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It’s possible: while working in the garment industry, product designer Seok Park saw the vast amounts of leftovers that are created. It inspired him to put them to good use. With his studio Popopo from Eindhoven, he launched the OFFCUTS project for this reason. In the OFFCUT collection, additional parts for garments are made from fabric scraps – fabric scraps that are left over from the production of exactly these garments and that offer added value when the garments are used. The goal is not only to reuse scraps, but also to add value to them to make another product and thus incorporate them into the garments produced.
»Through the project, I would like to point out the potential materiality of these leftovers by discovering their own unique story as a general material beyond industrial by-products or reusable waste.«
Seok Park
17.4: This is the percentage of excess cut produced in the production of chore jackets, the classic workwear item. The functional value is now obsolete – so the project uses +17.4% leftover pieces from 60 Chore Jackets to produce a collection of practical accessories. These accessories offer additional benefits for specific conditions such as weather conditions of the different seasons and more.
Modularity is not a new concept. For decades, it has shaped architecture, furniture and industrial design. Applying it to soft textiles, however, opens up an entirely new discussion.
Creativity and curiosity have always been our driving force. Our work evolves through prototypes—never finished, always raising new questions about materials, processes, and possibilities.
Both the fashion and textile industry often celebrates creativity. Yet many of the industry’s creative decisions are made long before a designer ever begins designing. Colour being one of them. The thing is, by the time a designer selects yarn, someone else has already determined the available colours, sequences and combinations. Choice exists, but only within boundaries.
“Through hands-on experimentation, I explore the potential of new surfaces and alternative forms of leather, aiming to reconnect human life with the natural world as an interconnected fabric.”
