Flexible Design of Garment Styles to Support the Minimal Waste Concept in the Fashion Industry

Abstract Currently, the design of garment styles is weakly supporting the MWD concept. It is kept fixed during all its very changeable manufacturing process, thereby increasing pre- and post-consumer fabric wastes. To improve the situation the final values of construction parameters which influence fabric use efficiency should be determined for every unique production order only in the garment manufacturing process. Four garment styles were tested to see how light changes in their width and length influence fabric use efficiency. Even minimal reduction of these parameters can give noticeable fabric savings. Different values of these parameters create slightly different shapes of pattern pieces, and with it, give a huge number of new possibilities to create more efficient production markers. The authors found a way how to make the garment designing process more efficient, as well as, to create a “virtual bridge” between garment designing and the manufacturing phase. Both improvements could give serious benefits: reduced fabric use and product price, as well as, reduced pre- and post-consumer textile material wastes.