Refinity

Refinity®, located in Zeist (The Netherlands), is a research- & advice agency concerning a search for eco-effective ways of fashion design. "Fashion" in the broader sense, but mainly with flexible materials. Refinity cooperates with fashion designers within companies. Additionally Refinity also cooperates with suppliers and developers of fabrics, haberdashery and techniques. You can consult Refinity when designing a garment (or shoe, interior, accessory etcetera). Refinity collaborates with the design team. While doing this the designers of the fashion brand focus on shape, maintaining the brand image, putting together the collection (choosing materials based on colour, softness, fit, etc.). Refinity, on the other hand, looks how this can be done in an eco-effective manner; how can we add value to the garment, how can a product be designed in such a way that it can be easily separated, contains no harmful materials and these materials can be reused in a bio- or techno sphere. This will result in a product that enriches its environment instead of damaging it. Refinity also helps to find suitable partners for this. The function of Refinity can be described as an intermediary. Refinity is working according to Eco-effectiveness; The fashion industry is one of the most polluting industries in the world. Everybody participates in the fashion industry and has the opportunity to make it more environmentally friendly. Right now the life of a product moves in a straight line, from beginning to end. An important strategy to work environmentally friendly (also called green fashion or sustainable fashion) is eco-efficiency. This means a production that is as efficient as possible, in which more is done with less. This is a good start, but not the solution. It slows down the process, but still produces waste. Recycling is already being used. However, this often leads to downcycling, because when making a product no thoughts go out to what happens to the product when it does not live up to its function any more. This way old clothes become rags. The life of a product should pass in a circle, from cradle to cradle (C2C). Old materials should be nourishment for new products. To achieve this it is important that products do not contain harmful materials. The materials should be kept separated in a biological or a technological cycle. Designers should think about the new life of a product during the design process, which will make materials upcyclable. This is eco-effectivity; Taking into account the effects of certain design choices on the environment. For several years now various organisations have been researching possibilities to make textiles without harmful chemicals, such as Ökotex, GOTS and Bluesign. There are also organizations that discuss working conditions, such as the Fair Wear Foundation. Working with closed cycles, implementing the Japanese 'kaizen' or designing with biomimicry are not new either. Refinity wants to use this available knowledge. What C2C achieved is working from "doing good" instead of "less bad" while working with an integral process. Many organisations find the C2C approach attractive. Hopefully this will speed up information exchange and will all services and products be eco-effective in the future. This is really necessary.