Fabrication sustainability.
Down to the boring stuff.
To the important stuff.
To the plain old scientific stuff.
We love this stuff. Where creativity drives innovation creating fabrics and materials that give designers and brands the freedom they want. The freedom they need.
We’re about to geek out.
And if that’s not for you, I’d hit next on this one.
The organics.
We love the organics.
And the organics love us.
Organic materials, especially organic cotton, are the holy grail of sustainable fashion production. Of fashion production.
If only.
When something is deemed organic it means...
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Plant based natural fibres (obviously).
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Zero fertilisers, pesticides and genetically modified organisms (GMOs).
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Water conservation techniques are used.
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No chemicals, using non-toxic dyes.
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The origins of each material is traceable ensuring it meets the above criteria.
Here’s the catch.
Fertaliser is one of the greatest inventions of the modern world because it has allowed us to farm at scale. It has allowed us to support a population of 8 billion people without covering the face of the earth with farms.
Yes, fertaliser is destroying our soil. Destroying our biodiversity. But without it, we cannot grow enough cotton in a small enough area to clothe the whole planet. Or enough food to feed it for that matter.
In short, organic cotton is a bit of a luxury.
What’s the answer?
Hemp.
Hemp clothes have been around for thousands of years. Made from the Cannabis Sativa plant, it’s a fast growing plant that requires minimal water and zero pesticides and fertilisers to cultivate. It produces a strong and durable fibre and under today's modern manufacturing processes it can be made to look and feel almost exactly like cotton.
Some pretty cool stuff.
Linen is also great, which although has a more distinct feel and texture is a good option for any summer staples.
Organic wool and silk are some other strong alternatives, and like linen have their place in any wardrobe.
But what about my active wear you may ask? And maybe I just don’t want to wear t-shirts made of weed plants.
Well...
All hope is not lost.
The semi-synthetics may have some answers.
The semi-synthetics.
This is an exciting area.
The process is pretty simple, take either a plant or marine based raw material - this could range from eucalyptus or beach wood pulp to pineapple leaves and algae. The raw material is then put through a chemical inducive process to create cellulose fibres or leather like materials.
Fibres are either spun or molded, finishing off with various dyeing or softening treatments.
Simple.
The level of sustainability the end product has is largely down to the types of chemicals used and how the materials are finished. It’s not a one size fits all.
What we want is a closed loop process that recycles chemicals, produces zero microplastics while minimising water use and creates a completely biodegradable final product.
That also looks good.
And is versatile. And durable.
A tall order, but there are some semi-synthetic materials out there that tick all these boxes.
Some of the more innovative types are created by an Austrian company called ‘Lenzing’, offering different semi-synthetic cotton like materials from different sources under the brand names TENCEL (Eucalyptus), Lenzing Ecovero Viscose (various types of wood from sustainably managed forests) and Modal (beech wood).
Regarding leathers, there are some great products like Pinatex (pineapple leaves) and Oleatex (olive oil production waste) both using a closed loop chemical processing system while creating largely biodegradable products.
Here’s a table.
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These materials although great and may well be the future of fashion textile production, are still somewhat exploratory. In the meantime there’s a lot out there that we can re-use, and recycled is not only as good as new - it’s better.
Recycling into recycled.
Recycled plastic is not perfect. Plastic free is the way to be.
But.
The reality is there’s already a lot of plastic flying around in the post-consumer fashion ecosystem, and if we’re being honest plastic is a pretty handy material. So we might as well use it.
There are some top quality recycled products out there, and plastic recycling technology is getting better all the time.
Look for material brands like Tex2Tex or materials tagged as recycled polyamide, recycled nylon or recycled polyester.
As a base rule, if you’re going to buy plastic always look for recycled first.
It’s worth noting that the process of recycling these materials is way less chemical, energy and water intensive than originating them. But they still release microplastics when you wash them.
Recycling cotton on the other hand is a different story.
The sad reality is that most of the fashion waste that ends up in landfill is cotton that’s been treated with a mass of harmful chemicals that then get released back into the environment as the cotton degrades.
This is not good.
Recycling cotton has seen much innovation in recent years with many branded recycled cotton material alternatives now on the market. Look out for brands like Circulose and Refibra.
Plain old recycled cotton also works.
These materials are just as good quality as originated cotton.
The crux of it is. Let’s use the materials we’ve already got. Plastic if you need, cotton as you like.