Interview with Sofia Catalina Fiorentino Sarrate By: Sandra Jäger Sofia Fiorentino recently graduated from the MA program at the Design School Kolding. Her final collection, entitled ANTHROPOWASTE, was exhibited at Museum Kolding in September 2020, alongside the other graduates of the design school. Sofia’s sustainable collection was made in collaboration with the Danish brand Henrik Vibskov, resulting in an offer to work for the brand. Along with the photo essay, in which she describes her collection, we had the pleasure to meet up with her to talk about fashion and sustainability, her creative process, her experience working with an established brand, and her thoughts on re-using materials and new practices of creating fashion items. Sandra Jäger (SJ): How did you come up with the idea for your collection? Sofia Fiorentino (SF): I have worked in the garment design- and manufacturing industry for a few years before starting my master. My last period of working in the industry was more specifically in the vintage industry, where I was a manager at a factory in Vancouver, and saw the bags of scraps we had to throw out on a daily basis. These fabric scraps were going straight to the landfill. There was no sorting and no recycling. That to me seemed absurd, as I could see the value in this so-called “waste.” We were just lacking the systems to be able to re-loop it. I wanted to explore this through my research. SJ: What was your process? SF: The first phase was a lot of background research, ultimately visiting sorting sites for used textiles in Denmark and learning about their sorting systems and about the textiles. I then proceeded to experiment with the used garments and different techniques to turn what’s no longer wanted or has no market value into a raw material, a sort of “yarn.” I did this by laser-cutting a pattern that can be easily woven together by hand, composing a “new” material from old. SJ: What were the values and reasons for doing this project? SF: Circularity has been at the forefront of my research for this project. I believe that if we design the right systems and techniques, we could minimize textile waste. Of course, textile waste should not exist to begin with, but in these times of transitioning to designing out waste, I want to encourage people to view waste as an opportunity rather than just a by-product. I aim to help people make this shift through workshops and by showcasing it is possible through the garments I designed and made in-house. SJ: Do you think other designers should have a similar process as the one you developed for Vibskov? SF: I hope so! But I am excited to see other designers experimenting with waste-led processes and also aiming at designing waste out. It is a great moment to be talking about this, but we have to make sure that it is not just a moment or a trend - it needs to be a mindset shift. SJ: At which scale do you think this is possible? Only for small brands or bigger fast-fashion retailers? SF: It is, of course, much more complicated to scale these types of projects up, so it has to start at a small, local level. I think that if enough small labels or designers embrace these kinds of up-cycling/recycling/ waste-led designs, then corporations will be turning their heads around. If we look at the modern history of fashion, it was disruptive designers such as for example Martin Margiela who brought the conversations forward that aimed at questioning and deconstructing the systems in place. This is what bigger retailers are getting their hands on now, and if we play our cards right, we could really change things.
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