US RECLEM system can transform garment design, manufacture, recycling

Cotton fabric is natural, renewable, biodegradable and—at least theoretically—sustainable. But producing that fabric requires significant energy and resources. Seeds are planted, cultivated and harvested. Cotton bales are shipped to factories, spun into yarns, and woven or knit into bolts of fabric. Cloth is coloured, cut and sewn to create finished garments.

According to Ruppert-Stroescu, associate professor and fashion design area coordinator at the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis, roughly 15 per cent of cloth intended for apparel winds up as scrap on the cutting room floor.

And though an estimated 95 per cent of retail clothing is recyclable, the vast majority ends up in landfills.

With RECLEM, she has offered a road map for how designers and manufacturers can deconstruct and reuse discarded textile products, and add further value by reassembling—or ‘upcycling—them into something fresh and new.

“The first step is to collect fabric and slice it into strips, squares or other small pieces,” Ruppert-Stroescu explained. Though synthetic fabrics, such as nylon, can be melted down and spun into new thread, re-spinning cotton or other natural fabrics is difficult and results in shorter fibers. “Our goal is to maintain as much structural integrity as possible.”

Once cut, the fabric pieces are laid—either by hand or via digital plotter—into a surface design within the garment pattern shape on thin, biodegradable film. This holds the design in place while pieces are stitched together. When the fabric is washed, the film dissolves and the sections are ready to assemble, a press release from the university said.

As the process involves shaping fabric, rather than cutting it, grain can be customised and patterns can easily be scaled up or down.

In addition, the RECLEM system largely maps onto existing commercial machinery and could be seamlessly integrated into large-scale production, Ruppert-Stroescu said.

Compared to creating new cloth, RECLEM dramatically lowers material costs while resulting in no loss of tensile strength, wrinkle recovery, water repellency or abrasion resistance. The core challenge, she added, is essentially cultural.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (DS)