“Globally just 12% of the material used for clothing ends up being recycled” - BBC
“An estimated 50 million tons of clothing is discarded every year, and most of it will not biodegrade in a landfill.” – Vogue
Our clothes, our bags, our shoes… Accessories, car seats, furniture… we are surrounded by a sea of textiles and we aren’t even aware of it for the most part! With each textile comes its own intricacies – the types of fibres and where they are sourced from, the weaves and printing processes unique to each brand and culture. The plethora of techniques used to create the finished products you purchase. When it comes to mass production in mainstream textile industries, the scale at which all of this exists is hugely magnified, including the waste and excess that gets produced and doesn’t get (re)used.
Given the delicate state of the world today and our shrinking access to resources, we can no longer afford to overproduce and discard textiles, nor should we be using intensive, unsustainable or toxic methods to produce and print on them.
On a more positive note, there are measures that are being taken by a growing number of small-scale conscious companies and collaborators – and a few large-scale ones – to move away from said practices, and towards more sustainable ones…
Minimize is one of them! Our products are made from RESCUED FABRICS & OFFCUTS!
“Rescued Fabrics” or "Off Cuts" are textile waste that, if left unsold, would otherwise be disposed of; and when it comes to disposing anything… it never really goes “away.” It can’t just disappear. The sad reality is that this textile waste collects in landfills or gets destroyed through harmful processes that continue to damage the environment, OUR environment. By using rescued fabrics, our products give them another chance at a full life! A chance to make something stunning that serves YOUR life! And provide skills and employment to women of underprivileged communities in Jaipur.
“But isn’t that just deadstock?” you ask.
Absolutely not. Deadstock is the result of large-scale textile companies using massive, complex machines that would rather keep running and producing extra fabric to fully reap economies of scale, rather than shutting the machines off. So yes, buying into deadstock can encourage overproduction.
WE DO NOT BUY INTO DEADSTOCK.
Minimize sources its materials from local markets and small-scale producers in Rajasthan. Each fabric and print is handpicked from small pools of cuts that would otherwise go unused for a number of reasons - perhaps they weren’t cut to size correctly for the product intended, some are spare yardage left on the bolt otherwise known as “offcut” fabrics. Some are stitched sample rejects of say table napkins, runners, kitchen towels. The list goes on.
These textiles are NOT compromised, quite the opposite actually! They’re good as new and perfectly usable! And so we say, the textiles and prints we use aren’t overproduced, they are rescued!
STICK AROUND FOR MORE OF OUR FABRIC SERIES!!
By Nishka Rao