Sustainability has never been important to shoppers, nor to the fashion industry. This generation cares about the planet; we might have enjoyed February’s freakishly warm temperatures, but we know that the reasons behind it are dark. We don’t want small animals to be choking on plastics they find in our oceans, nor do we think it’s right that Arctic blocks of ice are now mired with sizeable chunks of polystyrene. We think it’s inexcusable that 300,000 tonnes of unwanted clothes are binned, not recycled, every year.
The rise of ethical and eco-friendly brands is impossible to ignore, but how do we reconcile a love of fashion and clothes with sustainability? A relatively unknown term is currently being bandied around the industry claiming to be the answer – circular fashion. An off-shoot of the circular economy concept – an economic system aimed at minimising waste and making the most of resources – it challenges fashion’s linear production line that ends with clothes being discarded in landfill.
“It is a somewhat broader term that ‘sustainable fashion’, as circular fashion combines the principles of both sustainability and circularity,” says Dr Anna Brismar, who coined the term in 2014, and has worked with luxury resale destination Vestiaire Collective to create a an easy-to-use consumer guide to the subject. “Circular fashion relates to not only fashion per se, but also to sportswear, outdoorwear and everydaywear.
“It can be defined as clothes, shoes or accessories that are designed, sourced, produced and provided with the intention to be used and circulated 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.”
Circular fashion means that every part of the life span of a garment is cyclical – it starts with design of a piece and how much longevity and timelessness it has, then onto the materials and whether or not they are sustainable, before the making of the item – is its production fair and ethical; are workers and animals rights being upheld? Once the piece has become tired, it should be repaired or redesigned, then – rather than being binned – rented, swapped or sold at second-hand. All this means less will be bought and less will left ruining our planet.
“The future of fashion is circular. It has to be,” Stella McCartney, sustainability pioneer, told us. “Right now, the equivalent of one dump truck of textiles gets landfilled or burned every second, and by 2025 the clothing waste accumulated between now and then will weigh as much as today’s world population. We can’t ignore it.
“We are always working on new and interesting ways to be more circular as a company,” she added. “It gives us the exciting opportunity to get creative. Currently, the fashion system is linear, so it needs a radical transformation – we need to work together as an industry with huge levels of commitment and innovation and challenge the status quo. We need to evolve from just reducing our impact to making a positive impact, but this can only happen if we all work together.”
McCartney isn’t alone in her viewpoint. Bethany Williams, rising design star and recipient of the 2018 Queen Elizabeth II Prize for Design, has been applauded for her rigorous reinvention of the typical production process by turning it into a virtuous cycle. The London-based designer not only uses sustainable materials to create her streetwear collections, but also works with different charities and takes an active role in helping them, rather than just donating money (although a portion of her collections is given away to the various foundations). She gives jobs to those using a respective charity’s services so that they form part of the production line, which bolsters self-worth and self-esteem.
“It’s about trying to make a cycle of production rather than just a production line. It’s a different way of operating,” Williams told us in February this year. Her goal is to set up a UK-based social manufacturing unit. “I’d set it up as a training programme and run it as a social enterprise,” she says. “I’d have different structures, so my brand and my wholesale business, then consultancy, lecturing and teaching and exhibit as an artist.”