The Needle, the Thread, and the One-Time Wonder

A brief look into the past, present and future of sustainable textiles

In the film “The Sound of Music”, the protagonist Maria makes a breakthrough as a governess to seven rather unruly children by sewing them play clothes. The catch? The clothes are made entirely from old bedroom drapes.

“Nihil sub sole novum” is a Latin phrase that translates to “Nothing new under the sun.” It drives home the message that ultimately, nothing we obtain or create is completely new, and everything ranging from fashion trends to habits is recycled.

One of the most prominent, albeit subconscious, ways we have practiced recycling has been through textiles. Much like Maria with the Von Trapp children’s play clothes, the idea of upcycling old clothes to reduce textile waste has been there in both trendy and trying times.

Of course, the most iconic example is a quilt, a collection of fabric patches sewn to create large and useful blankets. The earliest quilts date as far back as 1 BC. In the mid-to-late eighteenth century, clothing pieces would be unpicked and resewn into new garments that were worn by the working class. In the 19th century, rationed clothing led to a rise in the making of small and practical garments from excess fabrics in skirts.

The fabric and textile industry has grown into one of the most polluting industries on the planet, but also one of the most essential. While practices to upcycle old fabrics have yet to become history, a more consumer-driven and environmentally impactful rise in fast fashion products has led to the need for reinvention of the textiles involved. It is a call to tackle the issue of unsustainable clothing through reassessing the very base fabrics used to create them.

Professor Kelly Cobb, associate professor in Fashion and Apparel Studies at the University of Delaware, works on this issue. She has extensively studied various alternative fabrics.

“I really think textiles are a pioneer innovation/technology, it's the material of the 21st century,” Cobb said. “There’s a variety of materials that I have worked with. I've studied mycelium, which is a mushroom, and so we're looking at regional materials. Part of my research is to find out how we can make sustainable textiles more accessible and cost efficient.”

“Ideally, there would be a scenario where we could be frivolous and expressive, but in some way, it would still be sustainable,” Cobb said. “We really have to dream together to figure that out, because the current situation is really not working.”

Dr. Kavita Mathur is an associate professor of Textile and Apparel at North Carolina State University.

“One of the most wasteful and unsustainable processes in fashion and design is the prototyping process,” Dr. Mathur said. “There are many design steps emerging in the field to avoid physical prototyping.”

Dr. Mathur expands by mentioning a new 3-D prototyping simulation, which allows for a non-physical version of products that can be marketed to consumers before physical products are made, essentially creating a demandbased supply. She also reflects on 3-D printing as a new, more precise design technology.

“3-D printing requires materials that can melt and be printed, and they may or may not be sustainable,” Dr. Mathur said. “This is just an example. Even after using polymers or other materials, how can 3-D printing be a sustainable process? It's a stimulant from the point of view that you only make what you need and don't create inventory.”

“For example, let's say I want to print a small cube. I will only print a small cube and not create an inventory of it,” Dr. Mathur said. “In traditional manufacturing processes, when you make a product, you also create a base that is generated, and then you eliminate that waste and sell the product that you make out of it.”

But with new solutions arise new problems.

No matter how much we try to eliminate waste, all materials have a capacity when it comes to being broken down and built up again. Perhaps the most central problem is that much of the technology that can help advance sustainability in the industry is expensive and not always widespread.

When asked further about the most overlooked central problem with unsustainable textiles, Dr. Mathur said that microplastics are one of the biggest concerns.

Microplastics are small pieces of plastic that have infiltrated almost everywhere on Earth; our oceans, our food, and even our clothes. and microfibers are plastics that are “shed” upon washing synthetic clothes made of microplastics.

An article by Sustainable Rookie in January 2022 stated that more than 250,000 tons of plastic are currently floating in our oceans, 35,500 tons of which are microplastics. Not only does this make fashion one of the primary contributors to plastic waste in the ocean, with a projected 22 million tonnes of plastic from fabrics in the oceans by 2050, but it also explains why our clothes get smaller with every wash.

“I won't say it's overlooked at all, but it is a big issue that the day-to -day consumer is not educated on yet,” Dr. Mathur said. “That's why I would say it's still an overlooked area. However, in terms of research and tackling this problem, that's definitely also a very significant issue, and they're (the companies and industries involved) very much aware of it. So it's not by any means overlooked from that perspective.”

Dr. Cobb sees a future where we have to adapt to more sustainable choices.

“We have to shift over to different models of consumption to better quality materials or mono materials,” Dr. Cobb said. “We need to have better technologies that recycle.”

Many of us are a part of this cycle of consumption. But that also means we can be a part of the solution. Not all of us can wield perfectly tailored dresses like Maria did, but converting torn clothes to bags and washcloths is a start. Styling outgrown clothes differently and donating to upcycling drives are only of the few alternatives to letting unsustainable materials end up in landfills.

article by Nandini Mathur