Pierces go nets: Sustainability has been gradually taking place in the fashion industry
What has the fashion industry brought to us? Outdated clothes lying at the bottom of the drawer? Ugly stitches on the jacket because of the poor quality? Or, 20% of the global wastewater and the fifth main source of greenhouse gas emission, without counting the 85% of the waste of the fashion industry goes directly into the guts of our mother Earth.
As many of the fashion industry companies can recognize, taking sustainability into consideration is and will be the key. Apparently, we all generate, with awareness or not, fabric waste and the waste is inevitable just like uncertainty in a science experiment, you may reduce it to a certain extent, but you can never avoid it. Since the source of the pollution brought by textiles and fashion industry cannot be solved, groups of students founded a fabric non-profit institute named Fabscrap and started to reform the processing part—they collect and upcycle the scrap fabric from factories and companies for resale at an extremely affordable price for all designers or students. This innovative unprecedented form of selling quickly got recognized and reported by the press after its establishment in 2017. Every day, there are 3000 pounds of fabric scraps arrive at this massive warehouse located in south Brooklyn, collected, categorized, sold by volunteers and students workers. Fabscrap has reached out more than 250 companies and factories to recycle their scrap textiles for resale. Being there in person, I was utterly astonished by the scale at which they are upcycling the fabric and the price they are offering: 3 dollars per pound no matter what kind of textile it is. Compared to Mood, the famous textile retailer, this is definitely a rob. Since usually designers do not purchase a huge amount of fabric for garment making and even if they do, they scissor it down into pieces. Therefore, buying scrap produced after the industrial garment making process can be an economical and effective way for students and designers. Besides, the diversity in the scrap textiles is also wondrous, people can even find shattered pieces of pants or a coat. Combining these pieces with different textiles, you can create deconstructionism garment without tailoring, fitting in the current trend. As their slogan says, “The fashion industry has a textile waste problem, and Fabscrap is the solution.”
Reforming the processing part of scrap textiles is significant progress while the awareness of fashion leading brands is another. Burberry launched its new responsibility agenda in 2017 for sustainable development of the brand as well as being responsible for the environment. The British luxury house procured 48% of its total energy (including 56% of its electricity) from renewable sources in 2017/18, a 24% increase from the previous year. Burberry is also one of the members of RE100, which is an institute aimed for low carbon-emission power. Besides power source, Burberry also reformed its material by establishing the Burberry Material Futures Research Group with the Royal College of Art for new sustainable materials. The fashion industry is never lacking brands with social responsibility that makes the lemon into something resembling lemonade. The famous Italian luxury brand Gucci announced fur-free for all its product back in 2017; Canadian down jacket leader Canada Goose claimed no more use of fur or goose features in the parkas; British women’s wear luxury brand Stella McCartney claimed fur-free, using ethically-sourced wool, organic cotton, and recycled textiles.
Everybody can tell how the diversity of materials sculptures delicate garment that shines like the 3D printed work of Iris Van Herpen, the Dutch couture designer; the ink spraying work on the runway show of Alexander McQueen, 2010, the British genius designer’s brand. Those are definitely wearable art and we must admit that non-limitation in material gives the garment rhythm, construction, even dynamics. However, it is not appropriate for it to be popularized, the huge energy waste behind new material experiments, massive waste behind every single runway show is killing the environment. Sustainability is a social responsibility that every brand should take into consideration, it not only brings the brand positive fames but also, mostly, cut down the cost of making garments. Maybe for a runway show, it is hard to completely take in the concept of sustainability, but fashion houses can start reforming the massive production part, the one people would really wear like what Burberry, Gucci, and so on has already done. Sustainability is gradually taking place in the whole industry, clothing resale’s amount is expected to surpass the one for fast fashion in 2025; leading brands started their reforming and expectedly, other brands would follow the trend; social responsible non-profit institute like Fabscrap has emerged, etc. The fashion industry, convicted as the 5th main carbon emission producer of the world, is now trying to make the world a better place.
Citation
Bonilla, Laura. “In New York, One Non-profit Looks to Combat Textile Waste.” Phys.org. February 14, 2019. Accessed April 07, 2019. https://phys.org/news/2019-02-york-non-profit-combat-textile.html.
“FABSCRAP.” FABSCRAP. Accessed April 07, 2019. https://fabscrap.org/.
“UN Helps Fashion Industry Shift to Low Carbon.” UNFCCC. Accessed April 07, 2019. https://unfccc.int/news/un-helps-fashion-industry-shift-to-low-carbon.
Lai, Jenny. “Fab Scrap: The Fashion Industry’s Textile Recycler.” NOT. December 19, 2018. Accessed April 07, 2019. https://www.notaligne.com/blogs/news/fab-scrap-the-fashion-industrys-textile-recycler.
“Burberry Is the Leading Luxury Brand in the 2018 Dow Jones Sustainability Index.” Burberry Corporate Website. Accessed April 07, 2019. https://www.burberryplc.com/en/news-and-media/press-releases/responsibility/2018/burberry-is-the-leading-luxury-brand-in-the-2018-dow-jones-susta.html.
“Gucci to Go Fur-free in 2018.” CNN. October 12, 2017. Accessed April 07, 2019. https://www.cnn.com/style/article/gucci-fur-free/index.html.
Guide, Staff. “5 Sustainable Luxury Designers For Eco-Friendly Fashion.” The Good Trade. January 10, 2019. Accessed April 07, 2019. https://www.thegoodtrade.com/features/luxury-eco-friendly-designers.
