Queen Mary University of London’s School of Engineering and Materials Science has joined hands with Elvis & Kresse, a multi-award winning accessories brand, to drive forward sustainable innovation within the fashion industry. Scientists from Queen Mary will support Elvis & Kresse create metal fixtures, such as buckles and zips, from recycled drinks cans.
The project is being funded as part of a £1.2 million R and D funding award from the Business of Fashion, Textiles and Technology (BFTT) programme. The team hopes this innovative project will provide a ‘green’ solution for recycling the millions of aluminium cans that litter UK public spaces each year.Queen Mary University of London's School of Engineering and Materials Science has joined hands with Elvis & Kresse, a multi-award winning accessories brand, to drive forward sustainable innovation within the fashion industry. Scientists from Queen Mary will support Elvis & Kresse create metal fixtures, such as buckles and zips, from recycled drinks cans.#
Elvis & Kresse was established in 2005 to save London's decommissioned fire-hoses that had become too damaged to repair and were going to landfill, crafting them into luxury bags and accessories.
For the new project, the company is looking to expand its sustainable approach by working with Queen Mary researchers to design and build a small scale renewably-powered forge to recycle aluminium cans into hardware for belts and bags. By open-sourcing the process for designing and building the forge the company hopes to inspire other businesses and communities, big and small, to embrace carbon free manufacturing and build their own machines for recycling, heating, or any other process that uses concentrated temperature.
Dr. Haixue Yan, senior lecturer in Materials and principal investigator for the project from Queen Mary, said: “This collaboration will help protect the environment by converting waste we find on our streets into functional materials that can be used in Elvis & Kresse’s products. With our expert knowledge in materials science and engineering we hope to design a simple, cheap renewable solution for Elvis & Kresse and other manufacturers worldwide.”
Kresse Wesling, founder of Elvis & Kresse, said “This has been a dream of ours for years, it is overwhelming to have been matched with the geniuses at Queen Mary and finally bring this all to life. This is a revolutionary technology where the IP will be shared with the world. Given the short time frames we have to address the climate emergency we hope that this kind of carbon free open innovation will unlock and inspire all kinds of solutions and generosity.”
This project was selected from over 80 applications and is one of ten awarded funding from BFTT programme to support its goal to deliver sustainable innovation within the entire fashion and textile supply chain.
The Business of Fashion, Textiles and Technology (BFTT) is a five-year industry-led project, which aims to enable UK-based SMEs in the fashion, textiles and technology sector to grow, innovate and be at the forefront of the industry through sustainability-driven research and development.
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