Before moving to Melbourne to complete a Bachelor of Fashion Design (Honours) at RMIT, Zoe May was studying environmental journalism, so she was already aware of the fashion industry’s battle with waste.
It informed her decision to set up a small knitwear label, Zoe May, dedicated to producing a limited number of garments to order.
“Knitting is one of the few garment construction techniques that are zero waste,” she explained.
“My pieces are made to order, so a garment is only produced once sold.”
Zoe’s business focuses on using recycled yarn sourced from Australian textile brand Dempstah, which creates cotton and wool blends from unwanted clothing and homewares supplied by Salvos Stores.
“I have a collection of vintage, remnant and deadstock yarn cones - amounts that are too small to produce a full garment or size run - and have a few designs intended for using up small scraps,” she said.
Her efforts might be tiny when viewed on a global scale, but Zoe knows she’s part of a new generation of fashion graduates working towards a better future.
“A while ago I heard someone say, ‘The world doesn’t need another tiny brand with a capsule collection’ and when I heard this I realised, maybe it actually does,” she said.
“Maybe millions of tiny little brands are better than hundreds of enormous ones.”
Sustainability solutions for fashion labels
After seven years of working with major fashion retailers, Laura Lana became frustrated with the industry’s lack of sustainable practices. It spurred her on to create her own fashion label, Laura Lana Creative.
“I wanted to start my business where I could provide solutions for people who wanted to create something that was smaller scale, a bit more considered in the design approach, and also in terms of sustainability, so that's how it started and it was design and manufacturing mainly,” Laura said.
During the COVID pandemic, Laura saw the number of local fashion brands boom. But that trend dissipated once COVID restrictions were lifted, prompting Laura to turn to providing sustainability solutions for small textile brands.
“I wanted to shift the focus to providing solutions for sustainable practice, whether that's through designing with the sustainable conscious or solving problems where issues have occurred in production,” she said.
Laura graduated from RMIT with a Certificate IV in Training and Assessment, which has helped her educate others in the fashion trade. She has worked with the City of Yarra and initiatives such as Thread Together to help fashion creators move away from fast fashion and repurpose excess textiles.
With the same creativity they use to design unique clothing, these RMIT alumni are forging new paths away from overproduction. By reimagining fast fashion, they are part of a sustainable and innovative way forward.
Story: Kate Jones
1 Australian Fashion Council, Global Scan Report 2022 and Clothing Data Report 2022
