The cloth was the clothing: zero waste fashion tradition and sustainability a discussion paper

Abstract

Exploring zero waste one-piece cloth consumption from a sustainable perspective offers, a myriad of fashion interpretations. The study investigates the historical background of the traditional draping technique of clothes of royalty, the crafting of body form, and its sustainable consumption. The paper examines zero-waste design, a traditional draping method practiced during the Kotte and Kandyan periods respectively, where geometric textile pieces were used; leaving no negative space around the patterns of design activity resulting in zero-waste garments. Interviews and observation were used in collecting the needed data at selected places in Kandy. The study employed both descriptive and survey research methods based on the qualitative research approach. This survey shows tremendous draping systems that can be adapted to a modern touch and also inspiring attitudes as beginning groundwork in good practices, moving away from mass consumption of dresses of rich cultural antecedents that show the range of skills and resources that are available. In view of this, it is recommended that the stakeholders of the garment industry such as designers who are endowed with this unique craft incorporate to their designs to sustain and promote Sri Lankan tradition in the world of fashion. It is also aimed at identifying and describing how this traditional sustainable draping technique is executed, what materials, and changing trends it has undergone through the ages. A new era has thus come to look back at an ancient sustainable consumption of dress. The survey was based on the dresses depicted in mural paintings and other sculptures that existed during Kotte and Kandyan eras respectively. The mode of collecting the data was carried out through personal in-depth observational field studies which helped to reveal the widely use subtle draping systems of dress practices of royalty.