Tetris

Zero waste fashion design (ZWD) is often compared to the video game Tetris, where falling pieces are rotated and slotted by the player to eliminate gaps. Eliminating gaps eliminates rows and perpetuates the game as the player racks up points. In the analogy, the Tetris pieces (Tetriminoes) are like the pattern pieces of a zero waste pattern which interlock in the style of a jigsaw puzzle. The question is, what can Tetris teach ZWD about how to “win”? Naturally, I first turned to the MS thesis of John Brzustowski from 1992, “Can You Win at Tetris?” which is a lovely gift to the world.

Differences

First of all, there are some important differences in the two games that we can ignore. After all, what we really want to know is what hypothetical version of Tetris is most like ZWD and how can that version help us win ZWD. Brzustowski explains that the order of the Tetriminoes is the key to a player’s ability to eliminate gaps or not, to continue the game indefinitely, to win. A series of alternating Z and S pieces will necessarily cause gaps in the stack of pieces, no matter how skilled the player is. It is just a matter of time before that sequence of pieces falls in the game. Luckily, we can disregard that concern as ZWD has control over that. Also irrelevant here, the points and the speed factors.

The shape of the Tetriminoes are different from conventional garment pattern pieces which usually, somewhere, have curves. Each Tetrimino piece is made up of four squares in different arrangements. All of the angles are right, 90 degree, angles. Though it is true that many zero waste pattern pieces, likewise, have no curves, I am most interested in ZWD that can resemble conventional garment patterns.

In any case, perhaps we do not need to worry about this difference. If the Tetriminoes are reduced in size, they can adequately resemble curves. With enough pixels, the actual cut of a zero waste pattern designed with Tetriminoes will resemble ZWD with curves. This harkens back to pre-Calculus workarounds that sought to estimate the area under a curve by using the calculation of the area of slim, vertical rectangles, side by side. This method was good enough for a lot of purposes.

Tetriminoes are limited to seven types, rotating each in 90 degree angles gives us nineteen unique orientations (symmetric orientations excluded). In patternmaking, including ZWD, pieces can often be rotated to any angle (given the right fabric), so this difference is not a limitation. Just more winning! This rotational difference does not mean that Tetriminoes cannot be used for ZWD (this is where I am going). Because, as the pieces get smaller, the optimal rotation of pattern pieces becomes less important.

Thought Experiment

What if each pattern piece type could be expressed as a collection of Tetriminoes? These could be somewhat generic pattern piece types or much more specific variations of the generic piece archetypes (like sleeve). Furthermore, each graded size of each of those pieces could also be expressed as a collection of Tetriminoes.

Zero waste designers know that the puzzle works best when the dimensions of the pieces harmonize, when they are, in fact, designed to be nested. Brzustowski made note of the importance of the width of the Tetris “well” which corresponds here to the width of the fabric being used. He noticed that a well width of an even number of units was best for winning. The well is ten units wide. Not all of the nineteen Tetrimino orientations are one or two units wide (multiples of 10). Some of them are three units wide, like the left and right elbows oriented horizontally. Three is not a multiple of ten and those pieces don’t play as well with others. But our ZWD version of Tetris could change that. Single units are, of course, multiples of all whole numbers. There is no reason why ZWD Tetris cannot use single unit Tetriminoes in addition to an arsenal of other shapes.

Side note, as the ZWD Tetriminoes reduce in size, the perimeter of a pattern piece composed of them becomes more and more detailed. This can be both beneficial and problematic and is probably best explored in some visual examples (to come).

Also, what flexibility could we work into ZWD Tetris so that pattern pieces can better accommodate other pieces? What we are interested in is each piece’s maximum flexibility. The program can then use that to do what we humans aren’t as good as: comparing all of the numbers involved and matching them up.

Obviously I am ignoring a lot of real world complexity here. Yes, certain pieces can be rotated any which way only if the fabric type is just right. Okay, so let’s assume that the fabric we are using for our basic version of ZWD Tetris has the same stretch in both directions, no nap, etc. A friendly fabric – let’s use that. Our basic game needs to have favorable conditions in order to learn and develop a more sophisticated version. That complexity, those added rules, can be added to the game.

Automation

What is, in part, so exciting about this analogy is that the Tetris program is easy to understand and implement. Comparable code is public, available to be adapted to a similar process like ZWD.

A proof of concept could be designed in a base size with results for a few common fabric widths demonstrated. 150 cm is about 60 inches and 150 is a tidy number with a lot of multiples. That is a natural place to start. Grading is a notorious problem, perhaps the problem for ZWD. What can we learn about grading from a game of ZWD Tetris?

It takes a lot of time for a human to develop a zero waste pattern that fits a body and actually reduces the yardage of fabric used (compared to a similar conventionally made garment). The number crunching involved is considerable and minor errors can have ripple effects across the pattern. Time is money and a zero waste pattern becomes a much more expensive product.

The best ZWD reduces the fabric used. A whole bolt of fabric can be used to make one zero waste garment, but can we agree that this is really defeating the purpose? The waste is not in a landfill. It is on the garment. It may even be pleasing to look at in the form of volume or embellishments (often it is not, sadly), but the actual demand for resources is not reduced. If we want to align ZWD with its rightful intention (a less extractive design process), that must be our imperative.

This endeavor sounds worthwhile, right? Why hasn’t something similar been done? I sincerely suspect it is because fashion design is considered trivial, unimportant... female. What I mean to say is that there is reason for great hope and optimism that we can make leaps and bounds in the area of ZWD with a fraction of the basic science that has been devoted to other ways to combat the climate crisis. Maybe a game will capture attention.

Yes, we can also recycle fabric waste after it has been generated, but eliminating the waste in the design phase is arguably more important provided we can create clothes that reduce fabric demand and that people will wear and wear and wear. We can do better!