Soorty’s Third SpaceD Showcase to Spotlight Circularity
Waste is one of the fashion industry’s top sustainability agenda items, and for good reason. The more resources that can be kept in circulation—rather than landing in a landfill—the less environmental impact of production.
To build circular systems, companies need collaboration. From fiber makers to finishing, all players in the supply chain have a role to play in fashioning goods that can be recycled. With this spirit of community and circularity in mind, Pakistan-based denim manufacturer Soorty will highlight how to close the loop in jean design during the third edition of its SpaceD open house. At its showroom in New York, Soorty will host talks, workshops and product showcases to inspire others in the denim world.
Before the open house next week, Carved in Blue chatted with Eda Dikmen, marketing and communications manager – Amsterdam at Soorty about what visitors can expect.
Carved in Blue: What’s the theme for the third open house event in Space D?
Eda: The theme for our third event is Design for Circularity.
Aligned with the theme, we joined forces with great names driving the collective effort toward a more circular fashion world—Lenzing, The Lycra Company, Jeanologia, Scrap New York, Marmara Hemp and Decode—for this edition.
Once again, we believe in the power of collective action. We come together with our valuable supply chain partners to show how circular denim is made possible; our vertical integration enables us to utilize these fiber innovations offered by Lenzing, The Lycra Company and Marmara Hemp to weave fabrics made responsibly. And it doesn’t end there. The next step is making responsible garments from these beautiful and conscious fabrics, which we do with smart laundry, using technology as an enabler, which is where Jeanologia steps in. On the other hand, our cross-industry partner Scrap NY aims to reduce the textile waste of New York City by placing preloved clothing back into circulation, and Decode is a zero waste fashion brand operating out of Brooklyn. All partners are driven by shared values and goals.
Carved in Blue: How is the aganda for the event?
Eda: We’ll be there on Jan. 9 and 10. To kick off, we’ll host a series of programs and workshops that highlight the latest conscious technologies and collections on the first day, where various engagements will take place.
At 2:30 p.m., we start with Tuncay Kılıçkan, head of global business development at Lenzing, sharing what nature-inspired design means to the company and how their innovations help design circular denim.
Then at 3:00 p.m., Ebru Özaydın, strategic marketing director in denim in The Lycra Company, will share the recent fiber innovations, and how they help weave circular denim from fiber to finish.
At 3:30 p.m., Patrick Metellus, founder of Scrap NYC, will talk about how the dream of reducing NYC’s textile waste and having a much cleaner city became what it is today.
At 4:00 p.m., Jeremy Soldado, Miami hub manager at Jeanologia, will share how the brand and Soorty are scaling up smart laundry solutions by merging creativity with innovation.
Then at 4:30 p.m., Danielle Elsener, founder of Decode and Zero Waste Design Collective, will talk about the power of design and fashion’s impact on climate change while hosting a limited capacity zero waste design workshop.
We’re planning to wrap things up around 5:15 p.m. and continue our evening with a little celebration.
How do Lenzing fibers engage with the “Design for Circularity” theme?
Eda: Now is a time to redesign everything, driven by a new mindset and using new tools such as artificial intelligence, the internet of things and biomimicry. Our design ambitions at the moment are limited only by imagination, making creativity the most important part of the equation. Design thinking allows us to explore new ways of creating sustainable, resilient, long-lasting value as we redesign old products or even systems. When it comes to denim and jeans, making clothes that people love to wear, own a long time and feel good as they look good is an extensive part of circularity. Wear comfort, hand feel, ease of care and durability offered by TENCEL™ fibers is definitely a solid part of this conversation. On the other hand comes reusability, the fact that fabrics designed with strong fibers makes the fabrics ready to be reused—again, again and again if needed—keeping in mind that they are compostable and biodegradable is key to truly fight fashion’s contribution to our currently very real waste problem.
Carved in Blue: Will there be TENCEL™ fibers in the compositions of the collection articles? What is the main reason to use TENCEL™ fibers?
Eda: Yes, we worked on a beautiful capsule collection with our supply chain partners and used fabrics with TENCEL™, Lycra and Marmara Hemp products—truly collectively made!
As designers of denim and jeans, we approach denim as the ultimate canvas, offering countless possibilities. This capsule we’ll showcase is not a big one; we wanted it really to show that less is more in certain cases. So we have a limited number of articles (eight) woven into fabrics that feel comfortable, are designed into the right silhouettes and washed down creatively. Three of these are TENCEL™ blends, and what we love about them the most is the wear comfort, the soft hand feel and the physical and emotional durability it adds on to the garments. We see a part of fashion is going through that direction where pieces are considered as disposable, throwaway pieces unfortunately, but every single piece is produced with so much effort and resource and we cannot stand this idea. It means a lot to us for our garments to have a longevity aspect; so making clothes that look, feel and perform good are very important for us.
Carved in Blue: What would be the most interesting pieces or parts of the collection that is prepared for this event?
Eda: What I look forward to the most this time is the zero waste pants we prepared in partnership with Decode. The idea was to approach design as a tool for improvement, so from fiber to finish all things needed to be circular. We went back to our archives and chose a fabric that is quite popular among our customers with hemp, cotton and PCW content. Using this fabric as a canvas, Danielle worked on a beautiful zero waste pattern, a very unique silhouette with much to tell, and I look forward to seeing our guests interacting with it.
I also love the fact that we are able to show the collaborative spirit between the supply chain with a collection not so big; that feels authentic and right to me. Using design as a tool, we truly blended responsible innovation with conscious materials and merged purpose, function, aesthetics, cultures and economy. We also kept the branding very simple and user friendly. Each garment will have a recipe attached where visitors can truly, honestly, transparently see what it is about. Offering something this simple and pure requires a great work at the back, but I’m excited we were able to do it.
The denim curiosity table and experiencing what makes responsible denim possible and what our options are with different audiences is always very exciting too.
Carved in Blue: What surprises and messages will there be throughout the event?
Eda: I guess we are all aware, we’re living through some very hard times, and of course things are no different for our industry. It feels like the tipping point of a big change. And I think it is even more valuable than usual to be together, to share values, resources, ideas in moments like these. And we are all gathering in this event for this very purpose. As co-owners and co-hosts of this get together, we are in a way celebrating resilience, which I think is a great opportunity. Plus, the talks will be a great chance to hear updates, perspectives and visions of brands themselves.
There’ll be a dedicated donation box by Soorty x Scrap NY on site for guests to drop off their preloved, no longer used garments to be recycled. We will keep the box in our office afterwards too, and we are planning to measure how many old pieces we bring back to use in our state-of-the-art recycling plant.
The workshop by Decode will also be very exciting because Danielle (the owner) will not only explain to us what a great power zero waste design can unlock, but we will learn about the patterns with a hands-on experience! I shall keep the rest a surprise because we’ve been working on it excitedly, but it will be fun!
Carved in Blue: What is the most important message that you want to leave on the minds of the visitors that have participated to the event?
Eda: Waste is a manmade problem. As designers, we hold a power to design new materials, products, processes and even systems to unmake this. As engineers, we have the capacity to work with details to construct the whole, to reshape systems and products. As stakeholders, we have a role in the value chain for a transparent, inclusive, connected, dynamic, customized future. Sustainable fashion is a long journey, and so is circularity, but we are only making things easier when joining forces. #collectivelybetter
Visit SpaceD from Jan. 9-10 in New York at 902 Broadway, Suite 1611.