After winning one of the world’s largest sustainable fashion design competitions, UK designer Maddie Williams partnered with major Chinese fashion brand JBNY Group to gain hands-on experience in producing a sustainable collection for retail.
Williams immersed herself in every step of the garment design process and experienced firsthand the ins and outs of the fashion industry, and is now launching her first sustainable clothing item — a puffer jacket like no other, made with a mix of up-cycled and recycled materials.
The multicolored puffer jacket — now retailing in over 100 stores across China — is stuffed with repurposed duck and goose feathers collected from post-consumer duvets and pillows. To create it, the designer drew on the patch-working technique from her zero-waste Redress Design Award collection, ‘The Mourning’.
“It was an immersive and authentic experience of working in the fashion industry,” Williams said. “With the guidance and translation of the JNBY team, I spoke to in-house pattern cutters and knit technicians, did sample fittings, looked through deadstock fabric, and picked trims in their giant storerooms.”
By working together with Williams, JNBY Group has also collaborated with Redress, the Hong Kong-based environmental NGO that aims to prevent and transform textile waste in the fashion industry through education and initiatives such as the Redesign Design Award. Hopefully, more major fashion retailers will get inspired by such collaborations and shift their practices towards sustainability.
