February marked the search for alternative, sustainable materials, but also the industry’s confrontation with the impacts it is causing. There was also an increased use of recycled materials and strategic partnerships. Read through the sustainable highlights of the month.
Sustainable material alternatives
Sneakers made from banana or pineapple leaves, clothes made from nettles or fish scales – the search for sustainable materials has taken the fashion industry to some unusual places. “You could eat the end product,” says Hannes Schönegger, co-founder of Bananatex. This article examines the pros and cons of using these alternative materials, while a new Fashion for Good project turns agricultural waste into fiber.
On the brand side, Puma released the first vegan football boot, Lululemon launched a collection made from Mylo, Tchibo used recycled cotton for the first time, Levi’s presented the first recyclable 501, Adidas presented a first product made from Spinnova fibers and Australian surf brand Piping Hot wants polyester with textiles replace from algae.
The impact of the industry
French luxury fashion house Chloé announced a first tool to measure the social impact of the industry that can be adopted by the entire fashion industry. This article took a look at just how sustainable the footwear industry is with its heavy use of leather, while 35 other brands joined the Pack4Good packaging initiative. Meanwhile, St. Gallen-based Bluesign Technologies AG took stock and calculated how many resources and emissions Bluesign partners have saved over the past ten years.
Fashion subscriptions, often viewed as an answer to the question of clothing, were also critically examined, because if they encourage consumption, they are not really sustainable, as EU citizens already buy an average of 15 kilograms of textiles per year. The Textile Exchange explained in a report why the fashion industry needs to invest in regenerative agriculture.
partnerships
The exclusive luxury goods industry, for which the use of recycled materials or the reconditioning of clothes from previous seasons would have been unthinkable just a few years ago, has now found recycling and reuse in the face of mounting mountains of unsold goods (after all, there are no sales in the luxury segment). .
“LVMH signed a partnership with WeTurn, a start-up specializing in fiber recovery to make new yarn packages. At Kering, Balenciaga and Saint Laurent – for shoes – or Alexander McQueen have developed projects with Revalorem, a company that recycles unsold items from the luxury goods industry to extract raw materials from them. Hermès launched 39,000 products made through upcycling in 2020,” summarizes this article.
Hugo Boss invested in sustainable yarn manufacturer Heiq Aeoniq and C&A partnered with cotton recycler Recover. Parisian fashion label Koche even recycles AC Milan’s Puma jerseys, and Amsterdam will have a fully circular textile factory from next year.
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