LLCM INDUSTRY VISIT

Week 1 (28/03/2022) - Week 3 (15/04/2022)

Faith Aimee Choong Jia Yi / 0345509

Life Line Clothing. SDN BHD

Project Collaboration: Fashion 4 Change

What is Life Line Clothing Malaysia [LLCM]?

Line Line Clothing is Malaysia's biggest recycling hub that recycles garments or textiles as well as toys, bags, shoes, pillows, blankets and etc. As many things go to waste LLCM assists in bringing a sustainable livelihood to society. We had Andrew Jackson, who is the Executive Production Manager of LLCM, give us a tour around the factory and also show us the process of how fabrics are recycled.

LLCM gets 50-80 tonnes of used garments and textiles a day. Many of the garments are packaged into sacks which are then transported to the sorting area. The fabrics which are wet and soggy are placed into garbage bins as they can't be recycled.

LLCM puts up recycle bins in various areas across KL in order to collect old garments, textiles, bags, shoes and etc. The smaller bins can hold up to 250kg of fabrics whilst the bigger bins can hold up to 700-800kg of fabrics.

The garments and textiles sent to LLCM are baggage into different categories by piece or type and material. Clothes are transported to the sorting area by large carriers that ran by wheels manually. In the sorting area, all the workers are tasked to divide certain pieces or materials and that is how the fabrics are sorted into each category. 

The garments or textiles that are stained are cut into smaller pieces and reproduced as cleaning cloths. They are shipped to Australia to an industry that sells these products to consumers.

In the fashion world, consumers are quite demanding in terms of fabrics and materials which causes more fabrics to get wasted. LLCM has put up various projects involving reusing or recycling the used garments into something wearable. LLCM has a small shop that sells a variety of second-hand clothing ranging from baju kurung, bags, and hats, jackets, accessories and etc that are sold at a cheap and reasonable price. The aim of this shop is to recycle and reuse used garments so that they won't be wasted. In 2020, LLCM held a fashion show in Paris, France using the old garments to produce a work of art on the runway. The show was a success but it also held a message to everyone out there in the world that fabrics could have a second chance to be proven useful or effective to the world. 

Life Line Clothing is inviting creative designers to make something out of the used garments or textiles. To produce an environmental and recycled product that is used by consumers in everyday living [Upcycle Project]. So far, LLCM has hired designers to design a variety of bags from different categories. 

What is Fashion 4 Change?

Fashion4Change was initiated by Life Line Clothing Malaysia which is to encourage designers and consumers to turn their business framework toward a more environmentally friendly and circular strategy with a sense of social responsibility. In addition to giving fabrics a second chance to function for good uses instead of going into landfills.

Life Line Clothing has chosen the material for us to work on which is Corduroy.

PROJECT BRIEF

1. Choose 3 pieces of clothing from the industry.
2. Upcycle the materials to produce a simple day-to-day product that anyone despite age and gender can utilize.

PROCESS

In the beginning, I thought about what accessories would people use in their everyday life, something trendy. Bags and hats were the common accessories that people often have with them. Bags were quite common and women often carry these items at hand. So I thought of bucket hats since they were unisex and both genders love to wear them. 

With the pandemic happening, mask chains are also quite common so I thought of combining these two ideas into one.

This was my pattern drafting from the start. I used my own bucket hat as a reference for the sizes as well as Pinterest. 

Calico Sample

Before starting on the actual fabric, I did a sample using Calico fabric. Since I've never made a bucket hat before, this sampling stage was a good start for me as I'm able to see the process and also make any changes before starting on actual fabric. While I was doing my design on Calico fabric, I notice that I had three fabrics in different colors so I thought of how to place each color onto my bucket hat. The brief stated 'simple' so I arrange the colors in a geometrical and simplistic arrangement. I created a new pattern drafting due to the color re-arrangement.

The finished bucket hat was quite loose so I decided to add darts at the 2nd layer to make it fitted and also to give that sharp shape at the sides. After cutting out the pieces and sewing the bucket hat parts together, I move on to making the chains for my mask. For the chain, I did the braiding technique as inspired by the Micro House Project by Taylors. The technique was simple and also beautiful in terms of outcome. 

I used a zig-zag stitch to connect the braided chain to the metal hook and later connected the chains to the bucket hat by placing them inside and sewing them. Later I added metal hooks to the chain so that the mask can be hooked onto the braiding chain.

FINISHED PRODUCT

REFLECTION

This project has taught me quite a number of things like making a bucket hat, innovative ideas and the Zero Waste concept. The innovative stage taught me how to analyze consumer wants and also brought me to the concept of multi-functional. I'm very proud and relieved of the outcome because I had many trial and error as well as last-minute adjustments to make the bucket hat perfect. I really love the idea of implementing the braided mask chains to the hat because it's something new and fresh. The idea of putting braids replacing the metal chains makes it more crafty and creative since it's handmade. Overall this project has made me realize the textile/fabric wastage problem as well as made me think about the solution to reduce it.