Insight into the NY Textile Lab
Learn more about a New York initiative that encourages sustainable practices in the fashion and design worlds…
The NY Textile Lab is a design and consulting company with a sustainable mission. Its founder, Laura Sansone, an Assistant Professor of Textiles at Parsons School of Design, was inspired to investigate sustainable textiles when she relocated to upstate New York. “I had moved up from the city and was living on the farm, and I started to look at the life cycles of plants, choosing them from the land and developing natural dyes from them,” she explains.
Inspired by the experience at a farmer’s market where consumers see the connection between the person who grows the food and the final product, Laura started a mobile lab to create and educate people on the importance of sustainable textiles. “I received a grant from the school and I built a textile lab and workstation where we would harvest products at the market and make natural dyes.” As with many sustainable initiatives, the first step to success is education. “We began to talk to people about where clothing and textiles come from. People didn’t understand that their clothing started on a farm, so it became a place to discuss larger ideas about the environment and clothing,” adds Laura.
Laura and her team work closely with the design community and educate them through the NY Textile Lab and the Carbon Farm Network. These connections give designers resources that help them to make better decisions about where they purchase textiles. The fibers that the Lab works with are manufactured by local, ethical producers and mills. She likens the process to microbreweries or organic wine farms creating small-batch, sustainable products that the buyer can see and understand the production cycle. “The basis of my work as a consultant is to move designers to the beginning of the value chain, connecting them directly to the resources and farmers who make these products.”
In the way that consumers are gradually becoming more aware of where clothing products are created, the NY Textile Lab hopes to connect designers with locally grown fibers that can have a minimal impact on the environment. Many individuals have knowledge of the ‘fast fashion’ world but Laura also explains that ‘fast furniture’ exists within the interior design space. She advises designers to start their research and understand the local textiles and yarns that are available and intrinsically connected to the location of their projects, such as Plia. Based in New York, Plia is a new interior design initiative that is bringing designers together to provide eco-friendly or recycled products that have a low ecological impact.
For those who wish to practice conscious living, finding sustainable design materials is a natural step toward reducing one’s ecological footprint. Understanding the origins of a fiber – be it for a small decoration or a large feature in a project – and drawing on local resources will support independent manufacturers and positively impact our planet.
For more information on the NY Textile Lab and to discover sustainable options across the US, visit https://www.newyorktextilelab.com/.
