Learning Sakiori Weaving – A Look at Waste in the Fashion Industry
#HawaiiFiberProject Part II – Waste
Scraps, leftovers, rags, used clothes, our society trains us to see these as dirty, disgusting and unsuitable for new designs. Before moving to NYC I had an upcycling brand, mostly denim, but also painted tanks and one of a kind pieces. Selling my products at events I was like a broken record, telling people that the clothes were used but not dirty, repeating over and over again “yes, they’ve been washed”. This stigma is deeply rooted in our culture, but with recent advances in recycling materials and innovative design, a lot of progress has been made. Not to mention, sustainable fashion is becoming more mainstream and it’s losing the association with being a crunchy granola phenomenon. In Part II of the #HawaiiFiberProject, I take a deeper look into waste in the fashion industry and learn traditional Japanese rag weaving.
The Project
To bring attention to waste in the fashion industry, I was determined to make something completely out of scraps, and rags. I tapped my Mom’s weaving knowledge and settled on making a sakiori tote. Hours were spent cutting scrap fabric for the tote bag from garments that would otherwise be thrown in the back of a wardrobe or tossed in the garbage. Most households don’t have a closet full of scraps for projects like this, thankfully my Mom saves everything. It was like looking through an archive of moments in my life, I found jeans from summer camp, leftover fabric from the dress my mom made me for a father daughter dance, and beautiful vintage kimono. Settling on all black pieces of varying fabrics, I chose a blazer (using both it’s lining and body fabric) and a pair of cotton spandex pants for my weft.
After finding a tote with dimensions I liked, I eyeballed the size and used it as a template for my project, it was all done free hand. Back in 2011 when I lived in Japan for a year while pursuing my MA in Religion, I used to frequent fabric stores and buy yards of fabric that were unique, sometimes making up my own patterns for dresses and skirts. Sewing a garment from a store bought pattern always felt rigid to me, I’ve never been great at following directions. Creating my own patterns meant everything fit me perfectly, and I could make tweaks that suited my own aesthetic vision.
I used this method when creating the sakiori tote bag too, and I sewed everything by hand because it made more sense to me. Adding a pocket inside for convenience and taking some fabric from the blazer I cut up for the handles, everything came together piece by piece. I might be biased, but I think the outcome looks pretty good. Hopefully the used textiles don’t make it look like low quality work or dirty fabric. Granted I made some mistakes, the lining is a bit small and I should have made the bag a couple inches longer to fit my laptop better. I’ll probably add some type of closure at the top since it opens up too easily. All that considered though, I’m happy with it, and I’m proud to own something that I made completely from waste materials, and made completely by hand.
The Takeaway
It would be an interesting exercise to challenge everyone in a America to make something completely from scratch, to see the time and thought that goes into it. Asking them to make it out of recycled materials would be even more fun. I spent almost a solid week and a half to make my sakiori tote bag, and I even cheated a little with the warp threads, they just happened to be available in my Mom’s weaving studio. Processing the pineapple fibers took a couple days, cutting up the waste fabric took about a day, setting up the loom was two days, weaving the textile was three days, sewing the bag was another three days, all in all that’s 12 days. Granted, a more experienced weaver and seamstress would be faster, my guess is that it would take a week. This exercise sure worked on me. I will never throw away this bag. I will repair or repurpose it before discarding. Maybe if others had the same hands-on experience with a piece of clothing they would rethink their wasteful fast fashion habits?
As garment manufacturing moves farther and farther away from the home, clothing has become increasingly disposable in the mind of the American consumer. When women were in the home making textiles and garments for their family, no one would have thought of throwing away a shirt for losing a button or getting a small rip, now we throw away clothing just because it isn’t the right color, or you just plain get bored of it. This trend goes beyond fashion, throwaway culture spreads through all consumer goods. In my view, the problem is two-fold 1) We don’t have an appreciation for the work it takes to make beautiful and long lasting textiles and clothing 2) We need more innovative ways of making closed loop product life-cycles and breaking the take make waste model.
Japan has a strong textile traditions and is a great comparison to America’s disposable fashion culture. Sakiori weaving, sometimes called rag weaving, and mended textiles were abundant in 19th century Japan. The country has a long history of using scrap fabrics to make new textiles and fixing worn textiles. That’s not to say that fast fashion hasn’t penetrated their culture, but as a result, there is a higher respect and appreciation for hand woven, hand made, and overall well made clothing. In my experience, Americans don’t have the same attachment to their textile heritage, possibly playing a role in their preference towards cheap and disposable pieces. Craft hobbies like quilting, knitting and crocheting are discarded as pastimes for women at home, and not beautiful artisanship.
Very few people in America are taught to sew, because of this, the simple task of sewing on a button or fixing a hole in your shirt becomes a reason for discarding a garment. Also ignorance always breeds problems. I’ve met several people that think clothing is made by machines and don’t consider the human behind the sewing machine. This makes it easier to throw away clothes when you think no one is working hard to produce it for your consumption.
We’ve discussed the lack of attachment to the physical product and lack of empathy for those producing them, now let’s talk about waste itself. We sure do produce a large amount of fabric waste every year, 15 million tons to be exact. The amount of waste created from the fashion industry is astonishing, and the implications for the environment are terrifying. With athleisure trending, synthetic non-recyclable garments like spandex black leggings are in landfills everywhere. Most fashion businesses operate on the take make waste linear model, but some are slowly shifting towards a more circular product lifecycle, like cradle to cradle. But by closing the loop and using all recyclable or biodegradable materials, hopefully the fashion industry can be demoted from being the 2nd most polluting industry.
Many brands have jumped on the bandwagon to promote waste reduction solutions like taking in old garments and offering discounts in return. Eileen Fisher is a great champion of this effort with their Green Eileen program, taking in old pieces and restoring them, making one of a kind pieces for their Green Eileen line. On the other side there’s H&M, who has a similar program, except it isn’t explicitly clear what they’re doing with the used clothing once they’ve been donated. Furthermore, their business creates so much waste that these recycling programs can hardly reverse the environmental harm they’re created. This article by Lucy Siegle gives a great in depth explanation of how this is counter intuitive.
In addition to these types of recycling programs, product innovation is needed. Browsing the Cradle to Cradle website you can see the 23 Fashion and Textile products that are certified. This is a start, but there is a lot to be desired when it comes to attractive design. Although this seems to be the trend in sustainable and ethical fashion. First comes the basics and purely utilitarian products, then slowly, others will start to emerge with beautiful and engaging design. When starting my career in the sustainable fashion world, there weren’t many high-end fashion companies paying attention to environmental concerns. Now brands are behind the curve if they’re not finding ways to work this into their brand. I look forward to increasing innovations in waste management within the global fashion supply chain, hopefully in a couple years I can write an update on how far we’ve come.
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I would love if this article inspires you to make a garment or textile from scratch to reconnect with the process. If you do, please share your creations with me. It would also be wonderful to brainstorm and discuss strategies to close the loop of the product lifecycle. Feel free to leave a comment below with any ideas.
Adventures with Pineapple Leaves – A Look at Sustainable Textile Production in Hawai’i
#HawaiiFiberProject Part I – Alternative Fibers
Have you thought about what your clothing is made of? Some people commit to wearing only natural fibers, responsibly sourced materials or recycled textiles, but where exactly do these fibers come from and how are they processed? Is there room for alternative fibers?
I kicked off the #HawaiiFiberProject by exploring this question and decided to try my hand at processing pineapple fibers. Before settling on pineapple, I researched a few Hawai’i grown plants and ruled out hemp, coconut, and banana. Even though industrial hemp was just legalized in Hawai’i, it would be hard to acquire, the fiber takes a lot of energy to break down and I didn’t have access to the tools I needed. Coconut fibers are great for more rustic pieces and would be perfect for a doormat, but I wanted something a bit more refined. When looking up processes for making banana fibers, they always involved heavy machinery and just wasn’t something I had the resources to produce. Ultimately, pineapple fibers seemed like the most realistic and attainable option. My main guidance was a Youtube video by the Philippine government, it looked fairly straightforward.
The Process
A lot of you have been asking be about where exactly these fibers are coming from. Is it the fruit pulp or the rind? The fibers used for textiles actually come from the leaves at the base of the plant, not the fruit.
After collecting about 15 leaves, I re-watched my reference Youtube video and got started. Equipped with a metal spatula I began scraping away at the leaves until the white fibers were visible, and then slowly pulled them out.
There was some trial and error for the best way to pull out the fibers. You have to make sure the whole fiber is exposed to avoid breaking, but also be careful not to cut the fibers while scraping the leaves. In hindsight, I should have kept the strands neatly hanging, instead of throwing them all together, to avoid getting tangled. After extracting the fibers I spent quite a bit of time cleaning and untangling the fibers to be usable.
Since the process of scraping the leaves took longer than expected, I only used about six or seven leaves, but it produced more than enough fiber for me. I can’t imagine creating enough to make a full textile for a shirt, but if you have the right tools and experience it might not be such a taxing experience. I spent two days to make just a small basket full of fibers.
Originally, I wanted to weave a textile out of the pineapple fiber, but the process of making such a fine even thread was beyond my capabilities. After playing around with the fibers and seeing how it behaves, I thought it would work well as an accent in my sakiori tote bag. By taking a few strands of the fibers and twisting them, it was the perfect unexpected touch to the design.
The steps are pretty basic, but by far the most difficult and time intensive stage was scraping the leaves to expose the fibers. I waited a couple days after picking the leaves before starting, so they may have been a bit dried out, but my hand was unbelievably sore after just one leaf. Next time, I would try soaking the leaves, or using them right after picking.
The fiber itself was beautiful and silky. One day I’ll try this again (properly) and make something completely out of pineapple fiber. It reminds me of a linen with a slight sheen, and maybe a little bit stiffer.
Pineapples are traditionally used in the Philippines to make a refined lightweight textile. There are boutique mills that produce the fabric with artisans, but as you can see, it is a very labor intensive process for mainstream production. That being said, there are now several types of textiles made from the pineapple plant, including pineapple leather, and there seems to be a lot of room for innovation in textile production. (Le Souk is a fun site to peruse and find alternative sustainable and ethical fabrics.)
The Takeaway
Why should we consider other kinds of textiles and what’s wrong with what we’re already using? My interest in looking at alternative fibers is twofold – 1) textile production could be a positive introduction to the Hawai’ian economy, creating jobs, supplying local designers and offering a unique experience for eco-tourism, 2) the way we currently produce a majority clothing is wasteful, we should constantly be looking for better alternatives to water intensive crops and non-recyclable materials.
Although Hawai’i garment manufacturing grew rapidly during the 1920’s and reached it’s peak during WWII providing for the servicemen on the islands, the textile industry never saw the same fortune. Except for a couple textile mills that came about with the popularity of screen printing in the 1950’s (Alfred Shaheen and Van Hamm Textiles), it’s difficult to find anything on textile production in Hawai’i. Starting in the 1960’s the cost of labor drove out the garment industry, just like in many other parts of the US. Bringing back the garment industry, and starting a textile industry, would mean either transforming it into a niche, high-end market or creating innovative technologies and taking out the human element. Something I discuss in relation to Trump’s America First policies in this post from April.
There is a Made in Hawai’i movement and a few brands make ready-to-wear garments locally. Textiles, to my knowledge, are not being widely produced in Hawai’i. But with the legalization of industrial hemp it seems like an opportunity to become a hub of artisanal and sustainable textile production. The Industrial Hemp Pilot Program is underway, inching Hawai’i towards partaking in the $620 million American hemp industry, which includes not only textiles but also health, food and beauty products.
Other sustainable fibers already growing in Hawai’i, such as pineapple, coconut, and banana, do not face the same legal barriers as hemp. Yet, currently there are no government programs, machinery or skilled labor in Hawai’i to support this. We would have to turn to mills elsewhere for guidance, or create new systems to break down the materials and turn them into fabric. I would be excited to see food waste from these plants used for textiles, I haven’t worked out the operational details for this one, but I would be a really fun project to try out.
I imagine mixing the lure of a Hawai’ian getaway fantasy with the luxurious quality of artisan made sustainable textiles would make for a great niche market. There is no sense in trying to compete with large-scale fast fashion fabric mills. Take Japan for example – across many markets, including the textile industry, they have mastered the beauty and power of extremely well made, artisan crafted products. I think there’s room for Hawai’i to join in too and start making their own boutique sustainable textiles.
Responsible material sourcing, and textile science are constantly evolving and in my opinion, are at the root of sustainable and ethical fashion. Pure, non-toxic, and renewable resources are the base of any basic sustainable garment. This is my main reason for starting the #HawaiiFiberProject, I wanted to take step beyond the clothing design and look at the fibers and textiles that they are made of. Are there materials we haven’t considered? and how would this industry impact our economy and communities?
In closing I’d like to share this video from Patagonia on industrial hemp production in Kentucky. I first saw it back in October and it spurred a lot of the questions I had about how a textile mill could positively impact a community. I hope you enjoy it!
Introducing the #HawaiiFiberProject
I’m back home in Hawai’i for about three weeks and am unbelievably excited about the #HawaiiFiberProject. There are three parts to the project, sakiori weaving (recycling old textiles), alternative fiber production (mainly pineapple and industrial hemp), and natural dyeing. During my time back on the island I aim to get to the roots of fiber and textile production, with the goal of accompanying each project with deeper research into how these core elements extend into the larger fashion industry.
I may pick up some other projects depending on what I can squeeze in. I would do infinite projects if I could, but I am supposedly on vacation, so I will be seeing friends and family, going to the beach, and just plain relaxing from time to time as well.
I chose these topics because they were projects that I can do with my Mom, who’s a textile artist, and also because I had some cool pieces in mind that I really wanted to make. I’ve never woven before, or made pineapple fibers, so there will be a big learning curve. I already started extracting pineapple fibers and setting up the loom for weaving, so far my hands are kind of sore and each step has been tedious and time consuming, but it’s very satisfying to create something with my own hands. My Mom is also pretty entertained by watching me, she keeps chuckling in the background.
These new research posts will be the start of a new chapter for Ethical Fashion Nerd, where I will produce more in-depth essays in addition to my regular journal posts. The nerd in me is so thrilled and can’t wait to get started.
To see more of the day to day process, I’ll be posting regularly on social media (mainly Instagram) about the #HawaiiFiberProject, follow along @ethicalfashnerd.