Are we witnessing the beginning of the end of the cut and sew garment production industry?

The majority of today’s fashion is produced using techniques that remain largely unchanged for the past 150 years. It is labor intensive; with many hands touching and working to produce the garments we wear everyday. The industry that manufactures our clothing is one of the least automated industries, and has by and large failed to ever fully embrace mass production techniques.

Mass manufacturing processes such as rotational molding revolutionized the production of furniture and other objects for industrial design, while robotics have transformed vehicle production. Automated processes and technologies are routinely used in almost all other industries, but human hands largely still make the bulk of what we wear.

The processes that come together to produce a fashion garment are broken into tiny actions, each operated by a different highly efficient and well-practiced individual. For example there will be one person who rivets your jeans, another who top stitches the pockets and yet another who only trims threads. One of the few aspects of garment production that has been automated is cutting. CNC blades or laser cutters rapidly cut multiple layers of cloth at the same time. However, this only occurs in large-scale production, as most small and medium scale manufacturers still cut by hand. By the time your garment reaches you it has passed through many hands, each person paid a fraction of the cost to produce the whole.

There are many contradictions apparent in this high labor industry.

The Good: it keeps a lot of people employed, in fact more people are employed by the textile and apparel industry than any other.

The Bad: they are generally paid a low wage and often work in poor working conditions in a repetitive (trimming threads for the rest of your life anyone?) and sometimes dangerous job. Transitioning into a more automated industry had profound impacts on the motor vehicle manufacturing industry, reducing the cost of cars and increasing production, while leaving thousands unemployed and the communities who relied on the industry decimated. If garment production were to follow the automated route the impacts are difficult to gauge, though unemployment would likely be one of them. The question of whether the payoffs are worth it is part of an ongoing debate, but what would an automated fashion production industry even look like? What might it mean for consumers and designers?

Many of the advances in industrial design technology focus around the transition from subtractive production processes, where you start with a sheet or block of material and remove what you don’t need to make the finished object, to additive processes, where you start with nothing and you only add what you need. Additive technologies are faster and less labor intensive when automated and produce substantially less waste to produce the same or better end result. It enables form and structures never before possible with reductive processes.

Julian Roberts, Subtraction Cutting

Some of the most interesting developments in regards to garment design and production are occurring at the threshold between industrial design, science and fashion. Revolutionary thinkers at these intersections have produced spray on fabric, 3D printed swimwear and couture, Liquid Molded garments, and DPOL. These emerging (and still developing) technologies add to more mainstream techniques such as whole garment knitting, digital printing, embroidery and laser cutting, to present us with a future for the fashion industry which is vastly different to the one we have now.

Conflating the textile production and garment production processes through technological advances such as 3D printing, as well as producing garment forms otherwise impossible, also significantly reduces waste and carbon emissions. The highly globalized nature of the fashion industry leads to the raw materials of textiles grown in one country, processed in another and cut and sewn in yet another, all while being sold all over the world.

Imagining in contrast, a future where we have a 3D printer on our desktop at home is not that far off, so picture this: You are about to go out on a Friday evening and realize you “have nothing to wear!” You pay $50 to download from the internet that latest Fall 2018 dress design you love, software modifies it to fit exactly and then sends it to your desktop 3D printer, 30 minutes later you’re out the door.

This will happen.

Image: Kheel Center, Cornell, The Denim Wiki

The post The Death of Cut and Sew and the Birth of 3D appeared first on EcoSalon.

Fact: It takes over 1,800 gallons of water to grow enough cotton to make 1 pair of jeans, and over 400 gallons of water to make one t-shirt.

The water crisis conversation is growing exponentially. Fears of losing access to potable water face a growing number of people across the globe. In fact, it’s expected that two-thirds of the world’s people will run short of fresh drinking H20 by 2025. So, in just over a decade, it’s possible that 75% of the globe’s population might not have access to clean drinking water. What does fashion have to do with this? A lot.

As a $450 billion global industry, only half of 1% of those garments are created in a way that attempts to respect people and the environment. When the majority of the garment industry production happening in an “unsustainable” way, their unfortunate use of dirty chemicals is leading to toxic runoff that flows into rivers, lakes, and streams and diminishes the world’s fresh water.

In textile production, the dyeing and finishing stages typically require high water and chemical use. According to Global Action Through Fashion, the majority of compounds used for applying color are highly carcinogenic or otherwise toxic, and those chemicals generally are discharged into nearby waterways. Brooklyn, New York was a hub for textile manufacturing and dying back in the 1920s and 30s. Josh Verlean, Staff Attorney and Chief Investigator for Riverkeeper tells EcoSalon that before the Clean Water Act amendments of 1977, the colors of the Hudson River were often stained by automobile dyes or textile dyeing; the water would reflect the colors that specific dye houses were processing that day. Much of the dyeing process for larger companies has now moved overseas, but that doesn’t mean it has disappeared.

Outsourcing expands into cotton production as well. According to the Environmental Justice Foundation, about 44 per cent of the world’s water use for cotton growth and processing is not serving the domestic market but instead, is being soaked up for export. And cotton – the fabric of our lives – is responsible for a large dent of the garment industry’s water waste. It takes over 1,800 gallons of water to grow enough cotton to make 1 pair of jeans, and it takes over 400 gallons of water to make one t-shirt.

Fashion is interrupting the natural current of the world’s most vital resource. So, what’s it going to take to ensure that the fashion industry stops contributing to this daunting reality, and who are the superstars in the fashion industry that are working to conserve, protect, and keep the fresh water flowing?

Costello Tagliapietra Spring/Summer 2012

AirDye Solutions has tackled the issue in a tech-savvy and action-based way. AirDye technology allows for the application of color to fabric without the use of water. It ends up using about 90% less water and 85% less energy than conventional dyeing processes. Standout designers like Costello Tagliapietra have been using this innovative and water conserving technology for the past several seasons. When asked if they notice a difference between using AirDye and conventional dying techniques, Jeffrey Costello and Robert Tagliapietra say “Absolutely.”

“We have the amazing opportunity to have the backside of the fabric look just as beautiful as the front, something that is not possible with traditional dyeing; we are even doing prints on both sides in some pieces.”

With luxe collections packed with color and mesmerizing prints, Costello Tagliapietra is definitely not sacrificing style for ethics, which has interested more designers to jumping onboard the AirDye train thanks to their lead.

Another brand, BluDemocracy, has tackled the agua quandary head-on by replacing cotton with bamboo in the production of all of their everyday basics. The LA-based company claims that to make a cotton t-shirt, it takes 11,500 cups of water, whereas to produce a bamboo tee, it only takes 3,840 cups. By producing and processing their bamboo collection sustainably, Blu Democracy hopes to make a dent in this overwhelming statistic: 1 billion people worldwide don’t have access to clean water…right now.

Blu Democracy’s representative Walka Quiroa tells EcoSalon there are ways to instigate change by sharing “in your face knowledge about the extreme lack of clean drinking water around the world, along with spreading simple ways individuals and companies can make positive change to these frightening statistics.”

Massive transformations in our daily lifestyles are not required, according to Quiroa, but rather, creating awareness around products that are good for the earth is the first tread. As Quiroa tells EcoSalon, “Knowledge inspires change.”

BluDemocracy bamboo tees

How important is water? We humans are comprised of 65% of it, and 75% of the earth’s surface is covered with the stuff. We need it, plants need it, animals need it – where did the disconnect evolve away from such a crucial resource?

In a recent visit to the Minnesota Marine Art Museum, an exhibition titled: “Upon Native Waters: The Photographs of Edward Curtis,” sparked reminders of the basic foundation that water’s worth was built upon. Edward Curtis’ photographs of Native Americans in the early 1900s showcased vividly the ways that water was integral to the everyday lives of people. In these times and through these cultures, a clear connectivity could be observed between water and humanity.

Photograph from “Upon Native Waters: The Photographs of Edward Curtis,” currently at the Minnesota Marine Art Museum

Water didn’t used to flow out of faucets and it never grew on trees. It might be time to take a tip from our elders and remember that water is a valued resource necessary for survival – one to be respected and appreciated.

Image: Nadia Moro

The post Swimming Against the Mainstream Fashion Current appeared first on EcoSalon.

VideoHave you really thought about what happens in those factories?

Who makes your clothes? This EcoSalon exclusive video by Ace Salisbury and designer Eliza Starbuck takes a look at that very question, and with the help of animated character Buttons the Cat, makes it clear that sometimes humor makes it easier to put things into perspective.

We love the art of storytelling, so every week we bring you a video that has been making the rounds at EcoSalon. Enjoy!

The post EcoSalon Exclusive: Buttons Goes to Work appeared first on EcoSalon.

You don’t have to be an economist to want to understand the economics of “the fabric of our lives.” Case in point: The recent ban on cotton exports by the Indian government has piqued my curiosity. I wanted to understand whether this ban would have an impact not only on the cotton farmers, particularly those growing organic and fair-trade cotton, but also what impact it might have on us as consumers.

What I learned is that there are no clear answers.

Fact: the price of cotton is at a 15-year high.

Why? According to Eco Textile News, this is the result of Indian authorities lowering cotton export tax rebates. With higher rebates there is more incentive to export raw cotton. Once you lower those tax rebates, you are effectively lowering its export appeal. Supply goes down, but demand is up (marginally), and the price of cotton rises.

So why ban raw cotton export altogether? What does this mean to the farmers? And what will be the impact to consumers?

The reason for the ban is simple, if you are the Indian government and your best interest is to protect the textile industry. A robust export market means a shortfall in the amount of cotton available for India’s own textile manufacturing sector. When you factor in China as a fierce competitor, this makes sense. China is, after all, the world’s largest cotton importer.

When it comes to the impact of the ban on cotton farmers, there are conflicting views.

On the one hand, some experts contend this decision was made in haste, out of panic over the fact that cotton prices have risen by 80%. And, that by restricting exports, cotton farmers (particularly organic and fair-trade growers) are not seeing any of the benefits enjoyed by the cotton traders. The organic and fair-trade cotton growers in India rely heavily on its export, and some believe that when times are good, these communities should be supported rather than punished.

On the other hand, some organizations support the banning of raw cotton export from India.

“I believe the true value of this commodity is long overdue, and has been taken advantage of for so many years,” says UK Pants to Poverty representative Ben Ramsden. “Without any move to keep cotton within India, the booming Indian textile and garmenting industry could be considerably challenged, putting further strain on this very fragile industry.”

Will we feel this impact on our wallets?

In some cases, fabric suppliers could pass their costs up the supply chain. This would result in retailers paying more for basic cotton items such as socks and t-shirts. However, some industry experts claim the ban will have little impact on domestic cotton prices, as most of the exports for the current cotton season have already been committed. So if we do feel any price sting, it will likely be marginal.

To this end, Ramsden says, “If this goes some way to enabling us all to understand more about where our clothes come from, and why our choices can change the world, then the whole exercise will be fantastic.”

Image: Ken Lund

The post The Economics of Cotton appeared first on EcoSalon.