Broadway Market Co. Part III: Cutting edge, not cutting fabric!
Here's the final installment of my Broadway Market Co. series!
Introducing... Zero Waste Daniel, aka ZWD!!
Ok, so ZWD is super cool - It is the first zero waste line of clothing made using reroll, which is an original technique by Daniel Silverstein (the D in ZWD)! All clothes are 100% made from pre-consumer cutting room scraps, and by using those leftover material, approximately one pound of fabric scraps are saved from going to landfills.
Why this is cool?
Because in this day and age of fast fashion, textile pollution is a growing problem that we should probably not ignore. According to The Council for Textile Recycling, more than 70 pounds of textiles (per US citizen) are going into landfills annually, and if you do the math, that's over 21 BILLION POUNDS this year alone!!! I'm alarmed!! Aren't you???
ZWD has a zero waste mindset in their every day life, and it can also be seen in the recycled/recyclable materials used in their packaging, shipping, and office materials.
This is my favorite piece by far:
(Photo from ZWD site)
It's stylish, edgy, and full of bold colors! Keeping warm with killer style WHILE ALSO SAVING THE ENVIRONMENT?!?! Heck yes, sign me up! Also, every piece is unique and differs slightly because they are all handmade by Daniel in his Brooklyn studio, so you know that you're not just getting some mass-produced item!
Daniel's grand plan for this year is to save three tons of pre-consumer textile waste - That's enough to make about 6,000 pieces of ZWD apparel! He works with Manufacture New York to process and track waste to analyze the market potential for his reroll technique to prove that zero waste design has triple the bottom line return to the fashion industry compared to mainstream fashion practices. I'm not sure what the numbers are for the year, but I bet Daniel has been making great progress!
(Photo from ZWD site)
So Daniel doesn't only design the ZWD line - He has also designed a wedding collection, and his works have been seen at multiple red carpet events across US and UK after they were worn by the likes of Jennifer Hudson, Kristen Bell, and Lauren Singer. He has also been on season 2 of NBC's reality competition, Fashion Star Way cool.
I'm totally looking forward to purchasing that Bowie raglan, and I hope you'll consider being part of the cause to reduce textile waste! Also, it's cool to support independent designers. Seriously. That's why I started the Broadway Market Co. series in the first place, and this won't be the last you'll hear from me regarding independent designers! I'm gonna go forth and uncover more awesome and cool people! 😎
Anyway, check out the ZWD website here if you'd like to find out more about how you can contribute to reducing waste while still remaining stylish, and to check out more one-of-a-kind designs! Or you could head down to Broadway Market Co. to say hi to Daniel... I reckon he'd appreciate it either way!
[New updates added below on 28 March 2017]
So I took quite a long time to decide which shirt I wanted to get because my favorite Bowie shirt was $195, and that's not an amount that I'd spend without pondering for a long time... And it finally dawned on me that I should just get a custom design! What else could possibly be more me than......
Yes! It's a geometric Unicorn!!!
This is an XS, but it's basically a tunic/short dress on me because I'm so fun-sized (5'2") and I had to ask for an additional alteration to shorten my sleeves by 3-4 inches! Alteration is just part of my life - I have to alter skirts, dresses, jeans, pants... basically anything that could potentially reach the floor. Heck, I even got a pair of leggings altered once because that's how I roll, LOL.
Anyway, I just wanted to update with the photos of my very own unique ZWD shirt, and also let you know that Daniel has moved to a new location - The Market NYC at 290 Mulberry Street (Nolita).
That's all for now!