Vanessa Chan

Reusing textile waste in the community

TEECO is a conscious design that creates a collaborative experience through crafting with post-consumer textile waste to raise awareness of fast fashion causing climate change. With the fashion industry being responsible for 8-10% of global emissions, my design explores the problem of consumerist fashion and the devaluation of materials due to mass production.

The product is designed to be made with old and unwanted T-shirts by cutting them into T-shirt yarn for weaving and using this as a way of celebrating the second life of clothes. It aims to provide a solution to reusing textiles for the longest possible in response to achieving a circular economy.

The chair is only complete when people weave together to make the seat. I wish to encourage people to live a conscious lifestyle and be mindful of the things we own through the crafting process. Also, to spread the message of transforming the long-developed throwaway culture into honouring the repair and craft culture. The intention of taking the design into the community is to create an opportunity for discussions on sustainability, as well as to influence the public to see the beauty in repurposed materials, eventually nurturing the habit of reusing and repurposing existing things.