Sustainable Fashion and Apparel Design: Films

Presents an eye-opening journey around the world and into the lives of the many people and places behind our clothes.

Cut-price garments not meant to last for more than a year or two make up nearly half the clothing market, resulting in a rising tide of textile waste. This program profiles clothing designers who are turning consumer demand for green products into fashion trends. The Junky Styling team searches thrift shops for vintage fabric which it then uses to create outfits for their high-profile clientele, while Worn Again founder Mike Corbett shows viewers how he makes and markets shoes from materials like old seat belts. The video also goes to a factory where textile technologists process old jute sacks for reuse as sustainable fabrics.

What is fair trade? How does it work in practice? What difference is it making to people in the developing world? This is the story of fair trade fashion company People Tree. Sweatshop labour: The UK fashion business is worth over $40 billion annually. But beneath the industry's glamorous facade, there's an inconvenient truth: most of the clothes are made in the developing world using sweatshop labour. People Tree set out to make a difference, by selling well-designed clothes produced in the developing world for a fair price. They're now selling through Top Shop and working with 50 producer groups in 15 different countries. UK turnover is $1.5 million. Hand-made: All People Tree's garments are hand-made. This means it is all much more labour intensive and slower than in factories. But that's the whole point: to create as much employment as possible. Care for the environment is also part of People Tree's plan. They use natural dyes and avoid toxic or synthetic raw materials. They use organic cotton which means not relying on harmful pesticides - but they're not totally organic yet. Bangladesh: One woman working on People Tree's clothes in Bangladesh does seem to be benefiting from fair trade. She tells how working on producing fair trade clothes has improved her life, brought her more money and freed her from being stuck at home. But fair trade isn't an easy option. People Tree has little money for advertising and marketing and every day is a struggle. Fair trade is still only a small fraction of the fashion business - can it ever go mainstream?

See how textiles are recycled into new material. Textiles in any condition can be recycled. Donate, Recycle, Don't Throw Away.

With the large amount of clothes being produced, sold, and discarded, two Cornell University professors are looking at ways to make the textile industry more sustainable. One aspect of that is finding a way to reuse fibers from clothing waste in an “upcycled,” or value-added way. To that end, they’ve invented the Fiberizer.

Sorting Alpaca Fiber in Upstate New York.

Developing creative solutions for second-hand clothing in an interdisciplinary team of students and faculty.

Tour of Fiber Farms by Cornell FSAD PhD candidate Helen Trejo.

Interactions between science and design at Cornell University. Fiber Science and Apparel Design FSAD. Professor Juan Hinestroza. http://nanotextiles.human.cornell.edu