Title: “Zero – Waste”
Artists: Toktam Hemmati – Reza Babajani
December 2021
Tehran, IranShahr Gallery
Curator of this exhibition: Neda Darzi
Documentary Film Production: Harf-e Honar Studio
Virtual Space Partner: Peyvast Platform
Toktam Hemmati – Reza Babajani
Title: “Sustainable Geometry”
Technique: Zero-waste clothing design based on Iranian geometry
Dimensions: 80x60x160 cm and 164×134 cm
Year: 2021
Fabric is considered the second-largest polluter in the world. Five percent of the world’s landfill sites are occupied by textile waste. It is impossible to avoid creating waste when producing or consuming fabric, but in zero-waste fashion, clothing production creates little to no textile waste and can be seen as part of the broader sustainable fashion movement.
Iranian geometry, with its consumption of all the spaces used in its design alongside the unique aesthetics of related patterns and geometry, can have a very extensive and useful presence in applied arts. This work is designed on this basis. The structure of zero-waste clothing patterns, based on precise geometry without negative space, is designed using Iranian geometric patterns, specifically with the use of square knotwork.
To achieve a zero-waste pattern considering body anatomy, ease of movement, and the functionality of clothing while staying true to the square knotwork, some lines in the Iranian geometric palette were removed, and details were added to the pattern (considering the form of the clothing). This clothing falls into the category of sustainable fashion. Its pattern is zero-waste, and it is gender-neutral (suitable for both men and women).
Taktem Hemmati is a clothing and fabric designer and fiber artist. She is a university instructor and teaches fashion courses (creativity and industrial collection design). Hemmati is also the creative director of the “Taktem Hemmati” brand and a consultant for various brands’ design units such as Body Spinner, Romega, 100Ganj, Senior Design Brand Narian, and the fashion design lead at Behance Portfolio Reviews in Iran. She was also selected for Fashion Revolution (2021) in the Open Studio project.
She has been an invited artist for three annual Pars Book fairs, a speaker at Designers & Social Activism and Tehran Design Week, and a mentor for fashion startup weekends. Hemmati has extensive experience in conducting workshops and various seminars in the field of traditional fabric weaving revival and sustainable fashion. Regarding the future, she says: “To me, the future means technology, artificial intelligence (AI), learning, the Internet of Things (IOT), smart clothing, and four-dimensional printers.” She envisions the future of clothing as such: “I believe computers will become part of clothing, eliminating the need for mobile phones, laptops, etc., and can be embedded in clothing.”
Reza Babajani holds a bachelor’s degree in graphic design and is engaged in teaching and graphic design. Babajani has participated in various group exhibitions and festivals both domestically and internationally, including the Golden Bee Biennale (Russia), Theatre Poster Biennale (Poland), Warsaw Poster Biennale (Poland), Global Poster Biennale (China), and exhibitions in the UK, China, Belgium, Japan, and more.
He has also received numerous awards, including the first prize and gold statue for the poster section of the 29th Fajr International Theater Festival, second and third prizes in the poster section of the 28th and 30th Fajr International Theater Festival, first prize in the Youth Art Festival poster section, selected in the Ashura Poster Festival, and a nominee for the organizational identity design award at the second Silver Cypress Exhibition. Reza Babajani is a member of the Iranian Graphic Designers Society and a founding member of the Art Publishers Association.
