Central St. Martens, a well-known art college in London, is leading the sustainability charge at the collegiate level by announcing a new masters program for young designers: Biodesign. I remember first reading about it in an article written by i-D magazine and after reading it, I immediately reposted the article on instagram, wanting to share it with everyone I knew.
Biodesign is the middle ground between science and art that studies fibers used in garment creation on a biological level. It applies these studies to develop more sustainable fibers for use in textile creation and, inevitably, fashion design. While the name may sound like one of the least artistic degrees out there, it relies on fashion designers and textile experts just as much as it does scientists.
Offering this type of education could be the potential saving grace of the garment industry. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has released some staggering statistics surrounding the consequences of textile waste over the last fifty years.
Many fibers used in fashion design are unsustainable, derived from oil and plastic, as well as being processed in toxic chemicals. This includes materials you may recognize like acrylic, rayon, spandex and some polyesters. Providing more environmentally-friendly alternatives to our not-so-sustainable textiles made is imperative if these grim statistics are going to change.
Forbes tells us that biodesign has already become a $14 billion dollar industry, and will only continue to grow. With a number like that, designers should be lining up to be admitted into such an innovative program. Regardless of the whopping monetary potential, more and more up-and-coming designers are placing sustainability as a high priority because of the escalating urgency to preserve our earth and its natural resources.
Anyone with a social media account (and a moral high ground bordering on inflated ego) will tell you how wrong you are for not using a metal straw or for forgetting your reusable tote in your car, but you can’t put a band-aid over a wound the size of a shark bite and expect it to heal completely. I want any fashion designers concerned about the environment, fast fashion, or the impact of their work to know that this new technology is a way that we can heal the wound.
While biodesign is still a relatively new idea and Central St. Martens is the only institution offering such a degree, it feels inevitable that this will create a ripple effect by ways of more colleges offering similar programs as well as inspiring more designers to embrace sustainability in a way like never before.
Written by Kylee Christiansen
Graphic by Isaac Grothe