photographs Nicholas Kristiansen Zhi Chen knitwear Originally an engineering student in China, Zhi Chen shifted her studies to Parsons School of Design, continuing advanced study at London College of Fashion. Although using advanced knitwear machines for precision and efficiency, she creates i-am-chen David Hockney shapes and colours incorporating wool and cashmere. While ecomodista is wondering if simply utilising a more efficient machine is a sustainable practice, how can one ignore the allure of her designs?
Awarded the 2016 Kering Award for Sustainable Fashion, Agri Jain in conjunction with luxury Italian firm Brioni has explored peace silk. Peace (also known as Ahimsa) silk is the process that does not kill the cocoons of silk worms in order to extract silk fibres. Traditionally intact cocoons of silk worms are boiled to unwind the silk strand to prevent breakage. The Bombyx more silkworms for this process survive on mulberry leaves, while the Eri silkworms allow silk to be harvested without death, essentially piercing the cocoon without killing the pupae; this variety survives on castor leaves. Essentially an extension of Jainism, a religion which considers all life forms from bacterial to insect to human life sacred, this process is especially adaptable for the handloom sector of weaving in India, still a major industry, especially since designers such as Dries van Noten and others have begun working directly with artisanal fabrication in that county. Because the process produces random slubs and snarls it adds a unique texture, need ecomodista even suggest a type of silk tweed? Other designers such as Amit Aggarwal are also exploring Ahimsa silks.
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