the future of fashion...

The future is ours.

The future of fashion relies on us to rethink the way we think about fashion, about consumption and about the environment.

We have looked at many examples of sustainable fashion alternatives, from second-hand to 'grown' new; and from the upcycling of waste to no waste at all.

We have looked at the damage and devastation of our planet caused by the fashion industry and considered solutions to the problem.

Described, has been a sustainable fashion future where balance can be restored within the environment.

This last post will highlight how progress is being made and how this proposed future is now becoming a reality.

Forum for the Future are an independent, non-profit organisation; working globally with business and government to create a sustainable future. 

Their aim is to inspire new thinking, to build creative partnerships and develop practical solutions with the environment in mind.

'At Forum for the Future, we are passionate about creating a brighter, more sustainable future for everyone.' (forumforthefuture.org)

Through a project with Levi Strauss & Co., Forum for the Future created four future scenarios of the fashion industry in a call for a sustainable fashion industry.

President of Levi Strauss & Co., John Anderson, said of the project, 'For the fashion industry to be sustainable economically, it must be sustainable socially and environmentally too. These provocative scenarios challenge all of us to look beyond the short term and use our collective power to work to create the kind of positive world we'd like to see in 2025.' (forumforthefuture.org)

Click here to view 'Community Couture', 'Patchwork Planet', 'Slow is Beautiful' and 'Techno-Chic' on Forum for the Future's YouTube channel.

 

The London College of Fashion opened the doors to the Centre for Sustainable Fashion in 2008. Similarly to Forum for the Future, they support industry transformation through sustainable business development. 

Ambassador, Caryn Franklin describes that, 'The Centre for Sustainable Fashion is a trailblazer, helping all of us to a better understanding of why the pursuit sustainability must be on par with the pursuit of business building and design innovation.'

Through research, education and business, the Centre for Sustainable Fashion support, inspire and create innovative approaches to fashion.

Click here to view galleries of work from recent MA graduates of Fashion and the Environment at London College of Fashion.

The Sustainable Fashion Initiative is particularly special as it is the product of the combined efforts of 3 students from Princeton University, who hoping to promote a socially and environmentally responsible understanding of fashion to their campus.

From the 3rd to the 5th May, as part of what they are calling, 'Princeton Fashion Week', sustainable design and innovation will be celebrated through design contests, workshops, and of course, a sustainable fashion show!

The students aim to bring consumers, thought leaders and industry professionals together, to explore all areas of sustainable fashion design. (hercampus.com, 2012)

Click here to have a look at the SFI's Face Book page. 

As we have seen, the fashion industry of today relies on change; with the changing of trends and the changing of seasons. It has been said even that, 'fashion is change' (Wilson, 2003).

Well, if fashion is change; then, change.

within the realm of science fiction

It has been explained that the industry relies the recycling of vintage styles because there is no where to go from here. We recycle trends from season to season because there is nothing new to be done with clothing; 'fashion is dead' (Sinha and Mittra, 2011). 

Well, if that is the case, I would like to take this opportunity to introduce BioCouture.

'With so many environmental concerns related to the production, consumption and disposal of fashion textiles BioCouture is pioneering a new eco-friendly and sustainable alternative.' (biocouture.co.uk) 

BioCouture, still at a research and experimentation stage, is an idea that very well has the potential to revolutionise the fashion industry and become the future of fashion.

We have looked at upcycling and we have considered zero-waste; but growing our clothing? 

BioCouture Biker Jacket with metal oxidisation embellishment

BioCouture Bomber Jacket with beetroot pulp embellishment

BioCouture Denim Jacket with indigo dye

 

These grown and biodegradable garments, created by BioCouture founder and research fellow at Central Saint Martins, Suzanne Lee, give a whole new meaning to the term disposable fashion. The following clip is able to explain the process involved in the creation of these grown garments.

 

It is remains unclear if we will to be growing fabrics and breeding our own wardrobes, and only time will tell if BioCouture truly is the future of fashion. However, the idea alone, proves that we haven't seen the end of fashion quite yet.

the old fashioned fashion

The trend of vintage fashion has been on the rise, and it has been well documented through blogs and in the media. (Click here to see a top ten round up of vintage blogs!) Where clothes might once have been seen only as ‘old’, and worth no more than 99p, they can be reborn as ‘vintage’ and are worth considerably more. This term ‘vintage’ then, attached to a garment or a piece of furniture, increases the value of the item and customers are buying. Oxfam saw sales quadruple after introducing a vintage section online. (Kasprzak, 2012)

Whether the trend has grown from the recession where consumers seek to ‘evoke the reassuring certainties of the past amid shifting economic times’ (Richards, 2009), or whether they are only responding to celebrity style; David Wolfe, creative director at the Doneger Group is convinced that vintage is here to stay.

Mary-Kate Olsen in vintage Givenchy couture (streetglamourtoday.com)

Ashley Olsen in vintage Dior (streetglamourtoday.com)

 

Wolfe desribes that, 'Fashion since World War II moved so quickly that we simply did everything possible with it... There is nothing new to do unless we produce new textiles or find some new way to construct clothing. Since that's in the realm of science fiction, all we can do is keep digging into the past and finding things that are relevant for right now.' (Karimzadeh, 2005)

I would tend to disagree...

...and only style remains

You cannot plan for waste. (I learnt this in my final year of university after deciding to work with rags.)
You can work with waste but you cannot design for it.
You can never be sure what you might get.
So, you can piece it together like a jigsaw puzzle but you cannot sketch it.


Months were wasted in mapping out my final year collection; picking out colour schemes and sampling fabrics. Little did I know that the fabric waste was going to have more of a say than I was.

Pre-Consumer Cashmere Fabric Waste

I was lucky enough to gain sponsorship from Scottish textile manufacturers Johnstons of Elgin, but where my classmates were ordering lengths of fabric by the meter, I was handed a black bag of rags.


I was to be working with pre-consumer fabric waste as opposed to tackling the post-consumer waste issue that brands like Junky Styling were dealing with. Rissanen (2008) estimates that an average 15 per cent of the fabric used in the creation of a garment is wasted.

Typical Pattern Layout, London Science Museum

If this is true, and if 35 kilo grams of clothing are consumed per person per year (Fletcher, 2007); with approximately 62 million people living in Britain (The Guardian, 2012) there will be around 325,000 tonnes of fabric waste in the UK per year. that is 325,000 tonnes of waste before the garments even reach the consumer.

My aim was not to save the world but it was to make a difference. Fashion is a vehicle  and it promotes a message.

 'Fashion fades, only style remains.' Coco Chanel

‘Recycle clothing? Isn’t that what tramps do?’

Ah, Stuart Baggs. How insightful.

You might remember ‘The Brand’ from Season 6 of The Apprentice. And if not...

Baggs’ shrewd observation was of Junky Styling's upcycled garments.

The sustainable fashion company appeared on episode 5 of the series which saw the two teams battling it out for a job opportunity with Sir Alan Sugar; selling clothes in the Manchester Trafford Centre.

‘Recycle clothing? Isn’t that what tramps do?’

Who is Stuart Baggs anyway? His views might seem pretty irrelevant, yes; but sadly, these are the views of a large majority.

In Recycle and Reuse as Design Potential, Scott (2008) sees that the resounding response to post-consumer goods is, ‘second-hand equals soiled’.

That said, the current state of the economy has pushed people to become more open to second-hand shopping. Cassidy (2010) reports that the first year of the recession saw a 6.7 per cent increase in charity shop sales and eBay (2011)- the world’s largest recycler of used goods (Brewer-Hay, 2010)- report a 38 per cent growth in business start-ups during the first year of the recession.

Now back to upcycling and back to the Apprentice. This year’s hopefuls and their attempts at upcycling in episode 4, ‘Junk Shop’...

...No Comment.

'trashion'

A simple and recognised definition of upcycling is, as we have seen; recycling but with added value. Where products cannot be recycled, upcycling can usually step in...

Cassette Light, Stacey Iden

The Keyboard Bag, Joao

Ring-pull Bag, Da-Lata

The defintion was originally created by William Donaugh and Micheal Braungart who term upcycling as ‘the process of converting an industrial nutrient into something of similar of greater value.’ (Donaugh and Braungart, 2002) In their book, Cradle to Cradle, Donaugh and Braungart envision a sustainable design future where they consider ‘remaking the way we make things’. 

Click here to look inside!

reduce, reuse and recycle

We are constantly being reminded to ‘be green’, ‘go green’ or ‘think green’; but ‘wear green’? 

As we have seen, the fashion industry is among the most damaging of all, so to be ‘wearing green’ could be more important than we at first might think.

Consider this simple slogan: ‘Reduce, reuse and recycle’.

While addressing the Environmental Industries Commission Conference of 2006 in London, then Secretary of State for the Environment, David Milliband, explained that ‘turning every business into an environmental industry will involve applying new principles...’

’...we need to design out waste...'

Reduce.

Zero-waste garments are of the most thoughtful, considered and technical displays in fashion design.

'Jigsaw puzzle fashion design' is complex in its methodology and of a challenging practise, but of a simple suggestion; to utilise the entire length of fabric, no material spared.

Mark Liu 'Zero-waste Dress'

 .

Mark Liu is able to eliminate the creation of fabric waste completely with the unconventional use of seam allowance on the outside of the garment, creating also, a visual element and a pleasing aesthetic.

 

Timo Rissanen, Assistant Professor for Fashion Design and Sustainability at Parson’s School of Design in New York City, has been exploring zero-waste fashion and is currently working towards a PhD in this area. His blog, although no longer updated, is definitely worth viewing and gives great insight into the zero-waste debate.

Timo Rissanen 'Zero-waste Hoodie' with pattern

 ‘...and we need to make more with less.’

Reuse and recycle.  

This might be better explained, though not as catchy, as upcycling and recycling.

Where the definition of recycling is : to pass again through a series of changes or treatments in order to regain material for human use; upcycling would be: to pass through a series of changes or treatments in order to regain material for human use with added value.

The best example of upcycling might come from ‘The Queen of Upcycling’, Orsola del Castro and her company From Somewhere.

Upcycled dresses by From Somewhere for Tesco

This is an example of the Tesco and From Somewhere collaboration where del Castro upcycled Tesco’s end-of-roll, and otherwise redundant fabrics, into a line of sustainable fashion clothing.

Junky Styling are another company specialising in upcycling. Founders Annika Saunders and Kerry Seager began trawling the charity shops of East London more than 10 years ago for sad, worn-out clothes that they could breathe life into. Junky’s signature is the pinstripe suit, but maybe not quite conventional...

Junky Styling 'Pinstripe Suit'

Recycling then, is as we know it. We can recycle fabric just as we would glass, plastics and paper in the home.

In fact, we can even recycle these into fabric.

Patagonia are an outdoor sportswear company, estimated to have diverted around 86 million plastic bottles on route to landfill by recycling said bottles into polyester fleeces. Becoming known as 'environmental pioneers', Patagonia are constantly pushing the boundaries of sustainable design, and are currently recycling classroom chairs and car dashboards into weatherproof jackets.

And if you happen to out-grow your Patagonia waterproof, do not despair; with their fibre-to-fibre recycling system, your old jacket will be made new once again!

So then, it would seem then that the fashion industry is applying new principles; we are designing out waste and we are making less with more.

We are reducing, reusing and recycling and we are becoming an environmental industry.