5 Eco-Fashion Trends To Watch Out For During NYFW - mindbodygreen.com

While natural materials like organic cotton and linen are more sustainable than petroleum-based synthetics like polyester, we won't be able to grow them forever. Industrial agriculture depletes essential soil nutrients, and Slow Factory's founder Celine Semaan told the audience at the U.N. that we likely have only 60 harvests left until our farmland is no longer able to support this type of production.

The industry needs to stop relying on these new materials, also known as virgin materials, when making clothes. "We don't need virgin materials to make amazing products," Dio Kurazawa, founder of The Bear Scouts, an eco-consultancy for high fashion brands, told the U.N. Instead, designers can promote a more circular economy by reusing fabric that has been discarded, either by the consumer or the designer. For inspiration on how this can work, you can look to Eileen Fisher, which collects shoppers' old clothes to either resell or break down and remake into new pieces, and Christy Dawn, a trendy dress brand that works exclusively with deadstock fabric that other designers didn't need.

Another technique that's becoming more common is making fabric out of waste. Brands such as Nike, Mara Hoffman, and Patagonia are now incorporating recycled plastic into their products. To do so, they are using REPREVE, a fiber made by collecting recycled bottles and other sources of PET plastic (think: hummus containers), cleaning them, chopping them into flake, melting them into chips, then turning that into recycled fiber. Helen Sahi, VP of Corporate Global Sustainability at Unifi, the company that manufactures REPREVE, says the initiative has transformed over 14 billion bottles so far and shows no sign of slowing. "A lot of big brands have huge sustainability goals around climate change and reducing their greenhouse gas footprint—not just at their facilities but in their supply chain as well," she told mbg from a REPREVE showroom this week. "One of the easiest ways to do it is switching from a virgin fiber to a recycled fiber."

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https://www.mindbodygreen.com/articles/take-aways-from-the-united-nations-fashion-summit-2019