Online fashion has increased the choice of clothing that is available to us dramatically over the last few years and the internet and social media have also played a huge part in raising awareness of some of the most pressing sustainability issues that are facing the fashion industry. As consumers become more aware and demand that companies are accountable for their environmental performance, fashion brands are utilising technology to help provide us with more choice and sustainable fashion that can live up to our expectations in terms of aesthetics and style as well as quality and durability. Over the years technology has allowed fast fashion to take hold with cheaper synthetic fabrics, clever marketing and Product Life Cycle Management Technology (PLM) which allows retailers to streamline their processes using web based platforms integrating people, data, processes, and business systems. Now technology is helping to reverse this process by finding innovative ways of creating and marketing clothing whilst minimising waste, pollution and use of precious resources.
Digital prints are big news in the fashion world at the moment. The process involves applying designs to the fabrics using printers and involves less energy and water usage than conventional dying techniques. The great thing about digital printing is that it allows designers to make clothes in vivid colours with designs that have an ethereal aesthetic, a far cry from the brown hemp that many may associate with sustainable fashion of days gone by. Eden Diodati are just one example of a designer brand making the most of this technique to create luxurious fashion with respect for people and planet. There are also now a variety of other methods for transferring dyes to fabric that cut down on water and energy usage and harmful by products including AirDye a process Developed in California by Colorep where dyes are transferred from paper to fabric in one step. DyeCoo is another innovative process which uses "supercritical carbon dioxide, a pressurized form with unusual liquid-like properties" instead of water to carry the dye.
Textile recycling is becoming more common place in the fashion industry and is now been used on a larger scale than ever before. Whilst smaller independent designers and labels upcycle second hand and vintage clothes into unique and individual pieces, larger brands are innovating and creating their own high performance fabrics which can be used to create larger collections using a range of recycled materials including recycled textiles and even plastic bottles. Patagonia were one of the pioneers in this field creating Repreve polyester which has the same quality and integrity as non-recycled polyester, made from plastic bottles and is used in fleeces. Timberland have also been making good use of plastic bottles for making clothes and shoes and even the soles of their shoes contains recycled rubber which performs just as well as ordinary rubber.
The fashion industry is a wasteful one. For conventional clothing manufacture, there will be about 15 -20% wastage of fabric due to the scraps left after the fabric pieces are cut. Zero waste cutting utilises technology to ensure that designs and cutting minimise the waste by utilising even the scraps of the material in the design. The pieces of a design are fitted onto the fabric like a jigsaw to ensure that as much of the fabric is utilised as possible and scraps are also creatively used as part of the designs. Whole garment knitting is one of the methods that can be used to eliminate waste by only producing the exact amount if fabric needed in the required shape. Fashion technologist and designer Siddhartha Upadhyaya invented the DPOL or Direct Printing on Loom, a patented design is attached to a loom and fed with a design of the garment. Panels of the garment will be printed out on a fabric that then just need stitching together to create the finished garment. This technology no only reduces wastage of fabric but also water usage.
New eco fabrics are appearing all of the time with the use of innovative technology to turn some unusual natural products into fabrics from milk to nettles.
Nano technology is used to create eco friendly fabrics from wood. Tencel and Modal from Lenzing are made from eucalyptus and beech wood respectively. The cellulose is extracted from the pulp using a chemical process and used to create nano fibrils. The closed loop process ensures that there is no hazardous waste. It is these fibrils that can be used to give the fabric many of its attractive properties including absorbency, draping properties and softness. Although not completely natural, these fabrics are considered much closer to those of natural fabrics than synthetic.
Recently Bio Couture has used biotechnology to create a fabric from harmless bacteria that bond active enzymes and cellulose fibres into a textile-like material. The fabric is made using a simple tea and sugar solution and when dried the bacteria in the fabric becomes dormant. The beauty of this fabric is that at the end of its useful life the garment can be reformed, repaired or composted, much more eco-friendly than piling synthetic fibres into landfill. It has lots of exciting possibilities for the fashion industry including self-healing clothes, antibacterial and waterproof properties.
Last but not least the growth in the use of social media and communication technology has helped to increase awareness of the environmental issues that face the fashion industry. Greenpeace's detox fashion campaign was hugely successful in giving consumers a voice and persuading many big brands to commit to cleaning up their supply chains. Fashion blogging and social media has also brought about a kind of democratisation of fashion, reducing the reliance on seasonal trends and encouraging individuals to find their own style niche. The internet has also made sustainable fashion more available and shoppers have a choice that extends way beyond their local high street shops.
No one knows what the future holds but we can only hope that sustainable and technological innovations within the fashion industry and beyond will continue to reduce its impact on the environment.
Digital prints are big news in the fashion world at the moment. The process involves applying designs to the fabrics using printers and involves less energy and water usage than conventional dying techniques. The great thing about digital printing is that it allows designers to make clothes in vivid colours with designs that have an ethereal aesthetic, a far cry from the brown hemp that many may associate with sustainable fashion of days gone by. Eden Diodati are just one example of a designer brand making the most of this technique to create luxurious fashion with respect for people and planet. There are also now a variety of other methods for transferring dyes to fabric that cut down on water and energy usage and harmful by products including AirDye a process Developed in California by Colorep where dyes are transferred from paper to fabric in one step. DyeCoo is another innovative process which uses "supercritical carbon dioxide, a pressurized form with unusual liquid-like properties" instead of water to carry the dye.
Textile recycling is becoming more common place in the fashion industry and is now been used on a larger scale than ever before. Whilst smaller independent designers and labels upcycle second hand and vintage clothes into unique and individual pieces, larger brands are innovating and creating their own high performance fabrics which can be used to create larger collections using a range of recycled materials including recycled textiles and even plastic bottles. Patagonia were one of the pioneers in this field creating Repreve polyester which has the same quality and integrity as non-recycled polyester, made from plastic bottles and is used in fleeces. Timberland have also been making good use of plastic bottles for making clothes and shoes and even the soles of their shoes contains recycled rubber which performs just as well as ordinary rubber.
The fashion industry is a wasteful one. For conventional clothing manufacture, there will be about 15 -20% wastage of fabric due to the scraps left after the fabric pieces are cut. Zero waste cutting utilises technology to ensure that designs and cutting minimise the waste by utilising even the scraps of the material in the design. The pieces of a design are fitted onto the fabric like a jigsaw to ensure that as much of the fabric is utilised as possible and scraps are also creatively used as part of the designs. Whole garment knitting is one of the methods that can be used to eliminate waste by only producing the exact amount if fabric needed in the required shape. Fashion technologist and designer Siddhartha Upadhyaya invented the DPOL or Direct Printing on Loom, a patented design is attached to a loom and fed with a design of the garment. Panels of the garment will be printed out on a fabric that then just need stitching together to create the finished garment. This technology no only reduces wastage of fabric but also water usage.
New eco fabrics are appearing all of the time with the use of innovative technology to turn some unusual natural products into fabrics from milk to nettles.
Nano technology is used to create eco friendly fabrics from wood. Tencel and Modal from Lenzing are made from eucalyptus and beech wood respectively. The cellulose is extracted from the pulp using a chemical process and used to create nano fibrils. The closed loop process ensures that there is no hazardous waste. It is these fibrils that can be used to give the fabric many of its attractive properties including absorbency, draping properties and softness. Although not completely natural, these fabrics are considered much closer to those of natural fabrics than synthetic.
Recently Bio Couture has used biotechnology to create a fabric from harmless bacteria that bond active enzymes and cellulose fibres into a textile-like material. The fabric is made using a simple tea and sugar solution and when dried the bacteria in the fabric becomes dormant. The beauty of this fabric is that at the end of its useful life the garment can be reformed, repaired or composted, much more eco-friendly than piling synthetic fibres into landfill. It has lots of exciting possibilities for the fashion industry including self-healing clothes, antibacterial and waterproof properties.
Last but not least the growth in the use of social media and communication technology has helped to increase awareness of the environmental issues that face the fashion industry. Greenpeace's detox fashion campaign was hugely successful in giving consumers a voice and persuading many big brands to commit to cleaning up their supply chains. Fashion blogging and social media has also brought about a kind of democratisation of fashion, reducing the reliance on seasonal trends and encouraging individuals to find their own style niche. The internet has also made sustainable fashion more available and shoppers have a choice that extends way beyond their local high street shops.
No one knows what the future holds but we can only hope that sustainable and technological innovations within the fashion industry and beyond will continue to reduce its impact on the environment.
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