Many things about zero-waste designer Janelle Abbott’s relationship to the fashion industry have changed since she was a kid growing up around her parents’ Seattle clothing business. Her stance on the industry’s waste problem isn’t one of them.

Calling it a problem undersells the issue. The United Nations Environment Programme estimates that the fashion industry produces 92 million tons of textile waste globally each year.

At least one of those tons must be in Abbott’s North Seattle studio space, crammed floor-to-ceiling with reclaimed textiles ready to be turned into new fashion creations.

“Every clothing swap in Seattle knows about me now,” joked the 35-year-old designer, surveying her stash during a recent studio tour.

Abbott designs clothing under her label JRAT, for which she crea

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