In February, it was heartening to see that the industry is reaching out
to partners outside the fashion realm to make more sustainable products or
to simply tackle social and environmental problems together. Even recent
fashion weeks and other industry events were used to push the sustainable
fashion agenda. FashionUnited has put together 26 such efforts that were
announced in February 2020 alone.
Cooperations & Projects
Alt Mat, Block Texx, Descatuk, Indra Water, Infinichains, JSP, PurFi,
Sasmira and Textile Genesis are the nine start-ups selected for Fashion for
Good’s first innovation programme focused on South Asia, which will take
them on a nine-month journey including mentoring, coaching and support from
Fashion for Good and its partners. Additionally, the start-ups will receive
support from Indian manufacturers Arvind and Welspun to test the viability
of their ideas to make the fashion industry more sustainable.
Swedish outdoor heritage brand Tretorn is teaming up with charity Sea
Life Trust for 2020 to launch a special collection to conserve the planet’s
endangered sea life. The Tretorn x Sea Life Trust collection is part of the
brand’s spring/summer 2020 Eco Essentials, an initiative launched in 2016
that reinvents its classic jackets and footwear into fully sustainable
products.
Walpole
British luxury lobby group Walpole said 40 members have become
signatories to its Sustainability Manifesto. Earlier this year, Walpole
launched the British Luxury Sustainability Manifesto – a commitment to
helping the British luxury sector become the global leader in
sustainability with a focus on four key pillars. The pillars include
tackling plastic packaging and circularity initiatives to extend product
life and waste reduction to safeguard the environment, addressing carbon
emissions, renewable energy usage, water consumptions and discharge of
chemicals.
Brands & Retailers
London-born heritage brand Hi-Tec Sports is putting sustainability first
in a new capsule collection in collaborating with Sealand Gear, the South
African-based upcycle and ecocycle brand renowned for its environmentally
and socially responsible products and accessories. The collection features
an environmentally conscious limited-edition release of Hi-Tec’s iconic
Sierra Re:Flex trail shoe, which marks Sealand’s footwear debut.
German multinational corporation Puma has teamed up with First Mile to
launch a co-created sportswear collection made from recycled plastic, which
goes beyond recycling as it also rooted in “social impact and human
connection”. The co-branded collection has been designed to help consumers
perform their best during any workout and features shoes and apparel
including T-shirts, shorts, jackets and leggings, which have been made from
recycled yarn that is manufactured from plastic bottles collected in the
First Mile people-focused network in Taiwan, Honduras, and Haiti.
German e-commerce company Zalando announced that its private label Zign
is now “fully dedicated to sustainability”, with all its new products
containing 50 percent more sustainable materials or at least 20 percent
recycled content. All products in its SS20 collection are manufactured in
the top 50 percent of Zalando’s supply base when it comes to social
performance, according to the company. The brand said it also requires
these factories to submit environmental data to the Higg Index to allow it
to monitor and improve its performance in areas such as greenhouse gas
emissions, water use and waste.
French brand Sézane, the country’s first online-only label, has
reimagined its denim line to be completely eco-friendly, just three years
after launching its first-ever denim collection. The new eco-friendly denim
range, called Sézane (R)evolutions, has completely overhauled its
production process “at every step” to create the sustainable collection,
where 85 percent of materials used are from natural origins.
American denim brand Wrangler has launched a sustainable cotton program
in Europe that will see the brand collaborating with farmers to promote
sustainable agriculture production. This program builds upon an existing
initiative that the Kontoor Brands-owned company had previously launched in
the United States.
Swedish retail giant H&M Group has said it is to become the first
retailer to use Circulose, a newly patented material made from discarded
textiles, in a dress in its upcoming Conscious Exclusive collection –
marking the first time chemically recycled fibres are used in garments sold
at scale.
Swedish fashion brand Gant has announced it is bolstering its
sustainable credentials with a number of new environmental targets, the
launch of a rental service, and The 7 Rules by Gant – an initiative to
educate consumers on how to better care for their clothes. For 2020, nearly
80 percent of its collection will be sustainably sourced. Additional
targets include using 100 percent sustainably sourced cotton by 2022;
reducing water use in manufacturing by 50 percent by 2025; using 100
percent sustainably sourced key materials by 2025; and reducing its climate
footprint by 30 percent throughout all operations by 2030.
English fashion accessories designer Anya Hindmarch has once again
foregone a catwalk show or a presentation for London Fashion Week in favour
of something a little more experimental, and this time launched the ‘I Am A
Plastic Bag’ collection and filled up her London stores with plastic
bottles to make a statement on waste. The ‘I Am A Plastic Bag’ is made from
an innovative new fabric created from recycled plastic bottles and coated
with recycled plastic windshields.
American footwear brand Teva is working to keep plastic out of
landfills. Going forward, 100 percent of the polyester straps used in Teva
footwear will be made from recycled materials. The footwear brand has
launched a new sustainable initiative to reduce its impact on the
environment.
Companies, Education & Fairs
Burberry has doubled down on its sustainability efforts and announced
the launch of a new ‘carbon insetting’ project which was marked by a
carbon-neutral AW20 runway show. In a push to reduce its carbon footprint,
the label said it hosted its AW20 runway show in a “certified sustainable
venue” and prioritised electric vehicles and avoided air freight. Any
remaining carbon emissions from the show will be offset through a savanna
fire management project which aims to reduce the risk of wildfires that
have been ravaging Australia in recent months. Instead of gifting the
event’s guests, the brand also opted to collaborate with PUR Projet and
their local partner to plant trees in Australia on guests’ behalf.
British heritage brand Mulberry used its London Fashion Week
presentation to highlight its ‘Made to Last’ initiative inspired by the
brand’s responsibility commitments to the “past, present and future” with
an immersive installation that brought the brand’s craft and design ethos
to life. Set within the brand’s Bond Street store, the three-day programme
featured live music, exclusive events, craft workshops, a pop-up café, as
well as the brand’s new M Collection, a capsule of bags and outerwear
crafted from a blend of Econyl regenerated nylon and sustainable cotton.
Molyneaux
Amy Molyneaux rejoined the London Fashion Week schedule to showcase her
new collaboration with Frankie Phillips, creative director of sustainable,
affordable fashion brand, ToBeFrank. The new label, ToBeFrank x Molyneaux
has sustainability at the core, with a collection that is 90 percent
sustainable, using no virgin materials, and was born out of both creative
directors wanting to prove that consumer don’t have to “compromise style to
save the earth”.
Society
The British Retail Consortium (BRC) has launched new guidelines to
ensure that ‘vegan’ fashion items really are 100 percent free of animal
products. The Voluntary Guideline on Veganism in Fashion sets out a number
of questions retailers should ask themselves before labelling something as
‘vegan’. The BRC said companies should not only cut out the use of leather,
wool and natural silk in ‘vegan’ products, but they ensure that no animal
products are used in other components such as glues, dyes, and
chemicals.
Hart
Creative agency Superimpose has launched a new educational programme
with a focus on sustainability for aspiring creative talent in partnership
with University of the Arts London: London College of Fashion. Its
non-commercial creative platform Services Unknown is looking to pioneer a
new educational format by switching up the creative curriculum with its
week-long crash courses aimed at inspiring the next generation of creative
change-makers.
Environmental charity Redress and TV director Lindsay Robertson have
teamed up to launch the fourth season of Frontline Fashion, an
award-winning YouTube docu-series following emerging fashion designers as
they tackle one of the industry’s biggest issues: waste. Set in Hong Kong,
a hotbed for Asia’s ever-growing fashion industry, the five-episode series
tracks the 10 finalists of the Redress Design Award in the days leading up
to the grand finale of the sustainable fashion competition.
