The ethics of sustainability go deep at Neem London, the British label that aims to do fashion a little differently. Make that totally differently: founder Nick Read wants Neem to be the very opposite of fast fashion, with care for the environment at its core. And it all begins at the very beginning: the innovative use of 3D technology in the design process.
The look at Neem is, as Nick Read puts it, "always smart, yet dishevelled" or "smart louche". The designers charged with achieving this would usually commission a production run of sample pieces to check if their designs work. There might be multiple numbers of these runs before any piece is signed off: that could mean many hundreds of garments to be disposed of if fabric or cut turns out not to work when produced. That, in turn, means more waste in landfills, more pollution if they're burnt.
Enter the latest hi-tech 3D design processes. As Neem notes, these have long been used by sportswear companies to create high end technical garments, for precision purposes. At Neem, the idea is that 3D technology means those hugely wasteful sample runs can be almost totally done away with, in favour of an entirely digitised process. More technology means less waste.
As Neem's product designer Maggie Mattioni puts it, with 3D design, "There really is no more need for garments to be made just for a 'sign off' or a 'selection meeting'. Working in 3D shows you immediately what the garment will look like, without any physical sample needed."
Avatars are created around clients' ideal measurements. Fabrics can be digitally designed too. "We were able," says product designer Mattioni of the very first 3D-designed Neem collections, "to see what the designs and colourways looked like before any samples were made." And she adds: "The fashion industry accounts for around 10% of the worlds carbon emissions. I read a research that a garage size truck of clothes is burned and sent to landfill every second.” It’s this throwaway convention that Neem is challenging, not least with 3D design.
Neem London's total commitment to recycling and sustainability is made more real by its dedicated use of the virtual. This is a label whose ethics are more - much more - than merely two-dimensional.
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