Zero-waste is a design technique that eliminates textile waste at the design stage using clever fabric manipulations. While traditional fashion design wastes about 15-20% of the fabric that often ends up in landfills, zero-waste fashion design uses fabric from selvage to selvage.
It is still mostly practiced by individual designers, but there are textile and apparel institutes around the world that offer zero-waste design as a fully operational course. The main difference in approach compared to the traditional fashion design is that the designing and sourcing process go hand in hand in the zero-waste.
Utilizing the entire fabric is actually not a new phenomenon. It has been used in the making of Japanese kimonos, Indian saris, and other traditional costumes.
Below you will find the main techniques used to reduce and/or remove fabric waste.
Draping
Draping is the process of transforming a clothing design into a three-dimensional form. It is a process of positioning and pinning fabric on a dress form to develop the structure of a garment design. The best materials for draping are flowy such as silk, chiffon, rayon, and satin. After draping, the fabric is removed from the dress form and used to create the sewing pattern for the garment.
In zero-waste draping the textile should be used with its full width and with minimal waste if at all.
While most of the introductory videos seem to target actual fashion designers, you will get an idea of no waste draping in this video.
Jigsaw Puzzle
A technique where a piece of fabric is approached as a puzzle to reduce and eliminate waste. The pattern pieces interlock on a length of fabric like the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. The need for a marker is eliminated as the garment pieces only fit together in one way. Jigsaw puzzle techniques require simultaneous considerations of both aesthetic and technical elements during the design process. It means pattern-making needs to be incorporated into a design process.
Jigsaw puzzle method is not widely practiced and not well researched these days. However, it should be considered if the fabric used is hard to recycle (consists of different textiles) and should not end up in landfills (not that any other non biodegradable fabric should).
Read more about the method here.
Zero-Waste Pattern Cutting (ZWPC)
A technique that combines the previous two techniques. The textile usage will be determined in the design process by using the jigsaw puzzle method and in some cases draping. Before the design is tested with a fabric, it is often made into a paper cut first. It allows you to repeat the design over and over again and use the paper cut as a template. While traditional practices are believed to waste about 15% of the fabric, ZWPC is much cleaner and uses about 98% of the entire textile.
Subtraction cutting
A technique where the fabric cuts represent the negative spaces instead of positive ones. Complex geometries are used in this method for creating a zero-waste design. Take a look at an example here to better understand it.
Direct panel on Loom (DPOL)
This method consists of weaving the garment patterns directly on jacquard loom, instead of weaving the fabric and then cutting it into the form of garment panels. After the panels are woven on loom, they are cut manually and then stitched as in the traditional process. No fabric is wasted in the process and it also reduces the use of yarn, dyes and different chemicals. It has a huge environmental benefit as it uses 70-80% less water than the traditional fabric manufacturing processes.
If you are more interested in this technique, check this article here.
Geo-Cut
A method that uses geometrical shapes of fabric to design garments: squares, triangles, circles etc. The technique has historical roots and has been used for example in kimono design.
If you wish to learn more about different zero-waste fashion techniques, I would recommend this article. You will not only find more information about the techniques mentioned in this article but also about some additional ones.
While zero-waste techniques are not widely used, it’s encouraging that more and more fashion designers find a way to these methods and it is being acknowledged more and more that the fashion industry needs to move towards a more sustainable path. It probably means that most of the textile and fashion industry employees also need a completely new training program at some point, but hey, if that is what it takes to save and protect water, nature in general and, avoid a significant amount of textile waste end up in landfills, it is worth it.