What do you love most about designing fashion?

I love it when skill, serendipity, form and beauty come together to make something someone loves to wear. Clothing can have a lot of power.

How and when did you discover the method of zero-waste pattern cutting?

I had always been interested in science, maths and architecture, and fascinated with patterns in nature. I actually studied geology for a few years because I love science and history so much. Zero waste pattern design is really just maths (2D and 3D geometry) that becomes fashion.

When I was doing my masters in 2004 I started experimenting with ways of making clothing by using the whole of the cloth without cutting any off. It turns out that this was a method of zero waste fashion, though it wasn’t called that at the time and I didn’t realise it was what I was doing. I was just having fun.

Why is sustainability so crucial to your practice? Was there a moment that you decided to commit to sustainable practice?

I grew up on a farm in New Zealand and loved the bush and rivers around where I lived. I was very aware of the natural environment, both modified and unmodified. Most of my family are environmentalists in their own way. This was sharply in contrast to my love for clothing.

As I learnt more about sustainable design I saw that this was where my ethics fit best, and I could continue to love fashion AND the environment, if I could work out how to do it in a way that I enjoyed. It would have been in about 2005 that I realised this. However it took about another 3 years of feeling extremely conflicted about my love of fashion and desire to sustain our planet until I found a way to be at peace. I figured, if people like me are not in the industry trying to change something, then who’s left?

What are you currently working on?

I’m currently working as part of a team developing FAB8NZ. It involves setting up a Fab Lab (Fabrication Laboratory) at my university and then hosting the annual conference in Wellington in August 2012. It’s all about digital fabrication for all kinds of design, and for me personally it’s exciting to develop digital fabrication facilities for fashion and textiles. Usually Fab Labs are focused on hard materials, but with 3D knitting machines, digital textile printers, embroiderers and laser cutters, digital technology can be a big part of fashion and textiles too. Fab Labs can give makers access to fantastic machinery for small scale projects of all kinds. It makes so much sense for small countries like NZ and Australia.

As for design, I’m always working on new design ideas, patterns and forms. I can’t help myself.

What is your greatest challenge in producing sustainable garments?

It is probably sourcing materials, and communicating with people, both consumers and students/industry, about what being sustainable can be about.

There are so many preconceptions about sustainable fashion in particular (ugly, hemp, not ‘fashion’, too hard etc). Probably the biggest preconception is that there is one “right” way to do it. There isn’t. There are so many ways and what is ‘right’ is whatever works well for a particular company or designer or consumer. Baby steps!

Do you have a favourite eco-fashion designer?

Titania Inglis - she has just won the Ecco Domani Award for sustainable fashion and will be showing in NYFW this Feb. I met her in New York last year and she’s lovely and talented, and designs the kind of clothes I love to wear.

What is your greatest piece of advice to wearers aspiring to make sustainable choices?

Choose one ‘sustainable’ option (fair trade, organic, zero waste, local, recycled, etc) and start with that. Don’t try to tick all of the boxes as it might leave you exhausted.

...And do your research. There are lots of great sustainable brands out there that are small and that mostly trade online. Have a look… there really is something for every style.

Join us this Thursday as we hear from Georgia McCorkill about the power of clothing, thinking beyond consumption, and her passion for connecting designers and wearers. To find out more about the exhibition click here, and click here to keep exploring sustainable fashion through Object Eye.