Fashion changes quickly, and when it comes to children's clothing, they outgrow their sizes almost as fast as they are bought. London-based company Petit Pli is developing its own solution to this problem. The startup was founded by former aeronautical engineer Ryan Mario Yasin, who employs expandable structures inspired by satellite technologies to produce clothing that expands as children grow.

Like many design ideas, this one did not start with technology, but with frustration. Yasin says he gave some clothes to his nephew and sent them to Denmark. But when they arrived, they did not fit him, which gave him a deeper understanding and prompted him to study how fast children grow. He discovered that they move through 7 sizes in just two years.

Yasin said, "To me, it seemed crazy.. The problem can be summarized in a very simple number: about 200 million pieces of children's clothing are wasted annually in the United Kingdom." He added, "I drew on my background in aerospace engineering, where I specialized in expandable structures for nanosatellites, and then applied those origami principles to textiles that can actually grow with my nephew."

Petit Pli does not claim to solve the fast fashion problem, but it challenges one of its basic assumptions: that growth necessarily means continuous consumption and more waste.

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