Sustainable Fashion Innovations: 6 Ways Tech Is Changing Fashion

Sustainable fashion innovations are becoming increasingly important as the industry faces pressure to reduce emissions, waste and harmful production practices. As we all know, the conversations going on about the industry’s sustainability levels are layered with environmental, animal, social, political and economic issues; and although many fast fashion giants are pretending as if it’s not the case, every garment has a story, a cost and an impact.

Partly, we can blame fashion companies and their trend cycles for customer’s constant need to buy new products. But the truth is, that it should not just be up to the individual businesses to set a standard, but international legislation needs to address unit volume production and employee protection, in order for the fashion processes to slow down and have a more positive impact.

This week, we’ve put together a few ways technology is slowly revolutionising the fashion industry and starting making a positive impact. These sustainable fashion innovations show how materials, machinery and digital tools could support a lower-impact industry.

1. Eco fibres

The rise of fast fashion means a huge increase of the consumption of raw materials, with 70 million trees logged every year and turned into the most used fabrics in fashion like rayon, viscose and modal. But some companies have found ways to lessen the need for new materials by using waste products from other industries to create innovative new fabrics. For example, Orange Fiber creates their sustainable textiles from citrus juice byproducts – 700,000 tons of which are otherwise discarded in Italy alone! Just like Orange Fiber, there’s plenty more companies experimenting and producing materials from discarded waste (and we’ll go into more details about this very soon!) Waste-based fibres are one of the most promising sustainable fashion innovations because they reduce demand for virgin raw materials.

2. Less washing and less waste

A third of garments produced globally end up discarded and wasted in landfills, having a damaging effect on the environment. There’s fabrics in development that could drastically cut fashion waste: a few companies are experimenting in creating a textile that has strong antimicrobial and liquid-repelling properties, making it okay to be worn 20 times before needing to be laundered. The result? We wouldn’t need to wash as much as we do now, therefore ensuring the garment lasts longer. Longer-lasting, lower-maintenance textiles are another example of sustainable fashion innovations designed to reduce water, energy and garment waste.

3. Reducing chemicals

Cotton is the world's most pesticide-consuming crop. But maybe, instead of using this highly chemical textile, we could make new textiles out of milk proteins, which don't need chemicals and even moisturise your skin.

4. Human rights

As we all know, the diamond industry involves bloodshed, conflict and corruption. In order to escape this diamond and human rights war, the San Francisco-based Diamond Foundry cultivates beautiful real diamonds above ground in a solar-powered laboratory, meaning there’s guaranteed impeccable provenance of each stone and zero carbon footprint too. Furthermore, there are also lab grown diamonds, such as the ones from start up Armure Jewelery who grows most of their diamonds in a laboratory setting that emulates the natural process of a diamond's growth.

5. Avoiding waste

Each year, at least 8 million tonnes of plastic end up in the ocean, and it’s predicted that by 2050 there will be more plastic than fish in the sea. The brand Patagonia is currently collaborating with Samsung in order to create a washing machine to avoid the spread of microplastics in our oceans, our food and our fish. This machine’s wash cycle, according to Samsung, uses a bubble generator to make the water dissolve the detergent and produce a soapy foam that cleans clothes with a minimal amount of abrasion, which is what causes shedding. It also has a microfibre-catching filter that works with other compatible Samsung washers and apparently, it is set to cut microplastic emissions by up to 54%. 

Another way to tackle microplastics waste is an easier type of technology: the Guppy Bag. This bag is used to wash textiles in the washing machine and It reduces fibre shedding and protects our clothes as well as filtering the microfibres that do break and doesn’t lose any fibres itself. Microfibre filters and washing bags show how sustainable fashion innovations can also reduce pollution during the use phase of clothing.

6. Making new clothes from old ones

Over 26 billion pounds of clothing gets thrown aways and ends up in landfills each year. What if we were able to eliminate textile waste from the fashion industry and reduce the need for virgin resources and dye usage by nearly 100%? There are already companies out there who do just that by upcycling old yarns and fabrics. For example, the startup Humanity Center Designs have launched their prototypes and innovative Textile materials in 2021, HCD-Tex™, as well as developing their own yarn, fabric and apparel from waste that makes fabric & fashion more ethical and good for the planet, such as recycled PET fabrics developed from plastic bottles.

Sustainable fashion innovations can help reduce waste, pollution and resource use, but technology cannot transform the industry alone. Stronger legislation, responsible production and lower overall consumption are also essential.

Which of these sustainable fashion innovations do you think could make the biggest difference? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

[information sourced on medium.com and artsandculture.google.com

All images sourced on canva.com]