Collaboration
London College of Fashion x FibreLab
FibreLab collaborated with 6 LCF students, challenging them to find creative and innovate applications to utilising recycled fibre. The students decided to build on FibreLab’s initial research of using bioplastics and recycled fibres to create new sheets of material.
The Biodegradable Bag utilises textile waste shredded into recycled fibres and bioplastics, which act as a binder.
The negative space from the shape of the handle was creatively used to develop a pair of earrings, successfully demonstrating zero-waste cutting techniques.
The Zero-Waste Tunic incorporated food waste and creative pattern cutting techniques to develop the experimental product.
The product uses recycled cotton fibres which were combined with bioplastic, making the product entirely biodegradable and giving it a beautiful translucent effect.
Avocado pits were collected from local cafes and restaurants, dried and ground down into a powder. It was then combined with recycled cotton fibres, glycerin and agar to create a new material.
After drying, the combined elements form a unique and flexible material with the avocado pits giving it a pink hue. Varying levels of the black recycled cotton fibre effect the colour of the biomaterial. Changing it from its natural pink form, to a darker purple colour.
Reclaimed calico fabric provided the base for the biomaterial to be applied to. Calico was deliberately selected because it is a material that is often discarded in the garment making process.
The finished outcome represents the need for a multifaceted approach to recycling and circularity, with waste from food and fabrics becoming intertwined.
This collaboration reflects the urgency of decreasing materials sent to landfills by coming up with methods of turning waste into new materials. Recycled and biodegradable material development is an important area of research that we are proud to support.
Photography and editing by: Ryan Blackwell
The Biodegradable Bag by: Lauren Chivers, Maria Evstyukhina, and Yuwei Lin
The Zero-Waste Tunic by: Hinako West, Saloni Sapan Jhaveri, and Yuya Xu
Filmed and Edited by: Zack Dickinson