Ashlin originally comes from Ireland; she graduated from Plymouth College of Art several years ago. For her BA collection she used organic and fair-trade materials such as hemp, which she dyed with berries and other natural dyes. Although this worked well for her collection, berries would be no good for products that were being sold, as the dye would come out. She adapted this theme for her MA using locally sourced products and slowing down fashion, she also used only non-chemical dye.
She found that 15% of fabrics end up on the factory floor, so she used these scraps to produce her collection. An important factor of fashion is traceability – knowing where your fabrics have come from. Ashlin sourced all of her fabric locally in Ireland. The only issue with this was the lack of variety in fabrics, available to her were; wool, linen, lace and tweed.
To source wool she used Donegal yarns as these are the only mill left that do the whole process. The yarn that they sold came from New Zealand, France and Australia. Ashlin tracked down sheep in Ireland and spoke to the farmers. She chose to use ‘Cheviot sheep’ as there is ¼ of a million of these pure breed sheep in Ireland – this was a collaboration between 2 companies. She also looked into using Alpacas, as there are 2 thousand of them in Ireland. Both farmers donated wool and she blended sheep and alpaca to make a new yarn.
Italy has developed a natural dying system but unfortunately Ashlin couldn’t use this. Instead she used responsible dye – this is dye that is non reactive and causes less pollution.
To create zero waste in her collection she made engineered garments – this is where you minimise the amount of seams you have in each piece. The Donegal Mill is still selling the Irish wool that Ashlin developed. Her garments are not ‘finished’ with anything, using products on the market are chemically finished but this is environmentally damaging.
http://www.donegalwoollenmill.com
She found that 15% of fabrics end up on the factory floor, so she used these scraps to produce her collection. An important factor of fashion is traceability – knowing where your fabrics have come from. Ashlin sourced all of her fabric locally in Ireland. The only issue with this was the lack of variety in fabrics, available to her were; wool, linen, lace and tweed.
To source wool she used Donegal yarns as these are the only mill left that do the whole process. The yarn that they sold came from New Zealand, France and Australia. Ashlin tracked down sheep in Ireland and spoke to the farmers. She chose to use ‘Cheviot sheep’ as there is ¼ of a million of these pure breed sheep in Ireland – this was a collaboration between 2 companies. She also looked into using Alpacas, as there are 2 thousand of them in Ireland. Both farmers donated wool and she blended sheep and alpaca to make a new yarn.
Italy has developed a natural dying system but unfortunately Ashlin couldn’t use this. Instead she used responsible dye – this is dye that is non reactive and causes less pollution.
To create zero waste in her collection she made engineered garments – this is where you minimise the amount of seams you have in each piece. The Donegal Mill is still selling the Irish wool that Ashlin developed. Her garments are not ‘finished’ with anything, using products on the market are chemically finished but this is environmentally damaging.
http://www.donegalwoollenmill.com