As we outlined in our trends to watch in 2018, sustainability continues to be on the top of the agenda for fashion companies. Now, one of the WEAR funded projects on creating a more ethical industry has come into fruition by none other than our favourite fashion-tech innovation agency BRIA and forward-looking fashion brand SABINNA.
The teams at BRIA and SABINNA have collaborated to transform a fashion capsule collection of wardrobe “staples” into new 100% biodegradable materials for use in garment packaging and shop interiors. By developing innovative processes for transforming garments into new biodegradable materials, they have successfully demonstrated that without compromising on design, it is possible for brands to create commercial fashion that is circular and that never needs to go into landfill, with the potential to avoid millions of tonnes of garment landfill waste every year.
“We started discussions to team up with Sabinna in August 2017, as we have known her for a while now and we share a common passion for sustainability and for changing the status-quo in the fashion industry in terms of current practices,” tells us BRIA Co-Director Moin Roberts-Islam. The teams set out to develop processes for transforming end-of-life garments made from cellulose-based materials into new 100% recyclable and biodegradable materials. The new materials which were created are similar to paper, card, plastics and even wood, and can be used for garment packaging, tags, building shop interiors and many other applications.
New materials after recycling process
In order to demonstrate their new developments to the fashion community, the teams at BRIA and SABINNA worked together to co-design and produce a capsule collection of garments made from solely cotton and viscose, which can then be processed in different ways at the end of their use. The resulting fibres can be reclaimed via their new processes and recycled into other new materials, which are 100% cellulose-based and therefore biodegradable. Importantly, the collaboration has been equally led by textile design and materials science throughout, with no compromise made to the aesthetics of the garments or recyclability of the end product.
