[ad_1]
Researchers looking for ways to reduce textile waste have enlisted the expertise of textile experts at one of Victoria’s most popular museums.
Main points:
- A research project aims to reduce waste in the clothing industry using old textile techniques.
- Clothing from Sower Hill is being studied as part of the project.
- The average Australian uses 15kg of new clothing every year
Some of the costumes in the gold rush-themed museum have been preserved since the 1970s.
Rather than discarding these manufacturing and processing capabilities, they attracted the attention of RMIT researchers.
Worldwide clothing production has doubled since 2000, and overconsumption is rampant in the fashion industry.
The average Australian uses 15kg of new clothing a year and throws away the same amount, according to research by the Fashion Council of Australia.
When slow fashion was all the rage
But it wasn’t always like this.
Clothing was once produced and cared for with longevity in mind, says Ricarda Bigolin, principal researcher of the Wearing Out Sovereign Project, but these practices have been lost with the advent of “fast fashion.”
Fast fashion is a term used to describe the rapid production of clothing to replicate inexpensive quality materials and meet the demands of trend cycles.
“Fashion wasn’t really about buying cheap clothes and wearing them once and throwing them out,” Ms. Bigolin said.
“Product costs, material choices, everything is designed so that you buy something new instead of owning it.”
According to Erin Santamaria, the museum’s head of rarities trading and programming, the methods used by settlers in the 1850s — and at Sawyer Hill’s clothier — to reduce waste were very simple.
“The techniques are meant to create a greater ability to alter clothing, size or fit, or to change style when it gets a little tired or when fashions change slightly,” Ms. Santamaria said.
“Simple things like really deep seam allowances that allow for maximum flexibility, or you can finish a seam or hem line so it can be repaired or altered back into the garment in a variety of ways.”
Making the old new again
Although simple, Ms. Santamaria said these techniques are rarely found in garments made today.
The Wearing Out Sovereign project hopes to bring these “forgotten, circular economy practices” into modern clothing.
Researchers are developing a series of material prototyping and workshops where the community can learn to make these age-old techniques and tailor clothing for a longer life cycle.
Widespread use of these techniques means an escape from fast fashion practices and an investment in the ability to make clothes at home and in local communities, Ms. Santamaria said.
“People don’t realize how much time goes into making clothes because it’s all done invisibly by people overseas,” she said.
She saw first hand the benefits of knowing how to make and care for clothes.
“We find that our employees know the clothing department that makes their clothes. They see the effort and time that goes into them and they really stick with their clothes,” Ms. Santamaria said.
“It is very important to practice and teach these skills because the globalization of the fashion industry may not always be the way things are directed.
“The in-house skills set here in Australia, whether you’re making something yourself or at a national level in the production and manufacturing facilities we have here, is very important.”
[ad_2]
Source link
