Zero-waste design is a means of creating clothes that minimises fabric disposal. At the forefront of this move is Holly McQuillan. Viva finds out more.
She longs for the day when the category "eco-fashion" has disappeared. Which seems strange for someone who recently featured in the New York Times for her work in the sci-fi-sounding field of "zero waste design". Holly McQuillan is a lecturer, researcher and designer at Massey University and next year she will hold an exhibition, together with another zero waste designer, Timo Rissanen, who has just relocated from Australia to become the first-ever assistant professor of fashion design and sustainability at the Parsons School of Design in New York (yes, the one you see on Project Runway).
Basically, zero waste design means trying to make something where there is as close to no waste of cloth at all - it's a bit like doing a puzzle with fabric. As for McQuillan's longing for the end of eco-fashion, we should explain: this is mainly because the long-term environmentalist thinks eco-friendly fashion clothing should just be the way we do things, without the need for any sort of special label.
Tell us a little more about zero waste design.
Historically, zero waste used to be the way that all clothes were made, or at least, as close as possible to that. If there were any left-over bits of fabric they would never have dreamed of throwing them away. It was only in the early part of last century, after the Industrial Revolution, that things changed. Cloth became significantly cheaper and it was okay to throw it away. We thought that it was limitless. And we just sort of forgot about zero waste. It wasn't until the 1970s that a few zero waste designers cropped up, for example, [British designer] Zandra Rhodes.
How did you personally get involved in this?
I was always a bit of a maths geek and, at first, I actually wanted to be an architect. This [zero waste design] is very much about problem-solving along those lines. I was also always an environmentalist, I always recycled. With zero waste, both of those things come together.
Do zero waste garments look different from other "normal" garments?
It's up to the designer. You can design something using zero waste that looks like a standard garment. Or you can let it [zero waste] lead the design process. I use three different methods and I can generate just about anything with them, from a T-shirt to a really avant-garde fashion piece.
But if you had leftover fabric, couldn't you just turn it into an extra ruffle or a fabric sash or something - kind of like "faking" zero waste design?
Yes, of course you could. But I make a real point of avoiding that sort of thing. I don't even like embellishments that much. I look at it from more of a macro perspective - to try to work out the most interesting, exciting or appropriate uses for the material. I always try to make a design that stands on its own merits and that you'd like, despite it being zero waste. After all, there's no point in making something nobody wants. That's 100 per cent waste.
Is it more difficult to try to come up with fashion designs like this?
Actually the process helps me come up with things I hadn't thought of. You know, you can sit down and draw something and say "I am going to make this shape" and you can have some loose ideas about length and fit and general style. Then you start to work towards those goals. But [with zero waste] you really have to have an open mind. I see it as an opportunity and I am always surprising myself. It also makes it difficult to follow a specific trend. For me, the problem with trends is that they become trendy. I think I tend to design things with more of a timeless quality.
How do you personally deal with the fact that fashion isn't necessarily the most eco-friendly business to be in?
Fashion is definitely a bit of a poster child for consumption. It's all about wanting new things for the sake of novelty. And that thought totally froze me for a while. I felt like if I designed anything I would just be contributing more stuff that people don't really need. Then again, people are always going to need clothes - clothes are a way of communicating. And while the world is functioning the way it is, we will have a fashion industry of some sort. I decided that in this role I can help educate people to be respectful of the environment. And [in terms of the designing] if I don't do it then the only ones that are out there, are the ones doing it badly. But to be honest, I think I will always feel a little strange about it.
I always show my students a documentary called China Blue [about the lives of garment makers in a Chinese denim factory]. As the film goes on, you can see most of the students looking more and more uncomfortable in the clothes they are wearing. It's quite an amazing experience to watch somebody realise that this is not just about fashion and it's not just about being cool. To a certain degree, I think everybody should have that same experience.
What sort of problems do you think the fashion industry has to deal with?
I think the big thing the fashion industry currently needs to confront is the fact that people buy too many clothes and too cheaply. People have this expectation that they should be able to buy clothes for very little [money]. I think that needs to change. We need to value clothes a little more than we do.
If zero waste is such a good thing, then why isn't everyone doing it?
This idea of a certain hierarchy within a fashion company was one of the first problems I came across. In many firms, there is a designer who draws a design. That then goes to a production team where a patternmaker makes a pattern for the design. The pattern is laid out on the fabric, in what they call a marker, which is where they work out how to get the best yield from the fabric. But often there is very little communication between the designer and the production team. Sometimes the marker is even made in a different place altogether. With New Zealand companies, often this is China. But in order to achieve zero waste, what is actually needed is a designer who is also a patternmaker, or the two working side by side. And then there is also the question of time. Doing things using zero waste design requires more time. The fashion industry tends to want everything yesterday.
Is there anything you would like to see happen at New Zealand Fashion Week?
There's an event at London Fashion Week called Estethica which is all about ethical fashion. Something like that would be nice. I think it's becoming more apparent that New Zealand is behind the times in this area.
