Application of make/use platform for sustainable fashion design

Abstract

The article explores the challenges of the clothing industry by focusing more on textile and the clothing industry interactions to reduce industry fabric waste and promote sustainability. The main research focus is to gather and analyze various possibilities for fashion designers to achieve zero waste designs in nowadays context. The introduction gives insights on the problems of the fashion industry and formulates the purpose and tasks of the research work, identifies and unpacks problems and also justifying the relevance of this study. Attention is drawn to the analysis of pre-consumer waste generation in the clothing production processes and the ways to drive the industry towards sustainability. The rich source of zero waste design ideas can be found in the ethnographic costumes’ solutions. Integrating historical experience with the methods and approaches defined by the 21st century designers can significantly reduce or even avoid fabric pre-consumer waste. The paper will reflect the collected principles of achieving zero waste fashion by using Make/Use platform, an open source system for zero waste user, modifiable fashion practice. The methods of Make/Use platform are described, and its practical application is illustrated through the zero-waste coat design. Premeditate changes are based on the fashion designer’s thinking encouraging minimizing the waste in the early stages of the costume idea development, providing a sensible use of the fabric with its silhouette and design specificity.