“NOT X LIENX”
Lien Tong 10 AP and Jenny Lai 10 AP are designing with agar bioplastic to address the abundance of textile waste in the fashion industry.
The fashion industry produces 92 million tons of textile waste a year, with only 13.6% of clothes and shoes thrown away in the US getting recycled and less than 1% of the recycled made into new clothes. “NOT X LIENX” sought to create a capsule collection to explore this very problem.
Lien Tong and Jenny Lai, two independent fashion designers who met at RISD twelve years ago, asked themselves how can we imagine and inspire a better future? Can the materials we wear and use be returned to the environment seamlessly? Can it be renewed and recycled? Can giving care and creativity to sustainable options change people’s perspective on them? How can we educate people on consuming thoughtfully?
For Lien and Jenny, a decade of working in the industry revealed the complexity of the apparel supply chain and the difficulty of following the lifecycle and impact of the fabrics that were available to them. For full visibility into the production process, Lien and Jenny decided to make their own material from scratch using agar agar, a gelatinous powder made from red algae, glycerin and water. Compared to synthetic fabrics that take hundreds of years to decompose, agar bioplastic decomposes in a few months and offcuts can be recycled to create new bioplastic—creating a fully circular system.
Together, they created a three-piece couture look out of hand-poured agar bioplastic. The final pieces were presented in an open studio event and photoshoot. The garment’s decomposition and upcycling plan is still under design. The design residency took place June 2–16, 2022 at Gem Studio in Oakland, California.
