Trend Report: Sustainable Pattern

Ideas on how we can reduce our carbon footprint

Trend Report: Sustainable Pattern

The innovations by MEC are explored in regular updates that examine new developments in stitch, yarn, fiber, engineering and technical knowledge for the circular knitting market.

We were stunned by the series 'Plastic Ocean' by artist Thirza Schaap, which, in her own words "...combines sculpture with photography and examines our changing relationship with plastics and the increasing and overwhelming presence they have in our lives."

While many products are currently being green-washed in order to appeal to the conscientious buyer, at MEC we are truly dedicated to discovering new ways to reduce, reuse, and recycle in order to help our clients find new ways to offset their carbon and waste footprint.

One of the simplest ways to reduce our impact on the environment is to use what we have, and to this end, we consider the overstock of yarns in many brands and manufacturers warehouses. It is notable that in the yarn industry for flatbed knitting, spinners are creating marled yarns and new twists this season out of their stock collection, and we see this could be a direction for circular and seamless as well.

In an effort to be able to recycle pre-consumer waste, a new appreciation is being found for yarns that are 100% pure, as complicated blends become very hard to recycle.

REPAIR -RE-USE - RECYCLE - REDUCE - SUSTAINABLE -

In this showcase, we chose swatches that are using up lots of different colors as a way to approach leftover stock in perhaps weird colors or ones that didn't sell well; it just takes a little creativity in textile design and mixing with other interesting colors to create a new, unique item.

Creating small items such as socks, supportive inserts, slippers, and small accessories can help round out a collection while also being eco-conscious at the same time. The concept of "make do and mend" is regaining popularity as customers look to mend and repair clothes instead of discarding them, which we think is an amazing juxtaposition with hand-crafted stitching on very technical and modern seamless knits.