This area of sustainable design in my eyes is the most important and the one that needs most change, the impact of chemical waste on the environment and on the people producing the garments or materials they are making. In todays lecture we learnt a few facts that i felt really hit home. The textile industry uses 25% of all the chemicals used worldwide which is a huge amount, 16% of those are used on cotton. The textile industry today is one of the largest producing greenhouse gases. There are many areas of the design process from beginning to end that have massive effects on environment and social issues including the different stages of the making process; Growing fibres, ship to spinners, create yarn, ship to dye plant, dye fibres, ship to factory, weave or knit fabric, dye and print/finish fabric, ship to factory, cut and sew product then ship to wholesaler/ retailer. a very long process with very important and harmful issues. All of the above require all these ways of working, labour,chemicals,water and transportation. all effecting the environment, the people making the clothes themselves and the future. should we be using water in our processes for dying clothes when there are less fortunate people that don't even have clean and fresh water to drink? somehow we need to reduce the use of harmful chemicals and working a way for less transportation during the design and making process.
Hyun Jin Jeong 'Earth Dying' is something that really appeals to me, hyun uses natural products from the earth to dye her garments, she collected 45 different soils from south korea and the uk, after a lot of experimentation Hyun applied the soil based paints directly onto her fabrics resulting in beautiful hand dyed fabrics.
www.ecouterre.com/soil-as-fabric-dye-earth-
Cara Piazza is also another very influential designer using natural ways of dying, her pieces are very unique and all ethically produced. using found materials to dye her fabrics within the area that she is in at the time, her graduate collection was based on london and mapping, she would walk the streets and on the way take everything in that she is passing by, becoming in touch with the outside and also making friendships with local produce shops along the way, she would collect weeds,flowers etc from the areas she was passing through and dye her fabrics with these creating a beautiful, unique collection.
weareselecters.com
A print using red onion skins and blueberry from Cara Piazza
Rust and squid ink Print From Cara Piazza
www.caramarienyc.com
This is a technique i tried using within my last project, i tired dying with different fruits and vegetables but they didn't now turn out how i planned them too, its something i would like to experiment a lot more within my next projects to see the different outcomes it produces.
Another aspect of this area of sustainable design is the production of garments effecting our atmosphere and immediate environment, all these chemicals are producing harmful substances, an old new york train line has been converted into an urban garden and its quite magnificent, the locals wanted to bring a bit of nature and green to the urban streets of new york and this is how it turned out;
An amazing space, created for people to socialise and walk among the urban,concrete jungle within a green jungle itself. Creating fresh air, a habitat for nature and an escape from the bust city life.
Another project similar to this is the Promenade Plantee in Paris, an abandonned railway again been transformed into a green space, the park follows the route of the old railway. The park was designed and landscaped by architect Jacques Vergely and Phillipe Mathieus. A space reused for a little bit of garden heaven in amongst the busy city.
www.urbanghostsmedia.com
I think this particular area of Sustainable design is the area which needs to see the most change, people,designers and companies need to be more aware of the effects these processes are having on the environment and to the people producing these garments. I think the only way to do that is to get the bare facts out there and known, if people/customers knew the effects these processes are having on the environment would they carry on buying garments from these companies? Knowing these facts and researching into this subject has made me think very seriously as a designer the route i would like to go down when making fabrics and garments, if there is ethical, healthier ways to make things then this is the way to go, and everybody should be thinking about it.
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