Americans send 10.5 million tons of clothing to landfills each year.
If you have trouble wrapping your head around just how many articles of clothing that actually is – consider that if each article of clothing is an ounce, then that means there are 326,400,000,000 articles of clothing sitting in a landfill from 2015 alone. Sabina Saga, a Kazakhstan-born designer, has a solution for this and she believes it relies on 3D printing.
Sabina Saga’s 3D Printed Dress
Sabina Saga moved to NYC in 2007, setting out to become a fashion designer. As she began her undergraduate studies at FIT, she launched her journey into the realm of 3D printed fashion. Little did she know that her time at FIT was setting the groundwork for a new vision of the future: what if 3D printed fashion is the path to a healthier planet, or even, a healthier person?
“In the modern world of fashion, the consumer is aware of current trends and styles,” Sabina says. “They want something fresh every week to keep up with trends. I am looking forward to the near future where it would be possible to throw an old 3D printed garment back into the printer and print a new look in a new color and shape as frequently as desirable, one layer at a time, using only the necessary amount of material required for each part with near zero waste in an energy efficient process.”
Sabina Saga’s AW16 Bridal Collection
Imagine that — a future where you can iterate your fashion choices based not only on how you yourself evolve, but the vision doesn’t stop there. Sabina also believes your choices can evolve in relation to your environment.
“3D printed fashion stands a chance of becoming essential in order to protect us from polluted external sources,” she says.
Fundamentally, fashion is about expressing yourself and communicating your individuality to the external world; but the external world has its dangers. Whether it’s polluted air, UV radiation, viruses and allergies, there are unavoidable forces in the modern world that effect and influence us. Perhaps, using the right technology, we can supplement our fashion choices by creating garments that not only express who we are, but protect who we are.
In order to actualize this future, Sabina has taken her work to UAL-Chelsea College of Arts in London, where she’s started her masters degree studying TED’s TEN, a program which assists designers in researching textiles and smart materials that have a reduced impact on the environment.
The future through the eyes of Sabina Saga is a future worth looking forward to; and it is the minds of artists like hers that will push the limitations of 3D technology in a direction that will be beneficial to us all. We’re truly excited to see what she comes up with next.
Sabina Saga at London Fashion Week 2016
Since her senior thesis show at FIT, Sabina has exhibited her fashion items all over the world, including Inside 3D Printing New York, The Creative Arts Event in London, and 3D Printing conferences in Dusseldorf. Her next show will be at TechnologyHUB between June 7-9 in Milan, Italy.
This amuses me, because fashion is pretty much the antithesis of environmentally friendly.
If you want to be ‘green’ – starting today – a good first step would be to totally disregard fashion, and go for practicality.
Of course, in the near future – when 3D printed items require no energy to manufacture and can be completely recycled – this won’t be a concern.