Mathilda Wendelboe's Cradle to Cradle collection. Photo: Tina Axelsson.
When discussing sustainability the term “lifecycle analysis” sometimes comes up. The idea is that it’s important to figure out a product’s full impact, from production to destruction, from cradle to grave.
But what if there were no need to bury things? This is the thought behind the Cradle to Cradle concept, developed by the American chemistry professor Michael Braungart together with the architect William McDonough in the book ”Remaking the way we make things” published in 2002.
The idea of the Cradle to Cradle concept is to use Nature’s own processes as a model for human production, bringing all materials back either to the technological or to the biological cycle.
These ideas have gained ground in Sweden, and for example several fashion designers are now trying to incorporate this thinking in their work. One of them is Mathilda Wendelboe, who is presenting her own Cradle to Cradle collection this week.
She says that she won’t just be working with biodegradable organic materials but also “technological non-organic materials”, which through the right design will be possible to reuse almost infinitely.
– The goal is to imitate Nature’s own cycles also in the industry, and make sure the materials are brought back when these garments are not used any more, she says.
Other designers who have recently started using their first Cradle to Cradle certified fabrics in children’s clothes are Bonkeli.
Here is a video explaining a bit more about the idea of Cradle to Cradle:
