Petit Pli is a wearable technology company that proposes a new approach to garment design while addressing problems in the textile industry focused on the macro and micro needs of humanity.

The London-based startup was founded in 2017 by trained aeronautical engineer Ryan Mario Yasin. During his studies, he experienced how his young niece and nephew’s speedy growth translated into a huge amount of garment waste, a signal that brought him an opportunity to enroll in a journey of discovery towards a sustainable transformation project based on a continuous size adjustment technology.

The concept of Petit Pli is built upon using materials sustainably. It reduces waste by combining human-centered design methodologies with aerospace engineering techniques to create innovative garments that grow as the wearer ages. Ryan Mario Yasin, inspired by satellite folding structures and origami, worked together with his interdisciplinary team to develop a structure that expands bi-directionally to fit kids between 9 months and 4 years of age. Made from a mono-fiber polyester structure, the collection features ultra-lightweight, rainproof outerwear garments which are perfectly adapted to children’s freedom of movement.

Petit Pli is an agile force of interdisciplinary design engineers, fashion designers, neuroscientists, and sociologists; a wearable technology company that does not fit anymore into the current parameters of today’s fashion labels.

-On average, parents use 280 pieces of children’s clothing in the first 2 years after their child is born, most of which are only worn for about two or three months. As a result, a vast amount of clothing ends up in landfills, losing value and creating adverse environmental impacts.

- Childrenwear today fails to recognise the dynamic and rapidly changing bodies of the earth’s little humans. Children grow seven sizes in their first two years, which for many parents represents an average of 2,000 euros spent on clothing before their kids reach three years of age.

- The contribution of children's wear to textile waste is still overlooked by both parents and industry decision-makers. While the sector represents only 12% of the overall market share, it constitutes a considerable portion of the 12 billion kg of textiles entering landfills each year.

- The carbon footprint resulting from producing a children’s jacket is roughly the same as producing an adult jacket (10 kg CO2), which gives us an indication of the need to rethink clothing standards.

Petit Pli has reframed the value of childrenswear with a new approach to garment design. Inspired by aerospace engineering, they have created a revolutionary pleating system that covers the phases of fast-growing children while encouraging the adoption of slow consumption behaviors.

They offer versatile mon-fiber outerwear garments produced from recycled PET bottles that can grow up to 7 sizes and get recycled at the end of their use.

Petit Pli places a strong focus on user and customer centricity while placing a strong consideration on the sustainable and ethical implications. However, designing for the next generation also means keeping up with the times and foreseeing the needs of humanity.

Despite the fact that these wearables have established a new narrative for childrenswear, the use cases do not stop there. Thanks to the iterative beta testing processes, new opportunities are emerging organically towards other product lines such as maternity wear, reusable masks, and different types of everyday bags.

(Photo by Heidi De Vries on Flickr)