Circular fashion
We went from fast fashion (high volume, low prices, cheap labor, bad environmental practices) to slow fashion (low volume, lasting pieces, thoughtful materials and production methods). A logical shift when you think of the rise in awareness about who made our clothes and how they are made, because don´t we all want beautiful clothes that last a lifetime and that don´t hurt our planet and the people who make them?
But despite a change in awareness and shifting spending behavior, the average consumer still throws away almost 32 kg of clothing per year of which 84% ends up in landfills. Globally that is a lot of textile. We must and can do better. And although slow fashion keeps in mind our planet and all living beings that live on it, circular fashion goes a step further when it comes to design and waste.
Circular fashion is is based on the main principles of the circular economy and sustainable development, and relates to all facets of the fashion industry, including apparel, sportswear and outdoor wear. The model is based on sixteen key principles, which concern the entire life cycle of a product, from design and sourcing, to production, transportation, storage, marketing and sale, as well as the user phase and the product’s end of life. Anna Brismas, inventor of the concept, defines circular fashion as follows: “Circular fashion can be defined as clothes, shoes or accessories that are designed, sourced, produced and provided with the intention to be used and circulate responsibly and effectively in society for as long as possible in their most valuable form, and hereafter return safely to the biosphere when no longer of human use.”
Keeping up with the fast fashion model, which is based on a linear “take-make-dispose” system, is just not sustainable. Nor for our planet, not for the producers, not for ourselves, not for anyone. Fast fashion is all about mass and cheap: marketing to reach mass-markets, manufacturing to mass-produce, and consumers who buy the latest trends for cheap. But cheap clothing comes at a very high risk to our planet. Textile production has become one of the most polluting industries, producing 1.2 billion tons of CO2 per year. To keep up with this level of consumerism, natural resources are put on substantial pressure, causing high levels of pollution; including the use of toxic chemicals, dangerous dyes, and synthetics fibers seeping into water supplies and in our ocean. Over 60% of textiles used in the clothing industry are made in China and India, where coal-fueled power plants increase the carbon footprint of each garment.
In a circular model, products are designed and developed with the next use in mind. Or, fashion products are designed keeping in mind resource efficiency, non-toxicity, biodegradability, and recyclability. They should also be sourced and produced with priority given to recyclable sources and ethical practices. When the products are not suitable for recycling, the material should be biodegradable and used as compost for plants and other organisms in the ecosystem. The ultimate goal of circular fashion is that the lifecycle of products should bring no socio-economic or environmental harm. To achieve this, circular fashion operates with these four areas in mind:
1. Design with sustainability and circularity in mind. Design out waste and the use of virgin materials, consider from a design perspective how a product will be made, used and disposed of. Issues include the use of single fibers as opposed to blends, making sure hardware and trims are easily removable and can be reused and the use of safe dyes and finishes.
2. Produce sustainably. Using natural resources in a way that enables them to be restored and regenerated rather than depleted causing pollution. For example through using renewable energy, organic cotton, closed loop manufacturing, or fibres from the by-products of food production.
3. Use for a longer time and buy less. Creating long lasting clothing, footwear and accessories and rethinking ownership through resale, sharing and rental models and redesigning and reworking existing products, such as adding value through upcycling. Also, caring for our clothes with care, such as the way we use them, wash them and repair them. This way there is less need to buy new items.
4. Recycle easily back into raw inputs. Current collection, reprocessing and recycling systems and facilities currently fall short of what would be needed to keep all existing apparel and footwear in circulation whether through resale, upcycling or recycling. New technologies are emerging to recycle garments, including those made of blends, back into fibers of similar quality to virgin raw materials (rather than only able to produce downgraded fibers and yarns less suitable for apparel.)
5. Return any waste to nature easily, quickly and safely. While technical terms such as “biodegrade” and “compost” are not normally associated with fashion, these are critical processes in circular fashion (as not all waste can be designed out entirely) and ones which fashion professionals need to get comfortable with in order to make informed decisions. Materials should return to the soil quickly, easily and without polluting if they are no longer able to be kept in use.
Some people argue that circular fashion is just another trend in the fashion industry, but there is no other option than to go circular if we want to continue living and enjoying our planet in a healthy and sustainable way. A shift needs to be made within mindset of the fashion industry (and of its consumers). “It’s about trying to make a cycle of production rather than just a production line. It’s a different way of operating,” says London-based fashion designer Beth Williams in Harpers Bazaar.
In 2017 the Ellen MacArthur Foundation launched the Make Fashion Circular initiative. The main goal of this initiative is to stimulate collaboration among the leaders of the textile industry, brands, innovators and stakeholders to move towards a circular fashion economy. The entire fashion industry needs to re-design its operating model into a circular system. There have been some initiatives, like clothing swaps (trading in an older pair of jeans for a newer pair), biodegradable clothing (which do not use chemical dyes or finishing chemicals), giving customers store credit for exchanging their clothing (which they can now re-purpose), creating long-lasting items that can be resold, and taking discarded textiles and transforming them into fashionable clothing. This is just the beginning, because to have a truly circular system, the transformation needs to be a collective one, with businesses, governments, citizens, and innovators joining hands. But with all change, we must start somewhere and as more and more brands and consumers become aware of and invest in the circular economy we are headed one step in the right direction.
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