Designing Zero Waste Fashion

The Covid-19 pandemic, which has paralyzed many people’s activities, has not stopped Aryani’s works. Aryani Widagdo as organized training activities in sewing using zero waste fashion design.

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Aryani Widagdo

Aryani Widagdo (71) encourages numerous people to design clothing with minimal waste. After decades of working in the fashion industry, she established Aryani Widagdo Creativity Nest, her own institution that focuses on research, fashion education and sewing.

The Covid-19 pandemic, which has paralyzed many people’s activities, has not stopped Aryani’s works. Numerous knowledge-sharing activities at Aryani Creativity Nest in Surabaya, East Java, have instead further broadened with the use of online learning methods.

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Aryani has organized training activities in sewing using zero waste fashion design. The sewing method uses certain patterns where there are no any gaps and, thus, creates less textile waste. Even if there is some waste, it is often very little in the form of threads. By using this method, the resulting clothing leaves zero waste and is more environmentally friendly.

Moreover, Aryani uses traditional fabrics as well, such as lurik (striped woven material), batik, or linen cloth made of natural fibers. Initially, she taught about using patterns created by designers Patrick Kelly and Holly McQuillan. Several times, Aryani has held training to make spiral trousers, which were popularized by Holly McQuillan, a designer from New Zealand who is known for her zero waste fashion designs.

We are striving to keep all the employees and staff, so we are doing our workshop online.

As time went by, Aryani and her team started making their own designs, including Kalisuci kebaya (traditional Indonesian blouse), Anatolia outer, Anatalya outer, or a kimono-style top called tongli. These patterns and sewing methods are what Aryani now teaches.

She admitted that the pandemic had posed a new challenge for her team. “We are striving to keep all the employees and staff, so we are doing our workshop online. However, for online workshops, we cannot give explanations while the participants are cutting the cloth. Hence, we have to make a video tutorial as well,” said Aryani during an interview via Zoom on Monday (5/4/2021).

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Aryani Widagdo

Currently, there are at least 25 patterns for Aryani to share. Prior to the pandemic, Aryani held a face-to-face training session with teachers of vocational schools (SMK), university lecturers and the general public who were interested in sewing. Between training and workshops, she prepared her own book on zero waste fashion design.

Now, the pandemic has forced her to hold training sessions online, which are open to anyone, anywhere. Almost every day Aryani and her team are busy preparing for online training. Apart from having a clear explanation, the online video must also be clear and detailed. The cost of the online training too is relatively affordable, under Rp 75,000. Participants will receive a certificate, clothing patterns, videos and tutorials.

Each participant could also access all of the videos on how to make the clothes. If participants find the video unclear, they can study the video again at home. In fact, for those who have never sewn before, making zero waste clothes is not impossible.

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Aryani explained that her goal is not to reap profit from her training sessions. Hence, the cost of the training is cheap. After all, she still needs some capital to pay her staff as well as to make videos for online training. Regardless, due to its relatively inexpensive cost, Aryani’s online training could reach participants as far as in Aceh and Papua. In this way, Aryani’s dream of popularizing zero waste fashion design can be achieved. She is always happy to welcome participants who are able to further modify her patterns and create new designs.

Learning fashion

Her love for the fashion industry led Aryani to enroll in the distance learning program at the Department of Fashion Design and Fashion Merchandising at the Pennsylvania International Correspondence School from 1987 to 1988. At that time, Aryani, who had previously graduated from the Diponegoro University with an architecture degree, already had two kids.

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While helping her husband’s poultry business as well as raising her children, she continued to learn. “At that time, there was no internet. So if the lecture materials sent by mail arrived late, I got really nervous. I was afraid that it would be too late for me to send my exam answers,” said Aryani, recalling her distance learning experience.

KOMPAS/BAHANA PATRIA GUPTA

Aryani Widagdo

In 1990, Aryani started a fashion course. In 2004, she named her fashion course Arva School of Fashion in Surabaya. Since the beginning, this school has focused on sustainability and social issues.

For example, Arva School has once worked with designers in Surabaya to create rag dolls, which were then auctioned off. Profit from the auction was donated for forest management efforts. Aryani also supports campaigns in women’s health issues.

Upon her retirement from Arva School of Fashion in 2016, Aryani has since further expanded her activities. For one, she established Aryani Creativity Nest, an institution which works in research on fashion and sewing craft. “Since I retired, I have been freed from routine works, such as managing the school, marketing and recruiting students. I can do a lot of research now,” said Aryani.

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One of the results is her books, titled as Aryani Widagdo and Fabric Yo-Yo: 20 Creations of Not-So-Ordinary Circles published in 2018. In this book, she teaches about, among others, how to make a yo-yo made from patchwork where the edges are sewn together and pulled into a creased shape. This creation could be used as a decoration for a tablecloth. “Everyone can make a yo-yo, I just give some of my ideas. The book is based on themes. For example, one of the themes was circus. I then explain how to make circus balloons made from yo-yo filled with dacron, or the circus clowns could also be made from yo-yo,” said Aryani.

Ideally, the yo-yos use leftover fabric from the garment industry. Regardless, in reality, only about 10 percent of leftover patchwork could be used for craft purposes, while the rest becomes textile waste. If every year the world produces 400 billion square meters of fabric and 15 percent of the fabric is discarded during the process, there will be around 60 billion square meters of textile waste.

Since I retired, I have been freed from routine works, such as managing the school, marketing and recruiting students.

Amid this mounting concern, information regarding zero waste sewing method came from her former student. Aryan then sought further information regarding this method, buying two copies of books on zero waste fashion design by Timo Rissanen and Holly McQuillan.

From these books and her own independent research, Aryani and her team created numerous new designs. Since then, Aryani’s mindset in perceiving clothes patterns has changed. Then, the Kalisuci kebaya design was born. To date, Aryani still continues perfecting her design on zero waste traditional kebaya.

Aryani Widagdo

Born: Semarang, July 6, 1949

Number of children: 2

Number of grandchildren: 4

Education:

· Architecture Degree, Diponegoro University, 1968

· Distance learning in Fashion Design and Fashion Merchandising, Pennsylvania International Correspondence School, 1987-1988

Occupation:

· Established fashion course Arva Studio in Surabaya (1990)

· Founder and director of Arva School of Fashion, Surabaya (2004-2014)

· Director of Aryani Widagdo Creativity Nest (2015)

· Lecturer in history of fashion at Surabaya University (2012-2014)

· Lecturer in history of fashion at Petra Christian University (Present)

Awards, among others:

· Womanblitz: Blitz Inspiring Woman (2016)

· Surabaya Fashion Parade 2017: Lifetime Achievement (2017)

· Yayasan Anne Avantie: Kartini Masa Kini (2018)

This article was translated by Astria Z. Nabila