Originally from Mexico, Melissa studied Bachelor of Arts in Fashion and Textile Design, focusing on ready-to-wear. Her Graduate Collection, was the first formal approach to Sustainability, through the use of Eco-Denim developed by one of Mexico’s biggest denim mills in 2009. Seven years working in Fashion Buying, Marketing, Patternmaking and Product Development with both mass market producers and textile artisans, made her understand the alarming state of the industry. In 2015 she obtained a Graduate Specialization in Textile Design and afterwards made the decision to earn a Degree in Sustainability for Fashion to find solutions to the inhumane and negative impacts present throughout the industry.
Her Master Project, Denim Footprint was created to provide denim brands and manufacturers with solutions to enable a shift towards sustainable production.
Denim Footprint, created an Optimized Step by Step Guideline, where the ecological and social impacts were studied to provide Design Strategies, Production Supply Chain alternatives, User Phase recommendations and End-Beginning of Life choices for denim products. Following the Denim Footprint guideline, the capsule collection “Fundamentally, we are all the same human beings” was designed following the most sustainable alternatives.
Denim Footprint goal is to stimulate the denim industry to improve by pointing out how each part has the power to create a positive impact, and make sustainable denim accessible and available to all.
What does sustainability mean to you?
Sustainability is a value, where products are created to generate positive impacts toward the environment, the workers and the future generations.
How are your designs sustainable/ ethical?
The collection follows Sustainable Strategies: Design for Longevity, Design for Circularity, Design for Repair and Design for Resource Saving. All garments are made of 100% Certified Organic Cotton Denim and from Recycled Denim.
What are the/ your challenges in Sustainable fashion?
Everyone should be able to afford sustainable clothes. The challenge is to make Sustainable Fashion available to more consumers, affordable and easy to produce by manufacturers. Democratize Sustainability within the Fashion Industry.
If there is anything new, never before shown or otherwise unknown about what you will be showing, please share it with us.
Garments are built following Sustainable Design Strategies. They have: Removable Collars, Removable Buttons & Reinforced Stress Points.