Origami-inspired clothes ‘grow’ with your child

These origami-inspired clothes ‘grow’ with your child

Courtesy: Petit Pli

London-based startup Petit Pli has developed sustainable children clothing to fit babies through to toddlers.

The clothes boast an innovative pleat system that expands in multiple directions.

The material can also contract back to its original size – ready to be handed down to younger siblings.

Petit Pli's founder Ryan Yasin.

"One of the main inspirations behind this was my background as an aeronautical engineer where I specialized in deployable structures for nano-satellites. This involved a lot of research into origami, structures and folds and stowing away as much material as possible into a small gap and then having that deploy out in space and that has really filtered down into this design."

Yasin says a child of nine months can continue wearing the same item of clothing until the age of four,

going through seven distinct sizes.

It not only helps saving mom and dad money, but also reduces the environmental impact of the fashion industry.

"Petit Pli exists because fashion industry is the world's second largest polluter and we already know what one of the solutions is and that is to extend the life and use of clothes and that's the best way we can reach our carbon, water and waste emission targets by 2030. Petit Pli has done this by focussing on a very niche user group, which is children, and designing clothes from the ground up to grow with them."

The company is now also experimenting with prints to hide daily stains

and exploring the possibility of expanding into adult wear.