Mark Liu, originally from Australia attended the University of Technology in Sydney where the impact of fashion and sustainable resources caught his attention, where became increasingly concerned over the cyclical nature of the industry.
He moved to London, studying a Masters of Textiles Futures at Central Saint Martins while interning at Alexander McQueen. Liu’s energies began to focus on sustainable fashion, and the problems that it posed to designers. He calls Zero Waste his “response” to these issues: “The idea was to create a new all-win situation where sustainability would save material, money and push the boundaries of fashion aesthetics,”.
The idea of using fabric to its fullest potential is not entirely a new one, however; it has been employed throughout fashion history, mainly in cultural dress, for Grecian togas, Japanese kimonos and Indian saris. Liu has modernized these traditional techniques, creating a new manufacturing method where all of the pieces of fabric fit like a jigsaw puzzle, eliminating pattern cutting and sewing. “Zero Waste Design is more of a philosophy then a technology,” explains Liu. “The way that we design western clothing is to shape fabric around the body, cut out the shapes of cloth we need, and discard the rest. No matter how efficiently you lay out the pieces of cloth to be cut, you waste a minimum of 15% of the material. What’s hard is that we as designers are taught to design in a wasteful methodology. You have to unlearn everything you know.”
He moved to London, studying a Masters of Textiles Futures at Central Saint Martins while interning at Alexander McQueen. Liu’s energies began to focus on sustainable fashion, and the problems that it posed to designers. He calls Zero Waste his “response” to these issues: “The idea was to create a new all-win situation where sustainability would save material, money and push the boundaries of fashion aesthetics,”.
The idea of using fabric to its fullest potential is not entirely a new one, however; it has been employed throughout fashion history, mainly in cultural dress, for Grecian togas, Japanese kimonos and Indian saris. Liu has modernized these traditional techniques, creating a new manufacturing method where all of the pieces of fabric fit like a jigsaw puzzle, eliminating pattern cutting and sewing. “Zero Waste Design is more of a philosophy then a technology,” explains Liu. “The way that we design western clothing is to shape fabric around the body, cut out the shapes of cloth we need, and discard the rest. No matter how efficiently you lay out the pieces of cloth to be cut, you waste a minimum of 15% of the material. What’s hard is that we as designers are taught to design in a wasteful methodology. You have to unlearn everything you know.”
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