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Behind 3QUARTERS are Yiannis and Garifalia Pitsaki. We are brothers, we worked for many years in Europe and we have learned to live a sustainable everyday life. Slow, simple and circular. In 2015 we both found ourselves in Athens with the goal of making our everyday life a sustainable business. As designers, we wanted to work with an unusual material and at the same time to solve a local problem of Athens.
We analyzed various topics and the one that stood out was awnings. They have the colors and character of Athens, they are everywhere and unfortunately they do not have a good ending. Old awnings end up in the rubbish bin because there is no clear way of managing them. However, in our effort to understand the extent of the problem, we discovered that awning retaliations also suffer a similar fate. They sit in storage for years and unless an addition or repair is made, they too are thrown away. These are hundreds of tons of polyester fabrics, new, unused, that end up in the landfill every year.
This is how 3QUARTERS started, one of the first sustainable fashion brands in Greece. Working from the ground up on a full circular production model is our innovation. We recycle tarps from awnings into polymorphic, waterproof bags and accessories, highlighting the special colors and patterns of the balconies of Athens. We follow a zero-waste policy during production, and we manage the designing process in such a way, so that the life cycle of each product closes back to us.
After two difficult years due to the pandemic, we are returning to full creative rhythms. We are now seven years old, we have learned to talk, to walk and now it is time for us to run. We sail all over the world, we are present in many countries, and the brand is recognized by the Greek public as well. We are very happy with the people’s reaction and that we have managed to put circularity on the table.
We are currently focusing on two areas. First of all we want to increase our presence in the market to save more fabrics and to grow our brand. Then, we work on designing a comprehensive circularity system that can be taught and applied to any community and to any fabric type. Our purpose is not just to make bags, but also to bring a genuine and far-reaching change in the way the city works, dresses, builds.
The more we work with municipal waste, the bigger the problem seems. Aside from tarpaulins, the amount of fabric wasted every year is huge. We usually think of clothes when we talk about this topic, but a city like Athens has a huge range of textiles that are disappearing from the face of the earth. Awnings are one category we brought into the foreground, but there are fabrics from hotels, advertising banners, upholstery from vehicles and other means of transport, there are too many.
We call these “garbage” “Invisible Fabrics”, because no one records their quantity, nor what is done with them. Managing them is our next step, and our vision is to create a fully circular Athens.
New models and designs, new markets, new ideas, we constantly challenge ourselves to evolve. However, We are interested in challenging our community to evolve as well. The discussion about sustainability is finally becoming more frequent and serious, so we find interlocutors and partners more easily. In this area, we are already building a network of partnerships with large organizations that can bring textile reuse in the foreground. We want to make “Invisible Fabrics” the first choice as construction materials, and show that virgin raw materials are not a one-way street.
It is very important for 3QUARTERS to inspire both these organizations and the public to be responsible for the management of discarded textiles. By collaborating, we can produce premium products without depleting natural resources and at the same time we solve a serious waste volume issue.
As for our dreams, they are simple. We believe that in the decade we live in, technology and networking can help to build a fully circular growth model. Circularity becoming the central philosophy on the way we build the future is what is missing. Problems remain, but there seems to be a mood for change, the signs are encouraging. On our part, our goal is to help Athens become the first city with fully circular processing of its textiles.
3QUARTERS e-shop: www.3quarters.design
Address: Agiou Dimitriou 19, 10554, Athens
Tel: +30 2111 832311
email: [email protected]
instagram: @3quarters.design
facebook: @3quarters.design
3QUARTERS
Portaits of Garifalia & Yiannis: Aggelos Giotopoulos @sunnylens
Images of showroom: Babis Louizidis @babislouizidis
