'bioneering' the fashion industry: aalto university researchers and students exhibit sustainable alternatives

Finland’s Aalto University launches the exhibition, ‘The Wardrobe of the Future’ to reimagine fashion for a sustainable future. The exhibition demonstrates researchers and students are working towards a broader system for the fashion industry, leading to clothing that follows a sustainable design strategy for longer product lives.

‘We are ‘bioneering’ mention the researchers and students from Aalto University, referring to their process of finding new alternatives. Examples include assisting the fashion industry in implementing better tracking and tracing of its products, navigating its complex supply chain networks, and finding profitable and sustainable business models for creative professionals, as well as detoxifying the textile industry through the use of natural dyes.

shirt 100% made of ioncell, natural indigo dye

all images courtesy of Aalto University

Creating a future for longer product life cycles

Aalto University designers are looking beyond one product and single user and instead designing a bigger system in a closed loop, identifying some critical components of the fashion ecosystem and value chain. They are challenging the world’s linear economic model that’s often described as ‘take, make, waste’. Raw materials from the earth are extracted and used to produce products with short shelf lives, and once these products have reached the end of their useful lives, they are discarded in landfills. This model has proven to be catastrophic for our planet given its finite resources. 

Fashion is a complex, multi-dimensional and interconnected industry that follows a linear model–it encourages overconsumption and short-term profit maximization.  Therefore, Aalto University’s online exhibition displays a set of accessory items and clothing with naturally dyed fabric and modular configurations that highlight the urgent need to start designing products with long cycles, and systems that reuse materials and do so in a sustainable and economic pattern. 

natural indigo dyed outfit, designed by Arttu Åfeldt and Kirsi Niinimäki

designer sofia Ilmonen’s collection features a modular solution

modular fashion solutions solution by designer Sofia Ilmonen

upcycled stained fabrics

incorporated stains as decorative design element

sun-powered jacket with hidden solar cells underneath the textile layer, it can power wearable devices, no batteries needed

natural indigo plant called dyer’s woad yields a natural blue dye, Marimekko shirt collaboration

flaux is “floral leather”, an alternative to animal leather made from flower petals and cellulose, design by Irene Purasachit

microbially grown headset, made of fungus and yeast-based bioplastic

shimmering non-toxic wood “wood glitter” produced from cellulose, design by Noora Vau, Konrad Klockars

project info:

name: The Wardrobe of the Future
designer: Aalto University

location: Espoo, Finland 

designboom has received this project from our DIY submissions feature, where we welcome our readers to submit their own work for publication. see more project submissions from our readers here.

edited by: zaha mango | designboom