Day Shirt
For the Day Shirt, Vretena took a Product-First Approach. The design concept was focused on re-imagining and re-designing an existing Vretena product (a woven organic cotton shirt) using biopolyester.
Novel materials are continuously being developed following the development of novel technologies and in response to changing needs of society and the environment. In HEREWEAR we wanted to go a step further and test our novel materials with industrial partners to demonstrate their suitability and viability for designing and manufacturing garments.
In this section you can find out about the Day Shirt, designed and produced by micro fashion brand Vretena in collaboration with the HEREWEAR partners.
What is the Day Shirt?
Vretena worked on the specifications of two scenarios focused on ready-to-wear, urban-fashionable garments that can be applied from “Work to Streets”, using two different approaches:
- Material-First Approach, where the garment is designed in response to the material
- Product-First Approach, where the material is developed for an existing garment design
For the Day Shirt Vretena took a Product-First Approach. The design concept was focused on re-imagining and re-designing an existing Vretena product (a woven organic cotton shirt). An essential aspect was the performance and aesthetics properties of the biopolyester woven material to replace the organic cotton as a material for the shirt.
The Day Shirt is designed with the following features for Circular, Bio-based and Local textile ecosystems:
- Bio-based raw materials (biopolyesters currently from commercial feedstocks)
- Mono-materials to support recycling
- Buttons and Interfacing removed to support recycling
- Made in Europe using Networked Manufacturing for small made-to-order production runs
- Zero-waste through waste diversion to social enterprises
- Renting and resale business models adopted by Vretena through their online and high street store
- Repair service offered by Vretena
- Product Passport enabled by Circularity ID service
How did we design and produce the Day Shirt?
There were six main steps to the garment development process:
- Creative Exploration - using design guidelines and tools
- Early Prototyping - to explore materials and production steps
- Materials Sampling – to explore the possibilities of the materials for the design
- Circularity Checks and Local Modelling – to ensure the design meets the HEREWEAR criteria
- Digital Design – to test the prototypes and prepare for production
- Creation of Tech Packs
The main challenge was to create a breathable and skin-friendly textile from biopolyester which tends to be ‘crunchy’ and rough to touch.
After many material trials and collaboration between partners, a satin woven biopolyester sample was developed for the Day Shirt, with improved softness, cover and drape in a pale sage green.
More detail on how this was achieved can be found in the Bio-based Textiles and Biopolyester sections of the HUB.
For further information on Vretena and its products see the official website www.vretena.de.
