What is sustainability?
Sustainability is frequently misunderstood; it means to maintain the world we live in. The principal idea is to protect the planet acting in a responsible way saving the resources that the Earth has for future generations. There are limited resources, which are being exploited more and more every day. Human beings consumerism is exceeding the capacity of resources the planet can offer, and this is generating a disturbing ecological footprint. Sustainable fashion consist in thinking about employees rights, in being conscious about the chemical products that interfere in the garments fabrication, in being conscious about the impact of the garments distribution, in being conscious whit what happens when costumers don’t want the garments anymore, in being conscious about all the waste that is left when a garments are made, in being conscious about how many water are we contaminating for this industry. If designers don’t found out what strategies should a design have for sustainability, how to apply them, and what are the possibilities they offer, they are not going to change the procedures of design. Designers must see sustainability like a opportunity to innovate, this is a new way to understand sustainability.
Some new real technologies, methods, products or services that can help us accomplish sustainability:
1.From fast fashion to slow fashion: reasons to change the timing.
Fast fashion garments aren’t expensive but look like the latest designs from the fashion houses. These products are fabricate
d really fast, in less than 20 days. Consumers have a new product very similar to other that already exists although with limited variations. It’s a fact that over 1,000 people who were making cheap clothes in poor conditions died. Slow fashion in the other hand means that clothes last longer, they are offered in classic colors and shapes, and are made from natural materials that are biodegradable over time.
2. Fabric from exotic new materials.
Suzanne Lee a senior research fellow at Central Saint Martins (donde estudié hace unos días 😎🤓) University of the Arts London created vegetable leather by fermented tea and bacterial-cellulose. This new fabric can not replace all the fabrics because under the rain or contact whit water the fabric would absorbed it and would become really heavy, eventually the garment would be destroy falling apart. If they manage to fix this problem it would be a sustainable method, but right now is not a concrete solution.
3.Digital printing
This technology aloud to print directly into the fabrics, this reduces water usage in 95%, there is also a energy reduction of 75%, and a minimizing textile waste. Designers like Alexander McQueen, Basso & Brooke and Mary Katrantzou have used this technique. It is easily to found online companies that produce machines and give digital print services.
4. Fabrics from recycled materials
Plastic bags, old hats, gloves and garments can find a new life; Maison Martin Margiela Artisanal’s line known how to transform shoelaces, combs and wigs into couture dresses. “It’s a message about sustainability, but done with humor,” says Matilda McQuaid, a curator at Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, “saying we should look at reusing our resources. We need to stop and think about what we immediately discard.”
Other brand that is using this method is “I am not a virgin jeans”; they use above a mix of 25% of bottles finders and 75% of cotton, the result is a durable soft material to the hand, and performs as denim should. Recycling materials is an excellent option to embarrasses sustainability.
EcotecProject is an Italian initiative that is recycling cotton industrial leftovers which keeps these scraps from incinerators or landfills an creates new materials with them.
5.Dying with air; saving water in the coloring process.
Finishing and dying the fabrics generate the biggest impact of textile industry. In this two process about 65% of chemicals, 75% of the energy and 85% of the water are used from the complete textile p
roduction. Water is used to push the fabric’s trough the machines and also to apply color, new machines are using air to push the fabrics and in this way reduces the amount of wasted water. The dying of a t-shirt can reduce from 200 to only 50 liters of water with this method. Air Dye is another eco alternative which works with proprietary dyes that are heat transferred from paper to the fabrics in a process that only have 1 step. No pollutants are released. The method is available in a kaleidoscope of colors About between 75 gallons of water can be save in the dying of a pound of fabric.
Conclusion
Should we stop using fashion? No, that’s not the solution, because is not going to happen, but we can start using new technologies like the ones develop in this report, in order to have a sustainable planet. The key of the success is the consumer, if they (or we because almost every human being use garment) start asking and demanding sustainable designs, the fashion brands will not have other option that to start changing and caring. These way consumers can have the perfect shoes to go party in the weekend, in the color they want, the shape they want, but also made in a sustainable way. If consumers move the money, consumers move the industry. If sustainable clothes cost 10$ more than the regular ones, consumers should buy the expensive in other to start a change, but lets be honest who want to pay more?. The fashion industry is really immature when we talk about sustainability, for many years they make us think that organic cotton was the only concept related in order to make a change. Organic cotton is equally water consuming that the regular cotton, the only difference they have is the use of less pesticide. Now we know that sustainable fashion is about a lot of other things, there are so many new fabrics that can be made by leftover products in the industry like milk or corn, yes they can not replace cotton clothes but is a start of caring. Another idea developed in this report that can help us approach sustainability is the 0 waste method because 35% are unnecessary leftovers, if they start using the new technology and start making geometrical designs they can almost use all the fabric.
Change can also start in our own homes, we have to think how customers use the fashion they buy, how much they use them, and what they do when they are done with it. 47% of the environmental impact is in consumer’s homes, it happens when we iron, dry, or wash our garments. If we start thinking of using clothes one extra day we will be saving a lot of water. Furthermore wool is almost self cleaning, if people start hanging their clothes outside on air instead on washing them after just one use or taking them to the bathroom, not to shower with them, leaving it close when they shower, the steam of the person having shower would be absorbed and the garment would be clean, this is a real thing no an ideological or magical idea. Vintage clothes is also a good idea, but let`s be honest no everyone like to use someone else clothes,there’s a new technology that helps us to recycle fabrics, they take the buttons, the zippers out and they grind and creates a new fabric that can be a new textile, and this is a big step, we will be saving a huge amount of water and electricity, we can be self suppliers, self producer, and we will be saving a lot of virgin cotton, but sustainability is not a fairy tail, everything will not be unicorns in cotton candy clouds if the industry would not need any more new cotton a lot of people that their incomes depend of the production of cotton like farmers would loose their jobs .
Scientist predict that in some years we would need 3 more planets to produce all the resources we are asking the earth this days, this reality its completely overwhelming. Consumers can make the difference if the fashion industry is used as a communication tool to help us save the world. The future of fashion is to create social responsibility, is a reality that every one of us can do a lot starting in our homes, improving our personal footprint and the environmental and social impact of the fashion industry can also be support by the new technologies, but the reality is that the fashion future depends from the consumers.
References:
• Quinn, B, 2012. Fashion Futures. 1st ed. London, New York: Merrell • Salcedo, E, 2014. Moda ética para un futuro sostenible. Barcelona: Gustavo Gili. • Tree Hugger. 2015. Tree Hugger. [ONLINE] Available from: <http://www.treehugger.com>. [Accessed 04 November 12] • Gwilt, A, 2014. Sustainable Fashion: Past, Present and Future. Bloomsbury Publishing • Gwilt, A, & Rissanen T, 2012. Shaping Sustainable Fashion: Changing the Way We Make and Use Clothes, Routledge.