One feature of good design is that it solves a problem, and anyone with children knows that the speed at which infants outgrow clothes is a problem. 
 
 To keep buying new clothes is expensive, and can be extremely wasteful. So Ryan Yasin, a London-based designer with a degree in aeronautical engineering, came up with a solution. Yasin drew on his technical expertise to create Petit Pli, a line of children’s clothing made to expand six sizes to fit a child as it grows from six months to three years old. The overlapping, permanent pleats allow the clothes to stretch outward in different directions, and the fabric is durable, waterproof, and recyclable. The innovative kids’ line just made Yasin the UK national winner of the James Dyson Award, a prestigious student design competition. 
 
 Petit Pli A fit from six-months old to three-years old. 
 
 While Petit Pli isn’t available to purchase yet, Yasin told the Guardian his $2,500 prize will go toward putting the clothes into production. He’s currently raising additional funds and speaking with experts about ethical and sustainable ways to manufacture the clothes. Yasin also said he’s in talks with a large UK retailer, and hopes to get his first shipments into UK stores in a matter of months. 
 
 Petit Pli Stretch! 
 
 Yasin, who had enrolled at London’s Royal College of Art after deciding he wanted to go into fashion, got the idea for his line after realizing how big a strain the clothing industry places on the environment. Creating fabric uses up huge amounts of natural resources, and turning fabric into clothes can require highly toxic dyes and produce greenhouse gases. Even then, clothes may only be worn briefly before getting tossed. 
 
 Yasin wanted to do something to address the problem, and an event in his own life turned his attention to children’s clothing. ”My sister was having another baby, and he really inspired me,” he explains in a video posted by the James Dyson Foundation. “I had sent him some clothes, and by the time he got them, he had outgrown them.” 
 
 Yasin thought of creating garments that were dynamic, rather than static, and his engineering background led him to imagine clothes with what’s called a negative Poisson’s ratio. The ratio describes the elasticity of a solid, and it’s useful for determining how much a material can be stretched or compressed. Nearly all solids have a positive Poisson’s ratio, meaning that when they stretch in one direction, they get thinner in others. (Think of a rubber band, for instance.) But engineers have devised material structures with negative Poisson’s ratios that can stretch in two directions simultaneously. 
 
 These materials are already in use in fields such as biomedical technology. Next stop: children’s clothing. ||||| An origami-inspired range of children’s clothing made from a durable pleated fabric that expands to fit growing babies and toddlers has won its 24-year-old designer a prestigious James Dyson award. 
 
 Ryan Yasin devised the material using scientific principles he studied for his aeronautical engineering degree, after noting the lack of sustainability in the clothing industry and being frustrated by how quickly his baby niece and nephew outgrew garments he bought for them. 
 
 The London-based postgraduate student aims to make so-called Petit Pli “the most advanced kids’ clothing in the world”. It is made from distinctive pleated lightweight fabric which is waterproof, machine washable and recyclable, with all garments fitting the three-month to three-year age group. 
 
 Most children grow by seven sizes in their first two years, and (according to a recent survey by Aviva) parents spend an average of £2,000 on clothing before their child reaches the age of three. As well as the high cost and limited lifespan, mass production of garments places huge pressure on the environment through waste, water consumption and carbon emissions. 
 
 Facebook Twitter Pinterest Ryan Yasin, designer of Petit Pli clothing range that grow with your child. Photograph: Paul Grover/James Dyson Award 
 
 Yasin set out to combine technology with textiles in order to fashion durable and practical garments for youngsters to take them through their initial “growth spurt”. The babygrow, trousers and tops he has so far created resemble junior versions of sought-after clothing by legendary Japanese designer Issey Miyake. 
 
 Petit Pli works by employing the so-called negative Poisson’s ratio, which Yasin studied while at London’s Imperial College. When stretched, materials that have this ratio – known as auxetics – become thicker and can expand in two directions at the same time. The phenomenon is already used in stents and biomedical implants. Yasin has to date developed more than 500 prototypes for Petit Pli and plans to use his £2,000 prize money to continue discussions with potential investors and expand the business. Yasin says he is in talks with a major UK retailer and hopes the first clothing will go on sale in the UK within months. 
 
 Facebook Twitter Pinterest The clothes are made to stretch to fit children as they grow between three and 36 months old. Photograph: Courtesy of Petit Pli 
 
 “It’s just great to have that backing and recognition of my solution,” he said. “The prize money is an added bonus, but I know how I will use it. In addition to supporting my R&D, it will help me form an interdisciplinary team of experts to take Petit Pli to the next level: putting it in the hands of parents worldwide and making a tangible difference to the way we consume resources in the fashion industry.” 
 
 
 
 Yasin has captured auxetic properties in Petit Pli through the use of permanent pleating. The pleats move in both directions, either folding together or expanding, and allowing the garment to move with the child. Heat treatment fixes these properties permanently in place, even through the wash cycle; the garments are designed to be long-lasting and can fold down small enough to tuck in your pocket. 
 
 
 
 Yasin says he will aim to keep the garments at a competitive price while ensuring everyone along the supply chain is paid ethically. 
 
 His invention will now be entered into the international running for the final leg of the James Dyson Award – announced in October – which will give the overall worldwide winner a further £30,000 in prize money. 
 
 
 
 The James Dyson award operates in 23 countries, and is open to university level students and recent graduates studying product design, industrial design and engineering. It recognises and rewards imaginative design solutions to global problems with the environment in mind.
– It's an age-old problem for parents: Shell out money for clothes that their young children quickly outgrow. Now, however, 24-year-old London designer Ryan Yasin has put his degree in aeronautical engineering to use to create origami-like pleated clothing designed to grow along with the kids, reports Quartz. The result has just won him a James Dyson Award for students in the UK. Yasin has already established a clothing line, Petit Pli, inspired by what he calls "deployed satellite panels" that can stretch outward in multiple directions. The lightweight fabric, which is waterproof and machine washable, is designed to stretch six sizes. Yasin's concept takes advantage of a principle known as auxetics already employed in stents and biomedical devices, reports the Guardian. So far, Yasin has developed more than 500 prototypes and says he'll use his $2,500 prize money to help start production, as he's in talks with a major UK retailer that might help him get the clothes on shelves in months. His main impetus, he says, was to cut down on the huge environmental waste linked to the making of clothes.