{"id":17027,"title":"Inspired by nature? The biomimicry design process in fashion","description":"Sometimes we do things and don't really talk about it, like when it comes to sustainability, materials, energy and better production systems - we just feel it's better to actually do it, not promote a pledge that we're aiming to do it. But sharing what we're up to is one of the things we need to get a bit better at. In this blog we wanted to show you a little bit of the design process, and how nature is a resource packed with design information and as omnipresent as the internet, but without the trolling or screen glare.","content":"

Sometimes we do things and don't really talk about it, like when it comes to sustainability, materials, energy and better production systems - we just feel it's better to actually get on with it now, not promote a pledge that we're aiming to work towards it tomorrow. But sharing what we're up to is one of the things we need to get a bit better at. In this blog we wanted to show you a little bit of our design process and show how nature is a resource packed with amazing and useful information, dense and omnipresent as the internet, but without the trolling or screen glare.<\/p>

First, we'll start with how we pick colours, and why we do it that way.\"\"\"\"
Fashion people at desks regularly ask themselves the existential question: What colour is going to look right next season? The clue is in the name. Each season, nature has some different colours...<\/p>

Use natural colours, and colours will look and feel natural.<\/p><\/blockquote>

So that's what we do, but there's much more to this approach than just aesthetics. This is an important part of the longevity conversation in sustainability. Making things so they can last longer is important, but longevity is like string. We can push it on people but string works better if people pull it. Worldwide, 3 out of 5 t-shirts bought today will be thrown away within 12 months and that's not primarily a product-broke issue: Designers need to design products so people want <\/em>to keep them in use longer: Using natural colours means that season to season, they'll still be relevant and together with a functional approach to shapes and styles, our 'timeless' design philosophy is a way to address that: Natural, timeless design stays relevant longer. If it is built to last longer, together that's how it stays in use for longer.<\/p>

Nature inspires the aesthetic, and also the function and form.<\/p>

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Unlike aesthetics, functionality is harder to see on the surface but it is how we solve many of the more substantial design problems behind the scenes.<\/p>

Here's a photo to consider that is famous for demonstrating the value of biomimicry, which is all about studying nature for the solution to a problem. In this case, efficient motion.<\/p>

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Now we did invent the wheel ourselves, but the human approach too often is like reinventing the wheel. People could try-try-again for billions of years but nature has already been there and done that in many cases: Evolution means nature is earth's biggest design proving ground. All we need to do is go and search it for the answers.<\/p>

If you want things to grow, what is the best energy source? Plants run on sun, water, and wind. Not finite resources. So if you want something to grow worldwide, use those.<\/p>

Perhaps the reason people don't use biomimicry so much to solve problems is that it's harder to search, and you have to come at it from first principles which mean answers like that aren't always easy or convenient. And other times, it is hard to really decipher. Which is also why it is so fascinating when answers reveal themselves.<\/p>

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We spent nearly 4 years trying to work out how to make a waterproof jacket sustainably with eco-friendly plastic. We learned you cant: Plastic is not good for nature. Nature solved the problem of waterproofing with waxes. And so we started looking at waxes, and it solved the problem.<\/p>

It is strange how quickly a solution can be found if you look in the right place. Yet nature is all around us. Profound things are right under our noses.<\/p><\/blockquote>

The examples above are easier to start with because they're more obvious. Waterproofing, wings or structures. But we can also look at biomimicry from a system level. In nature outflow from one process is fuel for the next. There is no word for waste. So if we want to optimise not just our products but the entire system - the system we built we call The Economy, then we can get the optimum solution to design towards. We know that we should redesign the business models and flows of materials so that materials flow in circles, where waste from one process is fuel for the next, where nothing is wasted because the concept of waste is designed out.<\/p>

This can help us reimagine packaging (what is packaging in nature? A banana skin is fertiliser. An apple's packaging is edible).<\/p>

We can make packaging functional (you can reuse or colour ours in) or design for decomposition (natural materials and water-based inks) or both. And our products themselves are designed so that when they are at the end of their lives, they decompose or come back to be broken down and recomposed into new products.<\/p>

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Designing products so they are made to be remade means instead of creating waste, we make new products from them.<\/p>

So if we want to redesign not just our products but the entire economy, if we want to make it sustainably grow like nature already does, we can use nature to inspire us and give us a practical understanding of what the solution might look like. Then we can redesign towards<\/em> it. That's how we make sustainability come to life.<\/p>","urlTitle":"biomimicry-design-fashion-sustainability-circular-economy","url":"\/blog\/biomimicry-design-fashion-sustainability-circular-economy\/","editListUrl":"\/my-blogs","editUrl":"\/my-blogs\/edit\/biomimicry-design-fashion-sustainability-circular-economy\/","fullUrl":"https:\/\/rapanuiclothing.com\/blog\/biomimicry-design-fashion-sustainability-circular-economy\/","featured":false,"published":true,"showOnSitemap":true,"hidden":false,"visibility":null,"createdAt":1647438401,"updatedAt":1651222132,"publishedAt":1647458380,"lastReadAt":null,"division":{"id":14,"name":"Rapanui"},"tags":[],"metaImage":{"original":"https:\/\/images.podos.io\/v5sjbiduk7o0edglwd4m4rsmkealchne08wkxedo1smkwyfm.jpeg","thumbnail":"https:\/\/images.podos.io\/v5sjbiduk7o0edglwd4m4rsmkealchne08wkxedo1smkwyfm.jpeg.jpg?w=1140&h=855","banner":"https:\/\/images.podos.io\/v5sjbiduk7o0edglwd4m4rsmkealchne08wkxedo1smkwyfm.jpeg.jpg?w=1920&h=1440"},"metaTitle":"The biomimicry design process in fashion","metaDescription":"Nature is a resource packed with design information. Here's how nature inspires our design process in some surprising ways.","keyPhraseCampaignId":3914,"series":[],"similarReads":[{"id":20856,"title":"How we designed the BEWT (Best Ever Women's Tee)","url":"\/blog\/best-womens-t-shirt\/","urlTitle":"best-womens-t-shirt","division":14,"description":"More than half of the women in our factory were wearing our men\u2019s t-shirts instead of our women\u2019s, and neither group felt comfortable in either. So we assembled an all-female team to design the BEWT - Best Ever Women's Tee - designed by women, for women.","published":true,"metaImage":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/images.podos.io\/i8bor8lw23pielvpqsonotpkkwa0e34ok1nrkxxfhbth8lm6.jpeg.jpg?w=1140&h=855","banner":"https:\/\/images.podos.io\/i8bor8lw23pielvpqsonotpkkwa0e34ok1nrkxxfhbth8lm6.jpeg.jpg?w=1920&h=1440"},"hidden":0},{"id":26308,"title":"The 11 best wild swimming spots in the UK: sea, lakes & waterfalls","url":"\/blog\/the-best-wild-swimming-spots-in-the-uk\/","urlTitle":"the-best-wild-swimming-spots-in-the-uk","division":14,"description":"We spoke to wild swimmers from around the UK to uncover favourite places for a dip, from lakes, tarns, rivers and sea.","published":true,"metaImage":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/images.podos.io\/gijrxitfmg9kaindg71vluoa5wwzxrc9n2yhn5eleznivfid.jpeg.jpg?w=1140&h=855","banner":"https:\/\/images.podos.io\/gijrxitfmg9kaindg71vluoa5wwzxrc9n2yhn5eleznivfid.jpeg.jpg?w=1920&h=1440"},"hidden":0},{"id":17242,"title":"The best plain white t-shirt in the world","url":"\/blog\/the-best-white-t-shirt-in-the-world\/","urlTitle":"the-best-white-t-shirt-in-the-world","division":14,"description":"We\u2019ve spent years creating the perfect white t-shirts. We thought you might like to see what goes into making our famously soft organic tees, show you how they\u2019re made and why millions of people wear them (many without even realising it).","published":true,"metaImage":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/images.podos.io\/etdicppfdjx6pvyept1tgejmxb5qjwfvzzrjui4afknnkgrk.jpeg.jpg?w=1140&h=855","banner":"https:\/\/images.podos.io\/etdicppfdjx6pvyept1tgejmxb5qjwfvzzrjui4afknnkgrk.jpeg.jpg?w=1920&h=1440"},"hidden":0}],"labels":[]}