Children grow 7 sizes in their first 2 years. The Waste & Resources Action Programme (WRAP) and the Ellen MacArthur Foundation have identified that extending the life and use of clothes is one of the most significant opportunities the fashion industry has to reduce carbon emissions, waste generation and water consumption – extending the life of garments just by an extra nine months can reduce carbon, water and waste footprints by around 20-30% each and cut resource costs by £5 billion.5London-based wearable technology company Petit Pli engineer clothes that grow with children by embedding a patent-pending structure which expands bi-directionally to fit children aged between 9 months and 4 years.

Petit Pli is material innovation and Fash-Tech startup which creates clothes that grow with your child.

Petit Pli’s rainproof, windproof outerwear suits have been engineered to move, grow and follow the many functions children carry out on outdoor explorations – regardless of rain or shine.During Petit Pli’s development phase, Petit Pli’s Founder – Ryan Mario Yasin, adopted human-centred design principles to draw upon prior research knowledge gained at Imperial College London into origami & deployable structures for small CubeSat satellites; these require carbon fibre panels to pack away into minuscule gaps before being released in outer space.Petit Pli contributes to making the fashion industry circular and reduces waste by:

  • Reducing waste at production (fewer offcuts)
  • Transportation (fewer sizes)
  • Petit Pli has gone above and beyond to source & use recycled fabrics
  • Keeping clothing in use for longer (Ellen MacArthur Foundation have identified that extending the life and use of clothes is one of the most significant opportunities the fashion industry has to reduce carbon emissions, waste generation and water consumption)
  • Inspiring the next generation to reframe the value of clothing
  • Designing a solution that is more innovative, more sustainable and has high-quality technical fabrics as children are extreme

Imperial College London and the Royal College of Art graduate and trained Aeronautical Engineer Ryan Mario Yasin founded London-based Petit Pli in 2017 at the age of 23 while he was still a Global Innovation Design Student, with the vision of designing innovative & sustainable garments for our world’s most extreme athletes, children! He drew inspiration from deployable nano-structure satellites he worked on at Imperial, as well as his new-born nephew Viggo.Children are extreme users of fashion, growing through 7 discrete sizes of clothing in their first two years on Earth! Petit Pli’s rainproof, machine washable designs reduce waste, costs & pollution in childrenswear on account of designs being able to grow through 7 discrete sizes, streamlining the manufacturing process. Petit Pli’s designs also work to reduce inefficiencies for retailers with respect to inventory size requirements and stock management efficiency. 40% of all e-commerce fashion is returned back to the retailer, the largest pain point being in size-discrepancies, Petit Pli aims to mitigate this inefficiency too to the benefit of retailers and the environment.

Petit Pli is partnered with UAL’s Centre for Fashion Enterprise Pioneer Programme, of which Bethany Williams is a member. Along with this Petit Pli has won 11 awards which include Fast Company’s 100 World-Changing Ideas, 2019 Red Dot Product Design Award, 2017 UK James Dyson Award and recently beat Google for the 2018 Dezeen Award for Best Wearable Design.

Petit Pli has been working with NB Studio in London to develop a well-thought-through brand identity and reusable, recyclable and gamified packaging.