CIRCULAR REDESIGN: The R Collective x Garcia Bello
CASE STUDY
Created by Redress, 2023
It takes a community to create a sustainable garment:
from designer, manufacturer, to consumer
Global award-winning sustainable designer, Juliana Garcia Bello tackles the fashion industry’s trickiest waste streams.
This case study examines a collaborative effort to tackle the issue of defective pre-consumer garments by introducing a design for low waste circular design strategy. Defective garments pose a significant challenge in the fashion industry, persisting despite rigorous quality control measures along the supply chain. Issues such as shading problems and sewing defects often result in waste. At Redress, we believe in targeting design techniques that can tackle the waste at its source.
The Challenge
TAL Apparel makes 50 million garments per year, and 0.01% of this production is considered to be defective during final quality control checks. Annually, this amounts to approximately 50,000 shirt pieces.
The R Collective (TRC) is a social impact business focused on ending fashion waste.
Juliana Garcia Bello is an Argentenian designer of the brand GARCIABELLO, specialising in the reconstruction technique. TRC asked GARCIABELLO to design a three-piece collection consisting of a shirt, a dress, and a bag using TAL’s defective garment stock and with the signature style of TRC’s customer in mind.
Designing for low waste enables making and remaking products to minimise the creation of waste at the stages of development, manufacturing, and even packaging. This three-piece collection effectively reconstructed defective shirts in order to minimise waste.
Part of the brief for Juliana was to maintain her signature style whilst keeping TRC’s customer in mind. The designs were carefully crafted to be reversible, enhancing their versatility and uniqueness. Each style was to be produced in bulk, with exact numbers decided based on the inventory available.
TRC, Juliana, and the TAL technical team worked together to incorporate cutting waste by reusing it in design features such as pockets, belts, and labels, resulting in distinctive features not commonly achieved in conventional designs. To ensure a fully sustainable process, there was no additional wet processing and chemical usage. All materials were 100% cotton to ensure recyclability for their end-of-life.
The R Collective x TAL collection was represented on the runway at the Redress Design Award 2023. TRC’s first retail collaboration for this particular capsule is with influential lifestyle brand, kapok.
The Outcome
Working with discarded garments demanded a meticulous sequence of operations and a highly detailed tech pack to determine precise cutting and joining points. The openness to learn, innovate, and collaborate was key to overcoming the unique challenges inherent in handling defective garments.
The success of this collection can be attributed to the profound technical expertise and creativity demonstrated by all involved. Juliana's in-depth knowledge of pattern-cutting, construction, and zero-waste principles, honed through her experimental work with designing and making reconstructed garments, played a vital role. Likewise, the TAL production team's expertise in tech pack development, grading, and sewing construction ensured the creation of durable, scalable outfits without compromising the design.
TAL Apparel expert technicians collaborate with scaling up waste solutions.
From defect garment waste, to complex deconstruction and reconstruction techniques, to a re-engineered capsule.
Throughout the collaboration, all parties exhibited a highly collaborative spirit, particularly during the development and sampling stages. Close cooperation through clear and consistent communication from all parties was instrumental in developing the garment, finding innovative ways to integrate waste materials, and providing circular solutions.
In Summary
Fashion’s current linear system is unsustainable: we have been producing and consuming fashion as if the natural resources needed are endless. To counter this drain on our planet’s resources and the impact on our climate crisis, we need to transition to a circular fashion system. Fashion designers are key to accelerating the transition to a circular fashion industry. Design strategies such as reconstruction used in this case study provide the opportunity to go from linear to low waste circular solutions. A shared responsibility unites us all in our commitment to making the fashion industry more sustainable.
For more inspiration from this case study, watch our Redress Design Award Finalists as they are challenged to reenact Juliana’s brief, in teams, and within 10 hours!
ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTORS
TAL Apparel Limited is now over 75 years old, headquartered in Hong Kong with self-owned factories across Asia. Producing most of the world’s famous fashion apparel, their reputation relies on excellence in quality, consistency and innovation, but more importantly their focus on sustainability.
The R Collective: a social impact business in London and Hong Kong, born in 2017, to end fashion waste. They work alongside manufacturers and brands to reuse and recycle their luxury fabrics, including sensitive IP fabrics and garments, turning them into responsible products and clothing with a conscience.
GARCIA BELLO is a concept that originated in Tierra del Fuego province, in the south of Argentina, by Juliana Garcia Bello, Redress Design Award 2020 Alum. It is a sustainable brand inspired by everyday life, and in the paths we’ve come along. The concepts in each collection speak of what’s ours — of home as land and shelter. GARCIA BELLO is based on the upcycling circular method.