‘Circular-designed maternity apparel (CDMA) in Bangladeshi clothing fashion: leveraging post-industrial fabric waste for sustainable consumption’

This research focuses on Bangladeshi maternity clothing culture, where traditional clothing practice produces post-consumer waste due to its short lifespan. Additionally, post-industrial waste is an inevitable byproduct of the textile industry's processing. Therefore, this study intends to address these issues by implementing the principles of sustainable apparel design to develop CDMA by reusing post-industrial (leftover) fabric waste. This approach promotes a closed-loop circular economic concept to address waste management, multi-functionality, and fashion sustainability. Initially, this study surveyed textile-educated women's preferences for sustainably designed maternity apparel. Survey participants preferred comfort, multi-styling and an affordable price for its wide acceptance. Utilising untapped fabric waste in design and developing the CDMA demonstrates the ability to meet the stated preferences. Furthermore, it enables a circular design-based sustainable circular consumption strategy (Sustainable Development Goal 12) to reduce textile waste and promote sustainable fashion research for use in upcoming studies.