The Circular Textile Days
Recently, Sina Steidinger, a self-employed denim designer, and sustainability manager based in Amsterdam, gave a presentation themed: ‘Circular Design for Jeans’ during the Circular Textile Days 2022.
Sina, moved a while ago to Amsterdam, The Netherlands to be in the heart of the European denim capital and to contribute to the latest developments in a sustainable fashion. As a consultant, she gives workshops and speeches and advises brands on their way to a sustainable future.
The Content Of The Lecture
Jeans are one of our favorite garments, nearly 2 billion pairs are sold globally every year. Unfortunately, the denim business is one of the most polluting sectors of the textile industry. Water usage and energy consumption are extremely high, and numerous pesticides and other harmful chemicals are used in the conventional supply chain of a pair of jeans. New technologies and sustainable raw materials do exist, but how can jeans become not only sustainable but circular? This is a huge challenge and requires a closer look into the progress of designing and producing a pair of jeans.
Everything starts with design; the majority of all the decisions for a sustainable garment are done by designers and developers. So, understanding and implementing circularity for jeans needs to start with the design process. When a collection is planned and the individual styles are created, many thoughts and decisions must be made for every garment: What kind of style should be planned to create a garment that will be worn and loved for many years? Which composition of the fabric is the best for recycling, but also guarantees quality? What kind of trims are possible, if you want to be able to disassemble the jeans after the use phase and put it back into the loop? And which new technologies are more sustainable when it comes to industrial washing?
All these steps and decisions must be rethought to leave the take-make-waste model and implement circularity. Additionally, besides recyclability, circularity also means using a minimum of resources and avoidance of toxic substances in the whole process. There is no blueprint to implement circular design for jeans, but there are many possibilities for how to start the journey.
Watch The Denim Lecture
Watch the more than 25+ minutes ‘Circular Design for Jeans’ lecture during the Circular Textile Days 2022 by Sina Steidinger. Sit back and learn about this hot and important denim topic!
