We took some inspiration from the 80-20 movement, the Pareto Principle, which states that for many outcomes, roughly 80% of consequences come from 20% of causes. In other words, a small percentage of causes have an outsized effect.
We wondered if the principle would work to drive the power of the uniform design by using 20% waste product. For instance, we made the shirt ‘bodies’ from 100% organic cotton shirting fabric, but for the sleeves we used remnant fabric from the factory floor. This meant that the sleeves were all different, something that the staff embraced, saying it made their shirts feel more personal to them.
We also designed t-shirts that were made from the cutting waste of manufactured organic cotton t-shirts. An action that won over staff, visitors, the press, and got a lot of people talking about the possibilities of re-looking at how uniforms could be produced .
The uniform uses natural fibres wherever possible to avoid micro plastics being released, as happens when synthetic fabrics go through the washing process, any polyester components such as internal labelling, were made from recycled polyester and kept to a minimum. We only worked with certified, organic and responsible suppliers. We used shell or copper buttons and avoided plastic packaging in all cases.
Working with local factories has the added bonus, in that we were able to pay them frequent visits throughout the development process, be ‘hands on’ when it came to tweaking patterns, pick out remnant fabrics to ensure that the 20% waste philosophy remained at the core of the production process, and generally offering support and encouragement to ensure sampling and production went to plan.
We sourced second hand ties for the security team from various retail charities and upcycled them so that they adhered to health and safety requirements. We believe this secondhand element is a first in the uniform design and supply sector.
We don’t know of another uniform in the world that combines using offcuts and waste, along with pre-worn elements and locally sourced fabrics and production. The National Portrait Gallery leadership and wider teams have been fully supportive and helped push their new uniform to be such a sustainably groundbreaking one. We hope this will be another reason to love this world renowned cultural institution and create positive media coverage and importantly to help attract forward thinking and caring team Members.
