Environmental-friendly fashion and style

Environmental-Friendly Fashion and Style

Sustainable fashion is day by day catering to a lot of designers and audiences. Basically, it’s a fast-growing movement, towards environmentally-friendly fashion. Eco-friendly fabrics embrace the body with soft and supple touch. There are various brands available like

1. Grassroots

2. H&M conscious

3. Mother Earth

Brands like Nike, Marks and Spencer and Wal-Mart already started selling organic products. Organic clothing is gaining popularity across the globe.

What is the effect of fast fashion brands on the environment?

Environmental-friendly Products

        According to the UN, 80% of wastewater is dumped into rivers untreated, including in the fashion industry. The River Blue is a really good documentary about how the fashion industry is creating dead zones in rivers, poisoning wildlife and people.

     The wastewater is so bad because most clothing brands use lots and lots of chemicals in the dyes and production process of jeans and other clothes, and ultimately dump that poisoned water straight into rivers in Indonesia, Bangladesh, and China. When companies cut corners to reduce costs the result is destruction to the environment as well as workers being underpaid and exploited.

There’s also the issue with the number of garments being made every year. Due to fast fashion (the fast fashion effect), there are now 100 billion new articles of clothing being made per year. It’s pretty obvious that’s not sustainable.

Besides all of the water used to grow the cotton, the energy used in the factories, the water poisoned during production, there is also all of the conventional cotton used by fast fashion, which accounts for 25% of pesticide usage globally. And according to the UN, 200,000 people die a year from pesticide poisoning. Then there’s fast fashion’s second favorite fabric, virgin polyester, which is derived from fossil fuels.

In contrast, there are many new brands focusing on the quality of garments, fair wages for people, and being kind to the planet. For example, Outerknown’s jeans are made with organic cotton (meaning no pesticides) and in a factory that recycles and filters all of the water used in production.

Ethical clothing doesn’t just appeal to your emotions, it’s also logical. That $5 shirt from H&M that you wore 5 times cost you $1 per year. In contrast, the ethically made shirt you bought for $50 but wore 100 times costs you 50 cents per wear.

The impact on the environment will be more if we as a customer and brands as a supplier appreciate the fast fashion. Everything we make it pollutes. As per one study, about 40% of clothes are rarely or not worn. By doubling the life of clothes from one year to two years, we can reduce 24% emissions. Fast fashion is less sustainable in comparison to the slow fashion which favors

§  Fair labor

§  Satisfying human needs

§  Supporting local economies

§  Robust supply chain relationship

§  And meaningful fashion experience.

The fashion industry is harmful to the environment. How do you think it can be made more sustainable?

The fashion industry is the second-largest polluter in the world behind only fossil fuel energy production. The fashion industry has a disastrous impact on the environment. And the environment damages are increasing as the industry grows. The production and distribution of the crop, fibers, and garment for fashion all contribute to different forms of environmental pollution, including air, water, and soil.

The fashion industry is responsible for 10 percent of the carbon footprint in the world as well as it being the second-greatest polluter of local freshwater. In most of the countries in which garments are produced, untreated toxic wastewater is dumped into the rivers. There are extremely harmful to the health of the millions of people living by the rivers banks. Also, a huge quantity of freshwater is used for the dyeing and finishing process for all of our clothes while many people do not have access to drinking water.

Some possible solution to this problem is choosing fibers with low water consumption such as linen, recycled fiber, natural fibers, semi-synthetic fibers. Moreover, we can significantly protect the environment by buying less new clothes, if they are not really needed.

Fashion is reining the world these days and we’ve never realized how harmful it is. But that doesn’t mean we will stop wearing clothes: p

So, probably here’s what you can do:

Eco-friendly clothing is always an option. Eco fabrics like Tencel are 5x better than cotton. Many stores are coming up with such blended eco-friendly products. So, next time you go shopping, look for them.

Upcycle your clothes. You never know how many new outfits you might come up with.

Donate them. Maybe you don’t need them, somebody else does. :’)

Buy more from second-hand, consignment and thrift stores. When you shop from first-hand stores you contribute to the carbon footprint due to the packaging, processing, and shipping it involves. You may be surprised what amazing fashion finds you can come up with here.

Let’s do our bit because in the end… Every drop counts!

There are a few ways that the fashion industry can be more sustainable:

1.      Use sustainable yarns such as recycled polyester, recycled spandex or Econyl, etc because they use less harmful chemical and resources in production

2.      Use sustainable dye methods such as OEKO-TEX or Blue sign certified dye

3.      Use more sustainable fabrics made from either step 1 or step 2

4.      Adapt more toward “no waste” production or use sustainable production services as they are more experience in creating less wastage in garment making

5.      Extend the life cycle of the garment by giving away or donate them

6.      Recycle the fabric waste so they don’t end up landing in the landfill

There are a few ways of what we can do to start with!

The fashion industry has a disastrous impact on the environment. Want to play your part in saving the environment? Donate your old clothes to Whitehouse & Schapiro, LLC, They are leaders in the second-hand clothing industry. Collect and buy secondhand goods from thrift stores and other suppliers.

Some fashion houses can make campaigns that would encourage using environmentally friendly products. Some brands could become really popular due to such a campaign and the campaign could make something good for our World!

What is the future of sustainable fashion worldwide?

 Following 5 qualitative predictions (that could be totally wrong!) in the near future of sustainable fashion, simply based on what I’ve observed in the past 5 years:

§  Re-diversification of fiber/fabric sources:

§  Way back in the day, people made clothes out of fibers and fabrics readily available in their environments, often from the byproduct waste of other things they used (e.g., byproduct hides; fibers from lotus flowers; cotton in all of the crop varieties there were, including blue cotton!). When we began mass-producing clothes, though, it became more cost-effective to focus on using only a few cheap fiber choices en masse, which in part led to the high impact of the fashion industry today. Now, though, we’re seeing innovative materials and traditional fibers pop up and go more mainstream again (e.g., pineapple leather, the fabric is woven from banana peel fibers, byproduct salmon leather, lab-grown silk). And I believe we’ll only see more of this, which is great! Diversification of natural resources we use, on top of lessening consumption overall, of course, can help us preserve biodiversity in agriculture and on this planet overall.

§  Less waste production from manufacturing:

§  3-D printing technology is on the rise, and for brands that utilize this, it’ll result in less material waste being generated from the production process.

§  Digital printing technology is also leading to less use of water in the dying process.

§  Many eco-fashion brands are now also tackling waste in manufacturing by making clothes out of deadstock fabric or the waste of larger fashion houses.

§  Re-use of valuable “trashed” materials to help close the loop:

§  Technology will allow for better and more efficient recycling of old textiles/materials into fibers that can be spun into “new” clothes again, thus helping to close the loop.

§  New Denim Project, for example, takes trashed cotton clothes, grinds them down into fibers, and re-weaves them into new yarn and new fabric.

§  Many eco at leisurewear and swimwear (which need particular performance properties of synthetic fibers) now use recycled polyester or recycled nylon from trashed plastic bottles and fishing nets

§  Less toxic chemicals used in the manufacturing process:

§  As we’re seeing “what goes around comes around” happen in real life, such as our toxic chemicals used for finishing and treating clothes ending up in our waterways, thus polluting our freshwater sources and intoxicating wildlife, progressive brands are also increasingly opting for safer chemicals and natural dyes, even if they may be more expensive. This is healthier for the makers, healthier for our environments, and healthier for the wearers.

§  A reluctant but a reasonable rise in the price of average clothes and accessories consumed:

§  In the past decade, we’ve been trained by Fast Fashion to think that it’s okay for new clothes to be $10 and that they should be this way. Now that we’re getting to know that this cheap price tag likely means unaccounted costs for workers in the supply chain, natural resources, and the environment, conscious consumers are becoming more respectful of higher price tags and the stories behind the making of products, emphasizing “buying less and buying better” to balance out the costs of buying.

All in all… I’d say we’re moving closer to “closing the loop” in a product’s life-cycle, which is what will make fashion sustainable (as opposed to the more linear life-cycle of clothes right now), quality over quantity, and healthier and less toxic materials and chemicals used overall.

How can you stop plastic pollution in the fashion industry?

Plastic pollution is so severe and immense; it’s so much into almost everything which we use as a primary or secondary element. Yes, we all need to get more and more awareness about our planet and its pollutants.

The fashion industry is also not left behind. Plastic is used in many ways or the other. From buttons, sequence, zipper, bags to even packing with plastic is widely used.

An alternate for plastic should be immediately brought in enforcement by the governments. Overnight closing of the material may cause loss to many industries. But yes a quick solution needs to be enforced; a biodegradable element is a solution.

I want to concentrate on how we can reduce the use of plastic and plastic pollution in the fashion industry

Blue Planet II brought plastic pollution in the oceans to the forefront of public consciousness.

They are produced by textiles: minuscule plastic fibers can be released when synthetic materials are washed, finding their way into the water system and then the sea, where they can enter the food chain when they are consumed by fish.

*Use recycling and sustainable fabrics

*Reduce waste or reducing packaging

*We need to produce materials that shed fewer fibers, and we need to make materials that don’t remain in the water, using more natural materials or mimicking natural materials.

Every piece of synthetic clothing – every time you wash it or even every time you use it – sheds tiny little fibers. A synthetic fleece going through a washing machine could release up to 70,000 particles per wash, and all those fragments then go into the water.

*New washing machines to be designed with a filter that could reduce the emissions of microplastics could be implemented.

How much is the fashion industry damaging the environment?

According to the UN, 80% of wastewater is dumped into rivers untreated, including in the fashion industry. The River Blue is a really good documentary about how the fashion industry is creating dead zones in rivers, poisoning wildlife and people.

The wastewater is so bad because most clothing brands use lots and lots of chemicals in the dyes and the production process of jeans and other clothes, and ultimately dump that poisoned water straight into rivers in Indonesia, Bangladesh, and China. When companies cut corners to reduce costs the result is destruction to the environment as well as workers being underpaid and exploited.

There’s also the issue with the number of garments being made every year. Due to fast fashion (the fast fashion effect), there are now 100 billion new articles of clothing being made per year. It’s pretty obvious that’s not sustainable.

Besides all of the water used to grow the cotton, the energy used in the factories, the water poisoned during production, there is also all of the conventional cotton used by fast fashion, which accounts for 25% of pesticide usage globally. And according to the UN, 200,000 people die a year from pesticide poisoning. Then there’s fast fashion’s second favorite fabric, virgin polyester, which is derived from fossil fuels.

In contrast, there are many new brands focusing on the quality of garments, fair wages for people, and being kind to the planet. For example, Outerknown’s jeans are made with organic cotton (meaning no pesticides) and in a factory that recycles and filters all of the water used in production.

Ethical clothing doesn’t just appeal to your emotions, it’s also logical. That $5 shirt from H&M that you wore 5 times cost you $1 per year. In contrast, the ethically made shirt you bought for $50 but wore 100 times costs you 50 cents per wear.

Why Trade Smart Online is best at trading