Reet Aus
Designer Reet Aus is dedicated to slow fashion and her upcycled collection is entirely made from post-production leftovers. She keeps proving that clever design can salvage mountains of unused textiles and the natural resources spent to produce them.
She has developed an industrial upcycling method that involves complete lifecycle analysis of the garments. The method enables to circulate the leftover materials back to production inside the same factory.
Most mass-production manufacturers are left with average 18% of pre-consumer textile waste that ususally is taken to landfill or burned.
Each garment in Reet Aus collection saves on average 75% water and 88% energy. Collection is produced following UPMADE® Cerfication criteria.
strambótica
strambótica is part of the "slow fashion" wave, from which products are allowed to be used widely,
timelessly and whose materials do not weaken over time, all thanks to eco-design. To this is added
multicultural and traditional techniques such as water-based inks (without chemical products or
allergens), Mayan braiding of bags and recycled paper accessories, and the recovery of items such
as espadrilles.
Our philosophy is to balance the fight against climate change, to limit the environmental impacts
related to the use of resources and to dress alternative, attractive and sustainable fashion.
For the packaging of all our products we use recycled paper and cardboard, wrapped in silk paper in
order to protect and maintain the product.
Antecuir
Antecuir forms part of AquaClean Group, a solid Spanish textile group formed by 6 industrial
companies (Grafer, Antecuir, Interfabrics, Textiles Pascual, Pascual and Bernabeu, Serpiscolor)
located in the Valencian Community, and two trading companies located in Poland and Singapore.
For AquacleanGroup, innovation and development form an important part of the company's
continuous growth, adopting the latest technologies in the sector to face an increasingly
demanding and competitive market.
Antecuir manufactures fabrics for the furniture upholstery industry and markets them all over the
world.
Campus Iberus best practices
Campus Iberus is a consortium composed by four universities (Zaragoza, Lleida, La Rioja, and Public
University of Navarre) aiming to the excellence in education. Campus Iberus is currently processing
the implementation of a joint master's degree on Circular Economy (90 ECTS credits) in order to
take profit of the occurrence of several research groups on that subject, the previous experience on
education of related matters (e.g., Sustainable Chemistry), as well as the interest from public and
private institutions.
Campus Iberus is a consortium composed by four universities (Zaragoza, Lleida, La Rioja, and Public
University of Navarre) aiming to the excellence in education. Campus Iberus is currently processing
the implementation of a joint master's degree on Circular Economy (90 ECTS credits) in order to
take profit of the occurrence of several research groups on that subject, the previous experience on
education of related matters (e.g., Sustainable Chemistry), as well as the interest from public and
private institutions.
Wearastory
Wear a story is a ready-to-wear clothing line started by the designer Lauriane Milis. It is offering items with a meaning to women looking for comfort and style.
The brand creates one-off pieces, made in Brussels, by upcycling ancient garments into modern cuts.
The challenge of Lauriane Milis, fashion designer and founder of the brand, is to create trendy clothing in a most ethical and efficient way.
Local upcycling appeared to be a good answer to the ethical part. As raw material, the brand uses garments that are unsuitable for the Belgian second hand market as well as organic cotton for the quality.
As for efficiency, Wear a story focuses on a few styles replicated with different fabrics. Each second hand garment is undone to get the new pattern shapes cut and then picked together.
Each style is named after a woman who could have been the owner of the old dress or top like Berthe, Jeanneke or Marcelle.
Each item relates the story behind it trough pictures of the original pieces.
Infinited fiber (Finland)
In fashion take-make-dispose mentality is the contemporary reality. This has made fashion one the heaviest burdens to the planet. At the same time there simply isn’t enough cotton available and demand is growing.
The need for impactful solutions to save fashion & our planet, has led to the creation of Infinited Fiber.
Textile, paper and cardboard waste can be used to produce a cotton-like, soft textile fibre using Infinited Fiber’s technology. The cellulose in the raw materials is processed into a 100% cellulose solution and reshaped into ready fibre using nozzle technology. The fibre can be used to solve the environmental problems caused by textile production and textile waste disposal.
Identifying necessary skills to support circular economy in the textile industry
DESIGN4CIRCLE: Identifying necessary skills to support circular economy in the textile industry
Waste and pollution from the production of textiles and clothing have become a critical global issue. With only one percent of fibres being recycled, our current ‘linear’ model is outdated and unsustainable. There is an urgent need to adopt innovative strategies to transform the industry into a circular-fit framework.
The project Design4Circle – Innovative design practices for achieving a new textile circular sector – was launched in December 2018 to create an innovative training curriculum to meet the needs of designers in the textile and fashion industry. The objective is to motivate designers from the textile sector to design products that will reduce their environmental impact during the product’s life-cycle, while developing new and innovative business models within the principles of circular economy. In order to achieve such purpose, a Strategic Partnership under the Erasmus+ programme has put together 6 organisations from 6 different countries combining complementary expertise in the different fields of the proposed project: two Universities experts in textile design and technologies: RTU, Latvia and TUIASI, Romania; one company expert in circular economy and new business models: ECORES, Belgium; and three business associations and VET providers that support different sectors of the textile industry through a strong expertise in eco-design: TTA-TC, Macedonia, AMUEBLA, Spain and CTCP, Portugal.
In the initial phase of the project, 29 European companies from 7 countries have been interviewed to identify how their circular economy strategy was implemented. Company representatives were asked to analyze different skills and competencies necessary for the successful implementation of their circular business models. In parallel, 29 higher education institutes and training experts were interviewed to understand which skills and competences are emphasised in their circular economy related training programmes.
The second consortium meeting, took place on 23rd of May in Brussels and was hosted by circular economy expert Ecores (Belgium), during which the information collected was analysed. The conclusions will subsequently be used to finalise a report on the skills needs of the textile industry in terms of circular economy. At the same time, good practice cases will be prepared to be included in the future training content developed during the next phase of the project.
More information
Contact and press enquiry:
Dana BEĻAKOVA
Dizaina tehnoloģiju institūta direktore
Materiālzinātnes un lietišķās ķīmijas fakultāte
Dizaina tehnoloģiju institūts
Ķīpsalas 6-215, Rīga, LV-1048
+371 26356510