Scraps: Fashion, Textiles, and Creative Reuse

Luisa Cevese appropriates production waste to create one-of-a-kind fashion and home accessories. Her designs for Riedizioni, which she founded in 1996, are made with scraps gathered from various phases of the textile production process, which she encases in translucent polyurethane. A self-taught designer, Cevese began creating textiles for fashion and interiors in 1984, providing work for companies such as Dolce & Gabbana, Hermès, Chanel and Comme des Garçons.

Christina Kim’s fashion brand, Dosa, uses a system-wide approach to reuse and recycling, including using cutting-room waste to create new products. She draws on traditional, handcrafted and labor-intensive textile practices around the world, particularly India and Oaxaca, working with local artisans and engaging them in long-term collaborations. Widely recognized for her global and sustainable design practices, Kim was named by Time magazine as one of its Innovators of the Year in 2003 and received the “Innovation in Craft” Award by Aid to Artisans in 2006.

In 1984, Reiko Sudo co-founded Nuno, a textile design firm at the forefront of innovation that combines the Japanese handcraft tradition with advanced technologies. Over the years Sudo has proposed different initiatives to reduce waste, such as recycling polyester garments and using leftover scraps to create new textiles. Nuno’s fabrics have been featured in exhibitions around the world, including The Textile Museum; the Museum of Modern Art, New York; National Museum of Modern Art in Tokyo; and Fowler Museum at UCLA in Los Angeles, among many others.