Scraps: Fashion, Textiles And Creative Reuse

The textile and fashion industries produce millions of tons of waste every year, Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum Scraps: Fashion, Textiles and Creative Reuse, is an exhibition presenting three women’s creative and sustainable, yet distinct, design approaches to the shockingly high human and environmental costs of textile industry waste. Three designers—Luisa Cevese, Christina Kim, and Reiko Sudo—working on three different continents, who put sustainability at the heart of their design practice. Each designer takes a very different approach to the millions of tons of waste generated each year by the textile and fashion industries, yet all share a profound respect for fabric scraps as repositories of raw materials, energy, labor, and creativity. Presenting the exhibition at Cooper Hewitt will expand public awareness of textile recycling and sustainability beyond the thoughtful use and conservation of precious material resources, to include the creation of skilled creative work and the preservation of local craft traditions. It will illuminate how a commitment to sustainability can spark creativity in new, unimagined ways. Scraps will feature a single project or concept from each designer and each installation will utilize fabric waste from a different stage of the manufacturing stream.