12-31-17

Christy Dawn Petersen, an LA-based dressmaker, has created a new kind of fashion line: dresses made only from leftover fabric. These fabric-scrap dresses, which run in limited editions, aren’t only saving fabric from the waste pile — they’re also selling out.

Fabric scraps abound in the fashion industry. Clothing manufacturers frequently purchase more fabric than they need in order to cut their patterns for each season, and the waste adds up. One report estimates that 400 billion square meters of fabric are wasted each year in the global apparel industry.

Petersen’s brand, Christy Dawn, is strongly focused on sustainability. In addition to how the dresses are made, they are delivered in wooden boxes instead of plastic bags. The company also offers employees a healthy work environment with fair wages and benefits. Read more from Forbes.