The pop-up format of ‘202030 – The Berlin Fashion Summit’ at Berlin Fashion Week was all about denim. And of course the sustainability-oriented trends for this fabric should not be missing
The sustainability conference, organized by the strategy consultancy Studio MM04, presented a two-hour program on Tuesday in the ‘Content Cube’ of the trade fairs Premium and Seek at the Berlin station.
While the fifth edition of the Fashion Summit featured at Fashion Week in January with a two-day conference program entitled ‘Active Alliance for Positive Fashion’, the summer season short program focused on the transformation of the denim industry.
After the opening by the organizers Magdalena Schaffrin and Max Gilgenmann from Studio MM04, the program started with a keynote by Marian von Rappard, the co-founder and managing director of the jeans label Dawn Denim, who believes in more personality, honesty and trust as necessary conditions for advocated a change in the industry.
Sustainable color trends
A key issue for improving the industry was addressed by Mayouri Sengchanh, General Manager of Exalis, the official liaison office of various international fashion fairs. In her keynote speech, she gave insights into sustainable denim color trends for the 2024/25 autumn/winter season, which were only recently presented at the fair Premiere Vision were unveiled in Paris.
According to Sengchanh, changes in the dyeing and bleaching process are necessary for a transformation towards more sustainability in the production of denim. She emphasizes that 36 percent of the carbon footprint of a pair of jeans is caused by dyeing and bleaching alone. The challenge is to implement new color palettes and techniques while saving resources.
One possibility is the use of hemp or linen: ‘naturalness’ is the keyword, a trend that is also on the Textile fair Première Vision was already recognizable.
Another trend that also uses nature is the use of mineral dyes. No chemicals are used for dyeing, but organic substances from the plant world: aloe vera, banana or almond peel, fruit and vegetables. Green is one of the key colors in Fall/Winter 2024-2025influenced by the mineral and plant world.
Indigo is and remains the characteristic of jeans. Today, most indigo is synthetic and the multi-step dyeing process is therefore an environmental sin. Here, too, nature can be used and pure indigo from the Indigofera plant can be used.
Nanotechnologies such as E-Flow can be used to bleach denim with fewer natural resources and chemicals in the future. The process uses natural chemicals that can be recycled afterwards and uses much less water than traditional methods. With E-Flow, lighter washes and finishing effects can be achieved using nanobubbles. According to Sengchanh, there are now also laser technologies for the final refinement of the jeans. Another option for the final touch is so-called ‘eco coating’, i.e. a coating that uses olive oil or beeswax.
Last but not least, recycled colors are a trend that will also prevail in the 2024/2025 autumn/winter season. Through recycling and upcycling new color combinations are created from denim that has already been produced – an environmentally friendly variant that also contributes to a circular economy.
Other speakers at the conference were the coordinator of the Dutch denim deal Roosmarie Ruigrok, Annabelle Homann, Chief Operating Officers (COO) of the sustainable fashion brand Lanius and Tony Tonnaer, Managing Director of KOI Conscious Consulting.
Read more about jeans and denim: history, production, trends and sustainability – This article gives an overview of everything you need to know.