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WORTH Partnership Project
  • Project

From the Ground

Natural colours are fashionable. 100% natural t-shirts.

From the Ground

The project

NINII designs the tee-shirts in France and Maison Lenglin dyes the selected fabric, composed of 100% European linen, using vegetables and fruits wastes such as avocado peelings, carrot tops and strawberry leaves. The unwanted food wastes are collected from different associations and restaurants in order to give them a second life before being thrown.
After this process, the dyed fabric is sent to Portugal to be anufactured and embroided with colorful designs representing the plants that are used to dye.

Storytelling

THE IDEA:

At the beginning of the project was the idea of designing an ultra circular fashion project. That means create a piece of fashion using only local and natural material to reach the minimum impact.
It actually started by the impulsion of Arthur Lenglin, natural dyer on flax. He had the purpose to push up natural dyes on the level of the ready-to-wear market. His researches are especially turned to vegetable dyes from food industry. Realizing that we use only a part of the food products and that the left over can be reused and particularly reused as textile dye, which is currently a very criticized process because of its damages caused on the environment and people around. Maison Lenglin wanted to show through this project that we can make it differently!

From the Ground - image 1
From the Ground - image 2
THE BIRTH OF THE PROJECT:

The problems are various. The way we consume fashion is sometimes a non-sens and can not fit with a durable system of production and distribution. In that way the most important is to change mentality first. To touch the market of ready-to-wear with a significant impact, Maison Lenglin was looking for a brand to collaborate in order to make the project visible and widely communicated. It was also the aim of being a WORTH Project. Being helped out and shown all over Europe.

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THE CREATIVE PROCESS:

As the project is gathering many difficulties to reach is aim, the aim was to make a small production of a series of t-shirt. We reach the point of prototyping and it’s quite satisfying!
We had numerous problems such as the sourcing of dying plants, elaboration of the recipes to have the range of color we wanted. For exemple, a problem is that we can not obtain the same color from a bath of dye to an other even if we use the same source of plant. All the features that are to take into account make this process extremely precise and uncertain whereas the customer is waiting for a perfect result. We are wondering if the process is the process or the habits of consumption established. We thought we could push the process to the industrial scale but does it make sens? If it is to fit into the current way of making fashion, we kind of loose the essence of this project.

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THE COLLABORATION:

Collaborations is a way to go ahead in a project, to confront ideas and make them grow, and of course to gather strength and know-how. One benefit is to share with the people engaged so you can have different opinions of your project and ideas. Then you can step back and find solutions you won’t have found alone. As project leader I was stubborn on some point in my part of the job and It took time to redefine things to make it actually more viable. For exemple we are understanding that the dyeing process is something to tell and to show and that we finally almost hide it in our final products. We started thinking about other ways to marketize it.

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THE FUTURE:

So we are now going to the next phase of the project. As we tried our first idea from A to Z, we realized where it was problematic and how we could face these problems. We also had advices from our mentor on the market and the place we could find. Our collection could be manufactured and sold but the cost would be too expensive and with a lot of risk during after the sell and this is actually not what we wanted at the beginning. Now we are convinced that we should sell and experience more than a product. The market is saturated with product and people are looking for more sens and experience when they buy something. This is why we are developing a kit with everything to make your on t-shirt yourself while experiencing the material, the dying process, plants and crafted work!

THE MESSAGE:

Collaborating with others widen perspectives of a project.

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Projects Edition
  • WORTH Partnership Projects I
Project Call
  • 2nd Call Projects
Project Sector
  • Textile and clothing
Project Challenge
  • Circular Economy

Contact

Maison Lenglin

MAISON LENGLIN is a design studio specialising in vegetable dyes and natural textiles, which develops projects and dye for clients who are looking for ways to run their business in a more sustainable way. Through design and innovation, Maison Lenglin is always searching for better solutions to be always greener, more creative and relevant to the evolution of human relationships with textiles. Maison Lenglin develops sources of natural dyes and dyed articles within a circular economy and with a sustainable approach. 

Name
Maison Lenglin
Postal address

France

NINII

NINII ready-to-wear brand, made in Roubaix, France, which presents collections always full of humour, irony and fantasy. A mix of 90s clubbing kitsch and street wear style, NINII collections are inspired by everyday objects and food imagery dressed up in sequins, acid colours and exclusive patches straight out of the madcap universe of its designer. A quirky collection, full of humour for unapologetic young women who prefer to make up their own rules rather than follow the traditional codes of the world of the fashion victim.

Name
NINII
Postal address

France

Trueperfection Unipessoal Lda.

TRUEPERFECTION UNIPESSOAL LDA is a textile company comprising designers, tailors, pattern makers, quality inspectors, product developers and sample producers. The company’s goal is to achieve true perfection and high fashion quality in the world of clothing manufacture. Trueperfection only produces fair trade clothes. TP UP is the bridge between the client and their production, enabling much more fluid and direct processes during product conception.

Name
Trueperfection Unipessoal Lda.
Postal address

Portugal