new business models. Models that are not built upon volume of throughput, but on services, cycles and meeting fundamental human needs.
Photo Credit: Lynda Grose
Sustainability in fashion requires that we question not only the materiality and processing of products, but the product itself as well the fashion system that dictates cultural behavior. Fashion thrives on change and speed and is often viewed as the antithesis of sustainability. Yet in this garment, Crystal successfully merges pleasure and fashion with awareness and responsibility. Modular snapping panels are designed to accommodate removal and replacement with different colored, printed or shaped pieces.
For modular products, designers have to ‘let go’ of expressing their own style or leaving their mark on the world…and instead plan for flexibility and the individual expression of the wearer. The designer’s intent shifts from developing a resolved product to developing a resolved concept. The design genius becomes the system or mechanism of assembly and disassembly, rather than the product itself.
This garment not only offers alternative ways to consume, but also demands new business models. Models that are not built upon volume of throughput, but on services, cycles and meeting fundamental human needs.
Photo Credit: Lynda Grose
Copyright, Global Action Through Fashion 2010