"It is a problem to offer clothes made out of sustainable material and then brag about being sustainable. What are you doing with the material left over from sampling or production? What is with all the single plastic bags you put your products in?"
In New York City, Deta just launched a collection of swimwear made out of a water-resistant yarn that keeps its shape. While the pieces are made out of a recycled material that's 80 percent polyester and 20 percent lycra, they're produced using 3D knitting machines from just three single threads of yarn. Similar to 3D printing, the swimsuits are programmed in CAD software and sent to a knitting machine, which outputs the near-final product in a single pass. Afterward, elastics are added to the underbust and waistband.
"No waste is produced in this process, as only the exact amount of yarn needed for the piece is used," says Anna Berger, Deta founder. "Right now, I am switching to made-to-order production. When a customer orders a suit on the website, it is subsequently 'printed' and sent directly to the customer from the workshop. This means less waste because only what is sold is ordered."
These business practices are not only better for the environment, but they also help to turn the industry away from its wasteful seasonal model that churns out millions of tons of textile waste — something like 17 million tons yearly, according to the EPA. Ultimately, Berger, 42, aims to switch over to a nonpolyester yarn to make her products as eco-friendly as possible.
"I am still using polyester yarn because I haven't found a sustainable yarn, because the minimums are too high," Berger explains. "First, I thought I couldn't continue without a sustainable yarn, but then I realised producing locally — with no waste and no inventory — is also sustainable, and finding the right yarn can be the next step on the journey."
But regardless of the material used, the industry still has a long way to go to truly be sustainable. "You're adding products to an already oversaturated market, [and] that is not sustainable in the first place," Berger says. "I think it is a problem to offer clothes made out of sustainable material and then brag about being sustainable. What are you doing with the material left over from sampling or production? What is with all the single plastic bags you put your products in? When producing clothes, there are a lot of decisions that need to be made that no one sees."