Rethinking Textile Waste

Over the last two years, designers Sarmite Polakova and Mara Berzina have researched colour separated post-consumer fibres. In a collaborative project with Riga Technical University, the designers dug into the depths of a single colour – yellow - and translated it into a marble-like colour palette. Waste does not have a single tone. Instead, it mesmerises with depths and patterns that create a complexity that becomes visible once looked closer at.

The Many Lives of Textiles creates an alternative to the flawed traditional textile recycling process. A unique production method turns inferior mixed blends into a sturdy bio-textile suitable for fashion, interior, and product design applications. The lightweight leather-like material reveals new aesthetics and highlights the previous lives of each worn garment through colour and structural nuances.

The Many Lives of Textiles is part of a larger project investigating various waste streams from the textile industry. Post-consumer garments, production waste, fibres, dust, and even dye waste are seen as resources for the creation of new material concepts.