Sustainable fashion companies must work on integrating ethics, aesthetics and innovation. Keywords such as traceability, circularity and collaborative consumption are beginning to shake up the sector, in a positive way.
Sustainable fashion became a matter of common concern primarily in the wake of the terrible Rana Plaza disaster of 24 April 2013 in Bangladesh, and the various reports of worker exploitation in factories that continue to serve as a wake-up call for the fashion industry. In most discussions on this topic, however, adequate expertise and a shared language are still largely absent.
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Fashion is one of the most significant sectors in the global economic landscape. Unfortunately, it is also one of the most polluting, with heavy social and environmental impacts stemming from child labour and hazardous working conditions, the emission of polluting substances, and the consumption of water and energy.
Responsible companies in the fashion sector set themselves the goal of integrating ethics, aesthetics and responsible innovation throughout the value chain, in every activity — from the sourcing of raw materials to the services offered after the product has been sold.
Responsible innovation is defined as innovation — related to the product, the service, or more broadly to the business model — that makes it possible to reduce the impact of business processes on the environment and to create a better balance with all the people involved in a company's activities.
Innovative business models redefine the role of consumers, who become more active than in the past — returning a product to the shop at the end of its useful life, for example, so that it can be recycled or repurposed to give rise to a new garment.
The main factors that activate and promote change towards more sustainable fashion can be identified in supply chain traceability, the circular approach and the collaborative economy.
Supply chain traceability allows companies to monitor materials and products and the conditions under which they were made and processed throughout the entire value chain. One example of an excellent supply chain partnership is the one between the two Italian companies Dondup and Candiani Denim, formed to produce the sustainable D/Zero jeans made in Italy. Dondup chose Candiani Denim, a company recognised as "the greenest mill in the blue world", as the exclusive supplier of an innovative sustainable ingredient that enables a significant reduction in environmental impact. Specifically: a halving of water usage in fabric production; approximately minus 70 per cent in the use of chemicals for fabric production; on average minus 75 per cent in water usage for the washing processes used; and on average minus 20 per cent in the use of chemicals for the washing processes used.
The dominant model in current industrial production is defined as "cradle to grave" — being a linear, one-directional process in which resources are extracted from the planet and enter the production cycle of a good that is sold, used and disposed of at the end of its life, deposited in what might be described as a "grave", typically a rubbish heap or an incinerator.
"Cradle to cradle" projects and certifications aim to create a closed loop that does not end with the disposal of the product but regenerates it, transforming it into a nutrient reintroduced into the biological or technical cycle without any waste of energy or materials.
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Several corporate collaborations and a number of emerging brands that apply the circular approach to the fashion sector can be cited as exemplary cases.
Salvatore Ferragamo and Orange Fiber, for instance, produced the first collection featuring fabrics made from by-products of orange pressing. Stella McCartney chose Econyl regenerated polyamide yarns as the material for the inner lining of all Falabella bags and for outerwear.
Read also: Ferragamo e Orange Fiber, per una collezione all'insegna del Mediterraneo
Wrad offers the Graphi-tee T-shirt as a first step towards implementing the dynamics of the circular economy in fashion. The result of three years of research and development, the garment is dyed or printed making use of graphite powder, a non-toxic waste product from specific technology industries.
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Finally, Progetto Quid is a social enterprise that offers safe employment to vulnerable people — above all women — who have fought through and overcome difficult personal or social situations, involving them in the production of ethical fashion garments.
Many companies have applied the logic of the collaborative economy to fashion, giving rise to the phenomenon known as Collaborative fashion consumption (Cfc), which consists in the development of new consumption models based on sharing — much like car sharing or bike sharing in sustainable mobility.
Cfc promotes a model of fashion use in which consumers, rather than purchasing items of clothing, gain access to already existing garments through alternative means of acquiring personal ownership (donation, exchange, second-hand) or through options for using items owned by others (sharing, borrowing, hiring or renting).
At a global level, ventures such as the American Rent the Runway, for the rental of clothing, dresses and accessories, and Vestiaire Collective — the online marketplace founded in France in 2009 as a social shopping site for the buying and selling of second-hand fashion items — are growing steadily.
Sustainability in fashion is not limited to garments made from bamboo and hemp. And it is not simply a matter of having a social conscience. The great potential of sustainable fashion lies in its ability to integrate ethics, aesthetics and innovation across all activities in the value chain: the presence of numerous startups born with this DNA gives us good reason to hope for a better future for fashion.