Apparel industry is known for being one of the main contributors to filling up landfills due to textile materials. The products life ends at the landfill.
The Cradle to Cradle metabolism cycle revolves around giving all products a second life. The term waste equals food creates an UPcycling system for products, creating value in its second, third, fourth life, and so on. The idea of the biological metabolism cycle is to be able to “toss” material items on the ground in useful locations to safely biodegrade after the end use-creating a new life.
The C2CAD reading provides several guidelines for sustainable ways of producing, manufacturing and designing for apparel designers and manufacturers. The goal is to help reduce resource consumption in the fashion industry; as well as, selecting chemicals that evolve around not only environment safety but human safety and well -being. The “cradle to cradle” process is designed to create new usable life after its first. These “biological nutrients” can easily enter back into our environment without causing water or soil depositing toxins. For this type of biological nutrients to be successful the “disposal without negative environmental impact is necessary.”
The reading by Bradley Quinn emphasized that chemical processing to a finished product is highly discouraged. He also mentioned that designers have the option choose whether they prefer to work with recycled fabrics or organic fabrics including hemp and raw silks. With the biodegradable process, biomimicry was also brought up. The study of biomimicry focuses on animals and plant life and the various ways they can be adapted to human life.
My concept is involved around the biological cycle. The idea is to create an A-line shirt that has an overlay of fabric that would be removable for biodegrading. These removable outer layers would be placed onto the skirts waistband by zipper or Velcro and would be offered in various colors and patterns. The removable layers would be made of natural materials that would biodegrade after a period of time. In order to biodegrade the use of 100% forms of textiles would have to be used, so the removable layer would be made of 100% cotton. Using natural materials, the biodegradable process would be environmentally safe for gardens, plant life, etc. My design concept focuses on the versatility of design. An individual can purchase ONE great fashionable skirt and can customize it by purchasing many different removable layers to rotate out looks overtime.
