Comments on: ESTETHICA ECO FASHION: Mark Liu’s Zero-Waste Designs

By: ellen

ellen — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 21:00:15 +0000

This is all very good and innovate. But, hoping not to sound like some nasty shoulder pad feminist, can’t we move to sustainable fashion on models who aren’t stick figures, or is designing for unrealistically bone -thin women a part of eco-fashion in that it uses less material?

Really, I’d think that there was a way to get all of this to work together.

By: del.icio.us bookmarks (15-Jan-2008 through 10-Mar-2008)

del.icio.us bookmarks (15-Jan-2008 through 10-Mar-2008) — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 10:00:48 +0000

[...] Mark Liu?s Zero-Waste Designs – "… Mark Liu, … ?zero-waste? fabric patterns and eco-designs that … waste not a scrap of fabric." This is one of the methods I see Soko Loko using design innovation to reduce costs – allowing more room for higher labour costs and organic materia [...]

By: Timo Rissanen

Timo Rissanen — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 02:18:38 +0000

Thanks Abigail. I’ve just realised I didn’t include thanks for writing about this – thank you! When I started the research in 2004, most people would stare at me blankly when I told them what I was doing, and finding Burnham’s research last year was a bit of a validating moment. But anyway, having people like you write about these things and promoting the likes of Mark and others is invaluable; please keep it up!
With thanks,
Timo

By: Abigail Doan

Abigail Doan — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 15:45:20 +0000

Thanks for your excellent follow up, Timo. For those who are interested Timo Rissanen, PhD candidate, has a great write-up re: this topic on Fashion Incubator :

http://www.fashion-incubator.com/mt/archives/zero_fabric_waste_fashion_design.html

I very much look forward to reading your chapter in ‘Sustainable Fashion: Why Now?

Sounds like essential reading! I even heard the term ‘zero-waste’ used at this year’s Oscars coverage which made me twinge a bit, but I was pleased as well that folks are catching on – 35 years late.

Best wishes,

Abigail @ Inhabitat

By: Timo Rissanen

Timo Rissanen — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 11:24:25 +0000

Good point that needs some clarification. Miyake’s A-POC is a fundamentally different approach to Cut & Sew (Mark’s approach). As amazing a way to make clothes (and other things) as I think A-POC is, I don’t think it means the end of Cut & Sew, the most common way of designing and making clothes. I tried to explain the differences in a conference paper in 2005, and again in my chapter in ‘Sustainable Fashion: Why Now?’, just out from Fairchild Books. In both texts I’ve covered other examples of a no-waste approach to fashion design, perhaps most notably by Zandra Rhodes and Yeohlee Teng. Since writing those, I’ve also been introduced to the research by Deborah K. Burnham – she was researching it 35 years ago. It’s funny that all of a sudden no-waste is a new thing, when really it’s a really old thing, when you start digging. Hundreds, if not thousands of years old.

By: laura

laura — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 17:18:46 +0000

let’s not forget dan fujiwara and issey miyake’s A-POC technique of making a garment from a single piece of thread; also tremendously reducing waste via eliminating patternmaking. miyake and liu should team up.