Repairing textiles, why don’t we do it? It might have to do with our perception of perfection and the image of repairing. What is nature's way to repair? And if you want to repair, how do you do it?

When designing for disassembly in the textile sector there are multiple challenges. For example yarn blends that make separation of the fibres difficult, coatings and haberdashery. This time I would like to share with you some alternatives for haberdashery.

3d printing of textiles is such an interesting topic! I wrote about it earlier, to tell you what needs to be done to make 3D printing suitable for a circular economy. Now I found even more examples of interesting 3Dprint innovations that I would like to share with you.

Imagine if these were made of plastic from renewable materials and could be recycled again!

Enjoy and get inspired!

In 2012 I did research after the possibility to remove prints from textiles. Because everything is temporary. That is the way we should look at decorating our textiles too. People change, but their clothes do not change with them. We stop wearing our clothes when we are tired of them, while prints are permanent. What would happen if we have the possibility to replace prints on textiles? In other words, to remove prints and add new ones to make fabrics last. This method would combine short (fashion) cycles with long raw material cycles.

Three years ago I wrote an article about a dissolvable yarn that makes disassembly possible. At that time the yarn was a prototype and not yet for sale on the open market. But now, three years later Groenendijk Bedrijfskleding made safety vests with this yarn. Sander Jongerius, CSR manager of Groenendijk Bedrijfskleding tells about their development process.

To create zero waste with a textile design there are multiple options. For example fully fashioned knitwear, 3D printing or not designing at all (probably not your preferred option). The most known option is Zero Waste Pattern Cutting (ZWPC) and in this blog article I am going to give a few examples.

I love interlocking systems because they make design for disassembly, repair and reuse possible. This time I found one which I would like to share with you because it goes beyond concept, you can actually buy these items and wear them.

I am writing blog articles since January 2012. Cradle-to-cradle was the main subject, focussed on which materials and techniques make textile products suitable for biodegradation or recycling. Ones in a while it is good to take a broader view and see the shifts that are needed to make a circular economy possible, that is what I will do in this article.
Why a circular economy? Take a look at this (Dutch) video:

A few months ago I found something fascinating in the field of materials. Programmable materials. Materials that can assemble themselves in the right conditions. How can you apply these materials in an eco-effective design?