Zuoyu Shi attended the BFA Fashion Design program at Parsons the New School of Design in New York from 2012 to 2016. Specialized in women’s ready-to-wear and in the summer of 2015, she came across works of interactive coding, 3D and 4D printing, and biodegradable materials.
The collection stuns with its clean lines and beautiful draping, while the patterns printed on the fabric create another unique allusion. Lines and circles spotted the fabric peppered with inserts of color. The colors and lines are not just for looks, though.
After stumbling upon the exhibit, artistic designer Zuoyu was inspired by these pioneering ways to make more sustainable design, and decided to go forward and learn 3D model making and data visualization coding. Zuoyu said that her “learning experience with data visualization coding was an experimentation of drawing with code, using numbers on X and Y axis in a picture frame.”
For her graduation thesis, Zuoyu demonstrated a collection of six looks that presented six different forms of food waste: sweetcorn, lettuce, carrot, tomato, onion and cauliflower. By using household waste statistics, Zuoyu placed number sets into data visualization codes to generate an image output—the intricate lines in the design. These images were later made into prints with a combination of food waste photos—the sections of stunning color—specific to those six food items. The patterns for the outfits came from already existing lines in the images, and were printed onto plotter machines to cut the printed fabric.
Rather than design a collection that required pattern making and cutting fabric that would end with tons of wasted leftover pieces, Zuoyu’s collection showed that the future of fashion design could avoid the waste that comes with traditional garment making. Her collection was very much founded on her belief that a fashion designer is not just meant to innovate in fashion, but they are responsible for the environmental impact created in the design process.
By using data visualization coding with 3D printing, Zuoyu’s artistic and revolutionary process is evolving into a sustainable approach to garment making through not only her choices in natural fiber materials but also by reducing waste in pattern cutting.
The collection wasn’t just a look into avoiding material waste in the future, but also a deep look into the waste that is made in the home with certain food products. The tranquil white dresses and jumpers, streaked in black with sudden pops of color are a good reminder that eco-friendly doesn’t always mean new, but can very much mean improved as we cut back on our waste—from garbage to fabric. Whether the collection will inspire the next line of athleisure wear, we don’t know, what we do know is that Zuoyu has given us a beautiful glimpse into a better and more sustainable future of fashion.
