Everyone remembers the excitement of being measured as a child. The straining effort to appear taller than you were; the arguments that undoubtedly ensued between friends/siblings/the dog to prove the likely winner.

Although the growing process was exciting for us, for our parents, trying to squeeze us into last year’s tops and trousers was always a struggle, as, despite their best efforts, our clothes were never likely to grow with us.

This is now no longer the case, with a solution that comes in the shape of Petit Pli, a range of versatile clothing that grows as your child does. Created by Ryan Yasin, who has a degree in aeronautical engineering as well as being a graduate from the Royal College of Art, the fabric was inspired by solar panels and satellites.

The clothing is essentially seven sizes in one, pleated in a certain way that allows it to expand to fit children from four to 36 months. The material uses the negative Poisson’s ratio meaning that it can grow bi-directionally - when you pull the garment along its length, its width expands simultaneously. The fabric has been heat-treated to make it last longer, while also being both water and wind proof.

The clothing comes as a result of 500 previous prototypes and Yasin has designs for the future to make clothing out of a single material, to enable it to be more easily recycled. He says of the project, “we have limited resources on Earth so we need to be clever about how we use them.”

The clothing aims to challenge people’s reliance on fast fashion and saw Yasin become the UK winner of this year’s James Dyson award, set up to award designers who create something that solves a problem.

Visit Petit Pli’s website to find out more.