bachelor III

Dinie van den Heuvel, guest tutor

sustainability workshop

AF  En quoi a consisté votre atelier durable ?

DH We started by asking what sustainability does to your creativity — what do you know about it and how can you think about it? I wanted to introduce students to the notion that sustainability does not per se have a negative impact on creativity. It can be the biggest, most exciting design challenge they have ever tackled. I wanted to show them the sheer extent of its potential and introduce them to the different paths to it. We then approached these questions with the cradle to cradle framework. The cradle to cradle framework distinguishes two cycles or streams, the biological cycle and the technical cycle, and the first step to sustainable design is understanding these cycles and not combining them. Bluntly said, anything that can decompose comes from plants or is from a natural source belongs to the biological cycle. If you design within that cycle that means you can reuse your clothes. When it is no longer possible to reuse or alter, then the garment could, theoretically, be composted. The technical cycle relates to any object or garment made out of fossil fuels. Think polyester, nylons, plastics…a lot of the glues and the stuff that our students love like epoxy. None of these elements decompose, they need to be recycled in close-the-loop facilities where the recycling ensures the quality of the raw resources. These technical fabrics can be reused and reused again and again as long as you keep them pure. What is very important in cradle-to-cradle thinking is that you never mix materials from those two different cycles because from the moment you blend something, it becomes impossible to separate its different components. Your plant is no longer compostable and the polyester is impossible to recover. As a designer, you can experiment and make things in both cycles, but a product has to belong to one cycle or the other. Whatever you design, if you keep those two cycles separated, sustainability is easier to implement. It means you can optimise its afterlife by making mono-material garments like puffa jackets for instance. A shoe, on the other hand, and sneakers in particular, are a perfect example of a hybrid. Today there are shoes on the market that are made with cork, natural rubber, or with organic cotton but then the glue is an issue, or cotton blended with recycled PET. When you link resources together from different cycles, giving them any future life becomes very complicated.

AF Do you have an example of how the cradle-to-cradle framework was used by students?

DH One student was really into technical thinking. He wanted to use silicon and a certain type of chemical-based varnish, which he wanted to apply on leather. To stick with the cradle-to-cradle framework, he had to find a solution. He did tons of research and found a child glue which you can eat. It dilutes at 60 degrees and is safe for the waterways. He glued his pieces of leather with it, and it looked and felt like silicone — transparent and flexible. For him, it was a complete eye-opener, sustainability doesn’t necessarily mean you can’t realise your ideas. If you use a few key pillars, your work becomes so much more responsible, with no interference on the aesthetic level. This was very much the goal of the workshop.

AF Why is it so difficult for designers to implement sustainable thinking into their practice?

DH Fashion designers love thinking that they just create, which they do of course, but you have a responsibility when you create. It is not limitless and it shouldn’t be gratuitous. Responsibility is inherent to the act of making. Anything you put out there is going to have a life. You created it, so you are responsible for it. For product designers, this is perfectly normal. For fashion designers, it is different. Fashion is closer to art, so fashion designers think more in terms of self-expression. The question of responsibility is less present, in teaching also. From the moment you accept that as a designer you are responsible for what you make, it just becomes more pertinent to work sustainably. We are training fashion designers to be creative. That is what we do. But why not challenge them to come up with solutions that are even more creative? Why not ask them to make a product that is not just better but that actually has a positive impact? Organic cotton for instance, as nice as it is, is already outdated. It is being replaced with regenerative agriculture, which means the cotton is not only grown organically, it is also beneficial for the environment.

AF How do you address the hesitations or fear that students might feel having to carry the burden of changes that seem beyond their grasp?

DH  The responsibility is huge. But hiding from it doesn’t make it disappear. I think the first step that we need to take as an industry is to become accountable. There is a lot of knowledge out there already but it is hard for students in particular to find their way to it. I am always frank with my students: I tell them that it is simple, but not easy. The big distinction here is that if you have values and a holistic approach to your products, your choices are partly made already. You just have to implement them. This is not easy of course. I am vegan, I don’t want to use animal products. Is it easy? No. But it is a simple decision. Implementing it practically means doing your research. The funny thing is, that when I started to work sustainably, I realised that my favourite part was the aspect of discovery. I find new stuff every day because I am not the only one working towards sustainability in the industry. There are so many new things happening. All of a sudden you have these mushroom-based dresses grown in laboratories. God knows what you can do with that! The prospect of working with new materials makes me really excited. Fear can be lessened by looking at all that is changing and being developed, and understanding that any change you make is a gain.

AF What are the first things educators should get across to students when addressing sustainability?

DH Firstly, each designer has a vision or a concept from which they design. This should be broadened to incorporate their vision of sustainability. You need to explain to students that there is nothing to be afraid of and that they should get started. Secondly, you have to make students aware of the responsibility they have for what they make as designers. It doesn’t mean they shouldn’t realise their ideas. It just means that the students should acknowledge the impact of their designs. To help students stand up for their vision and offer them ample choices, we need to give out more information on topics not usually covered in current fashion curricula. To understand when and why you can pick organic cotton over regular cotton, you need to know what organic cotton is but also how farming works. Understanding the supply chain and the different processes of how cotton is grown (or how polyester is made) is crucial to making sustainable choices. The more we train our students to be critical thinkers, the clearer it will be that the next step for them is to set out their sustainable design paths.