The Changing Face Of Fashion: Building A Sustainable Supply Chain

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Alternatives to commercial wool, Alternatives to cotton, Alternatives to Silk, Alternatives to synthetic textiles, building a sustainable supply chain, changing face of fashion, eco fabrics, fabric suppliers, fashion blog, fashion brands, fashion labels, fashion supply chain, freelance fashion designer, garment manufacturer, innovation, reduce wastage, startup fashion brands, sustainability, sustainable fashion

If there’s one retail industry that remains reasonably unaffected by rising prices and inflation, it is apparel. Everyone buys clothes, and the choice is often about which clothes to buy than regarding whether to buy them at all.

“There’s no such thing as too many dresses.”

“One cannot have too many shoes.”

These statements, often made in passing, are reflective of a global economy that rarely sees slumps, if ever. As an answer to ever-changing demands, fast fashion too has come into the picture, change collections six times a year.

However, there is the elephant in the room. And that elephant is squatting squarely in landfills across the globe, weighing trillions of tons, if not more.

As one of the economy’s driving forces, fashion has a responsibility towards adopting sustainable practices, and one way to do that is to build a supply chain that reduces wastage and improves efficiency. What’s more, customers today are starkly aware of the consequences of their buying habits- while they may or may not make fewer purchases, they are certainly looking out for labels that reduce their impact on the planet. Are you one of them?

What is a fashion supply chain? It encompasses everything that happens in the business to bring a product to the shelf for purchase. A supply chain includes design and manufacture, as well as logistics and transportation. In the landmark book titled ‘To Die For’ by Lucy Siegle, she says that this seemingly straightforward step has 101 sub-steps!

The trouble with apparel and sustainability usually begins with the numbers. One pair of jeans never harmed anyone, but one billion? This is why customers are rapidly turning to locally sourced, organic and sustainable clothing. Because today, we could really use a few drops in the ocean.

How can you, as a business, contribute to these efforts? By making your back-end more sustainable. Here are a few pointers to follow:

1. Have absolute control over your inventory. This is important not just for more sales but to be able to produce and market only as much as you can really sell. Overproduction is fast fashion’s biggest problem, but you can help solve that.

2. Offer customization options so that you can go into production on some products only after they have been purchased by the customer. This helps reduce the need for disposal and deep discounts which in turn cause wastage.

3. When you design, design a collection. So many private labels today struggle with trying to do too many things at once. The problem is that all of these things rarely ever fit together. Instead, a capsule for each season is easier to shop, moves more products off your shelves and can be mixed and matched to make several different outfits.

4. Denim are some of the most resource-intensive products to make. Some brands like H&M have started a denim exchange initiative that allows the cloth to come back into production once it has been sufficiently used. Likewise, Levi’s phased out PFCs and found more environment-friendly options to make their denim water repellant. What’s more, some brands are also making denim from shredded plastic recovered from our oceans.

5. Spearhead initiatives to get people to buy less, or to recycle more! As a business, this sounds counterintuitive, but H&M’s Conscious effort proves that it can work. By offering discount coupons for old clothes and a host of initiatives to use more recycled cotton, it is building both price and material efficiencies into its supply chains. By 2020, H&M aims to use only organic or recycled cotton in its production.

As you might have observed from some of these pointers, a sustainable supply chain cannot work in a silo. You need an action plan that works across all stages of the production and buying process. Take the initiative to get people to wear your clothes at least twenty times before throwing them out, a product of good quality.

Likewise, you can also become an advocate for your own clothes by encouraging reselling of unused products- become the marketplace for customers who bought your clothing but never used them.

Each of these actions demands that you make changes every step of the way.

Confused as to where to begin? Get in touch with us using our contact form, for a perspective on how you can make your fashion business more sustainable and friendly for years to come.

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Supriya Ghurye is the founder and owner of Fuel4Fashion. She is a Freelance Fashion Designer and Brand Consultant helping fashion brands to create great products from idea to launch. Fuel4Fashion social links:  Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram

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Choosing Sustainability: The Changing Face Of Fashion

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Alternatives to commercial wool, Alternatives to cotton, Alternatives to Silk, Alternatives to synthetic textiles, eco fabrics, fashion blog, fashion brands, fashion labels, freelance fashion designer, innovation, startup fashion brands, sustainability, sustainable fashion, Suzanne Lee, The fashion industry processes

Our December blog series is dedicated to exploring the trends and shifts on the fashion landscape that may be mere blips today, but have the potential to be a full-blown revolution very soon. Our first blog in the series discusses sustainable textile options.

In a TED talk that has since been watch close to a million times, UPS’s Aparna Mehta makes a strong case for buying less and returning even less of clothing. As it turns out, one man’s fashion is another man’s trash. This doesn’t, however, apply on the retail end of things alone. Some studies show that thousands of gallons of water go into making one denim outfit, quantities that we as a planet just cannot afford anymore.

Stella McCartney has come out and taken a stand against fast fashion. Other influencers are following suit. In this scenario, it is worth thinking about sustainable garments from two perspectives. One, sustainable clothing is better for the planet. Two, sustainable clothing really is the future for every fashion business, and the sooner you get started, the better it is for you.

Luckily for us, there are several alternatives to the textiles we now use, and most of them perform at par, if not better than, their traditional counterparts.

• Alternatives to Silk: Perhaps fashion’s guiltiest pleasure, and one that doesn’t get as much of a bad rep as using animal hide is the making of silk. Apart from the process itself, Human rights Watch reports that over 3,50,000 children are employed in the industry.  Luckily, some alternatives have been found, and they are soon gaining prominence. Jute silk and silk derived from other plant fibers are finding acceptance. Ahimsa silk is an Indian innovation of waiting for the silkworm to evacuate its silken residence before using the cocoons for their yarn. IndiaBride and The Ethical Silk Company are just a few brands that are pioneering the use of sustainable silk.

• Alternatives to Cotton: Cotton is one of the most resource-heavycrops to grow. The pesticides and insect repellants used for cotton production often stay in the environment and the soil for many decades to come. One way to reduce the impact of cotton growing is to use organic cotton. Fornow, it is fairly expensive. However, as with all organic product, a rise indemand can quickly increase the supply capabilities and reduce prices.California based Synergy clothing uses organic cotton, as well as cottonblended with help and bamboo to design their clothing. What’s more, they usenatural dyes and follow a fair-trade policy that keeps everyone in the supplychain happy.      

• Alternatives to Synthetic Textiles: Nylon, polyester,and acrylic are some of the biggest pollutants ever produced. Some reportssuggest that even washing these clothes can leech microplastics into our oceansand permanently change the quality of water. It is rather inconvenient, then,that synthetic textiles are also cheap and easy to mass-produce.  Making a switch away from synthetic clothing needs to be a conscious choiceacross the supply chain. Isolated efforts have begun to use bamboo, jute, andhemp as alternatives. Fabric made from these materials is often much morebreathable as well. The key, of course, is in generating enough demand.

• Alternatives To Commercial Wool: As a textile,wool has many benefits. It generates warmth, wicks away moisture and ishypoallergenic as well. However, commercial practice has driven wool-farmingtowards crowded shelters and animals with very little immunity. Ethical wool is obtained from animals that have been raised on a natural farmin humane conditions, which naturally increases the animals’ immunity andlongevity, as well as the quality of wool itself. Organic wool is often alsodyed with natural dyes, making it that much more suitable for people who areallergic to chemical dyes.

Which of these materials would you want to experiment with in your next collection? What would be your biggest hindrance to doing so?

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Supriya Ghurye is the founder and owner of Fuel4Fashion. She is a Freelance Fashion Designer and Brand Consultant helping fashion brands to create great products from idea to launch. Fuel4Fashion social links:  Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram 

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A new approach to sustainable fashion

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Adidas zero waste soccer cleat, eco fashion, endlessly recyclable, ethical fashion, fair trade fashion, freelance fashion designer, recycle clothes, sustainability, zero waste fashion

The impact of fashion industry processes on the environment is increasing at an alarming rate. The world’s natural resources are being depleted at a rapid rate and cannot keep up with the growing demand for fast fashion. Water resources are one of the most heavily affected, with global demand for water exceeding supply in 2030 by as much as 40%. Fabric scrap and waste left over from garment manufacturing factories constitute 30-40% of waste generated by the textile and apparel industry.

Landfill of fabric scrap and waste left over

Sustainable fashion is the only way to overcome this crisis. Zero waste fashion, eco fashion, recyclable fashion, fair trade and ethical fashion are various forms of the sustainable fashion movement. Currently zero waste fashion is rapidly gaining traction amongst the fashion designer community.

Zero-waste fashion refers to items of clothing that generate little or no textile waste in their production. There are generally two strategies for zero-waste fashion:
1) Creative pattern making that uses 100% of a given material, and
2) Generating garments from remnant materials.

A recent example of sustainable fashion has been an initiative by Adidas the sportswear brand. With the “Endlessly Recyclable “Zero-Waste Soccer Cleat” , the company envisions a system where worn-out sportswear isn’t thrown away. Instead, it is broken down and remoulded with scrap material from other sources to create new products. The result is a product that can be recycled endlessly and prevent damage to the environment. Read complete article here.

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Supriya Ghurye is the founder and owner of Fuel4Fashion, the freelance fashion design studio for multiple product designing in apparels that caters to start-up fashion labels and growing fashion brands with a diverse portfolio of design services. She is a member of the Cherie Blair Foundation’s Women Entrepreneurship Program and has over a decade of fashion industry experience. Twitter , Instagram , Pinterest

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Creating the Perfect DIY Fashion Ensemble

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apparels, clothes, colors, DIY, Do it yourself fashion, fashion blog, fashion designers, fashion history, freelance fashion designer, garments, ideas, Punk, recycle clothes, sustainability, trends, upcycling fashion

Love wearing stuff you’ve created yourself? There are hundreds of posts out there dedicated to making your own fashion design – from old tees, shirts, skirts and more. DIY (Do-It-Yourself) fashion can be an interesting and inexpensive way to apply your creative skills and create some new and interesting clothes and accessories.

So why not create an ensemble entirely made up of your DIY creative skills? We’ve already showcased DIY fashion post in the past, and thought we’d put one up for you again, from the hundreds of examples we’ve come across. You’ll need a few hours, some glue, paints or markers, and a small amount of bling to create:

1. A Top (any t-shirt)
2. A pair of jeans (always a favorite!)
3. A pair of shoes (any serviceable pair)
4. A purse/clutch
5. A belt
6. A headband

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So here goes!

1. The Top

I loved this Lattice T-shirt design by Wobisobi. It’s simple to make, requires just a few cuts and studs to turn an ordinary boring tee into a glamorous top – no sewing needed. And it can be done in just twenty minutes!

2. Jeans

Tired of your old pair of jeans? Dip the lower portion – a few inches will do – in watered down bleach for a couple of hours (more if they’re dark), wash and let them dry completely. Then use fabric paint or permanent markers to create your choice of designs, like mintedstrawberry did. The bleach and washing might take half a day, but the designs are up to you, so an hour should do it! Bleach and color markers are the only tools needed!

3. Shoes

Spice up your old shoes with a little lace or studs like ispydiy – all you need is a glue gun and sufficient braid. Be sure to let the glue dry completely before you wear them though. Time required – 20 minutes.

4. Purse/Clutch

No ensemble is complete without a clutch, and we love this cute neon number by SurpriseDIY. This one requires a bit of effort as you’ll have to stitch the pieces together, but it requires straight stitches and should be easy to do. A little arty press stud or vintage button completes the bag. If you’re inclined, you can add a thin leather strap through button holes in the side as well and sling it over your shoulder. A couple of hours of effort – but the result is worth it!

5. Belt

Grab a decent length of canvas/cotton rope, slide a few beads from each side, knot up the ends and voila – a funky belt to go with your top and jeans! You’ll need no more than a few minutes for this, and the beads need to be the right size, like the ones transientexpression has used. If you’re inclined, dye the rope in fabric dye, but be sure to dry it well and wash thoroughly before use – you don’t want rope-marks on that funky top!

6. Headband

Create this funky leather headband from pieces of scrap leather and a vintage button, like missikrissie’s done. All you need is a plain old headband, some glue and leather scraps. You can create your own shapes and designs to turn heads your way with this funky headpiece.

Loved this piece? Do write in to us with your ideas and creations!

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Supriya Ghurye is the founder and owner of Fuel4Fashion, the first virtual design studio that caters to new and upcoming fashion design labels with a diverse portfolio of design services. She is a member of the Cherie Blair Foundation’s Women Entrepreneurship Program and has over a decade of fashion industry experience with international labels and start-ups.

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Cutting Edge Trends in the Fashion Design Industry – Zero Waste Fashion

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apparels, blog, fashion blog, fashion designers, fashion history, freelance fashion designer, pattern, Siddhartha Upadhyaya’s DPOL (Direct Pattern On Loom, sustainability, tech pack, technology, Virtual Fashion Design Studio, zero waste, Zero Waste Design, Zero Waste Manufacturing

As the fashion industry evolves and adapts to the evolving norms of environmental sustainability, new ways and means of reducing waste and increasing recyclability of clothing are being developed. Sustainability efforts have been focused on key areas like reducing fiber loss, yarn loss, fabric wastage and recycling materials for new garments.

Standard designs with cutting result in approximately 15 to 20 per cent of fabric wastage, resulting in millions of tons of garbage that typically ends up in landfills every year. To reduce this, designers came up with the concept of designing garments to ensure minimal or nil wastage of the fabric. The techniques to do this are called pre-consumer zero waste techniques. The main categories into which they fall are zero waste design and zero waste manufacturing.

Holly McQuillan – Kimono Twist dress – Image courtesy : http://goo.gl/Nh3zXi

Holly McQuillan – Kimono Twist dress pattern plotting – Image courtesy : http://goo.gl/Nh3zXi

In Zero Waste Design, the pattern maker cuts a pattern in such a way within the structure of the fabric so that there is no scrap of fabric unutilized. New York’s Parsons the New School for Design – the setting of the famous “Project Runway” series has launched a course on Zero waste fashion design and international zero waste fashion designers such as Mark Liu (England), Susan Dimasi (Australia) Julian Roberts (England) and Yeohlee Teng (Malaysia) are working to bring the trend into mainstream fashion. While creating patterns like jigsaw puzzles (Mark Liu’s “jigsaw cut”) which leave no cutting margins is one approach, the other is to drape the fabric and then decide where to tuck, cut and stitch the folds and layers to eliminate fabric loss, like David Andersen. The challenge lies in the fact that zero waste design turns the entire process of fashion design upside down. The standard approach in fashion is to create design illustrations and sketches, present these to a patternmaker who then creates the patterns for manufacturing. Here, the designer has to start with the pattern and then work backwards to determine what designs can accommodate. Holly McQuillan’s Kimono twist dress is a great example of applying zero waste design.

Zero Waste Manufacturing is done at the manufacturing stage to eliminate waste material cut-off. While techniques like Indian fashion designer and technologist Siddhartha Upadhyaya’s DPOL (Direct Pattern On Loom)- which creates the required panels directly in weaving the fabric, thereby eliminating all waste from cutting – are gaining ground, these are yet to reach mainstream production as the investment required in machine modification and retooling is tremendous, preventing commercial large-scale ventures from venturing into this area. An alternative has been to ensure the use of cut-offs in the construction of other garments, thereby ensuring that the combined patterns of two or more designs result in a zero waste production process. Other designers like Daniel Silverstein use the leftover cut-offs as appliques and embellishments to the garment, ensuring not a scrap is wasted.

Mark Liu’s Zero-Waste Designs – Image courtesy: http://goo.gl/oEl5LV

Another widely debated way (and according to the industry, one of the simplest to implement) is the reuse of old garments to create new designs. This is known as post-consumer zero waste, and involves the re-cutting, shaping and stitching of old fabrics to create new garments. Portions of garments recycled through a waste collection system are purchased by manufacturers to create their new designs. Denim manufacturers are among the first to promote the reuse of old garments to develop new ones, given the life and durability of the fabric. This is another way of extending the life of the garment and reducing waste. This method too faces hurdles in terms of mass-managing the way old garments are collected and recycled, but retailers like Wal-Mart are looking for solutions.

So how should a designer go about creating a zero waste design? Designer Zada Anditon offers some useful tips, as does Timo Rissanen. The biggest fundamental change for any designer is to get the mind-set right from the beginning. By working backwards from the fabric to developing the final design illustration requires a change in thinking from traditional designing and can be a long and arduous process.

Designers have to break the mold of their thinking process in order to design clothes that are truly zero-waste. But with an increasing effort towards better environmental sustainability, the trend should see increasing traction in coming years.

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Supriya Ghurye is the founder and owner of Fuel4Fashion. She is a Freelance Fashion Designer, Sourcing and Manufacturing Consultant helping fashion brands to plan, design and develop new collections with small quantity garment manufacturing. Fuel4Fashion social links: Twitter, Pinterest Instagram

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Upcycle Fashion

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apparels, eco fabrics, fabric, fashion blog, freelance fashion designer, garments, recycle clothes, reusable, sustainability, trends

Fashion has a new meaning in the fashion industry and that is called upcycle fashion. As they say, investing time, skill and creativity can never go waste, that’s why an unwanted or damaged dress can be transformed into your best item in the wardrobe.  It’s fun and also harmless for the environment as this method reduces the amount of waste and also to save money. So here are some easy ways to do upcycle fashion.

1. Upcycle Denim Sandal:

Summers are the time of fashion and the way to spend this summer’s intelligently is to Upcycle. For this you might need scissors, thread and needle and tons of inspiration.  For e.g. everyone has those extra long, baggy worn-out jeans that are taking the cupboard’s space but you will never wear them. Create these sandals which are opened toed and high ankle. Designed by Danielle, a designer based in Haifa, Israel, these jeans retain the signature features like zipper, buttons, pocket and the leather label.

Image Courtesy: http://goo.gl/XQTk32
Upcycle Sandals

Image Courtesy: http://goo.gl/9Yagq6
Beautiful Shoes

2. Rubber Dress:

Weddings are the time for extravagant and profligate spending and who can blame the bride for buying a wedding gown worth a fortune? But when you have the option to look good in an eco way then who would deny it? This dress is created by a British artist Susie Mac Murray and is made from 1,400 inverted rubber gloves, a common household variety for doing the dishes. It will be featured in New York’s Museum of Art and Designs in a new exhibition which is ironically named ‘Second Lives’.

Image Courtesy: http://goo.gl/mQ7YqR
Intelligent Upcycle Fashion

3. Gown made out of  Recycled Soda Tabs:

Sweet snacks are now converted into new and chic prom dress.  Sixteen year old Maura Pozek   spent 100 hours threading countless yards of pink ribbon to create this. This gown, called Cantastic also shimmers in the sunlight giving quite an entry to the wearer.

Image Courtesy: http://goo.gl/eZTpcQ
Cantastic

Image Courtesy: http://goo.gl/Q5lR1S
Spin-Web

Image Courtesy: http://goo.gl/HpqOdo
Another creative Venture

What do you think about these innovative and sustainable creations? Sound off in the comments section.

Innovation in fashion industry processes : Part 1- Air Dying

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air dyeing, apparels, dyeing, eco friendly processes, fashion, fashion blog, freelance fashion designer, garments, innovation, sustainability, technology

The lack of innovation in the fashion industry is apparent by the steps the big brands are taking to revolutionize their products. Recently Lewis created the buzz in the market by creating water less jeans that require 96% less water to wash.  Yet another mind blowing technology innovated to save water is Air Dying. This method of air dying fabrics uses air instead of water to pound clothes. Air replaces water to penetrate dyes inside the fibers and it also requires lesser force to dry since water becomes too heavy on the fabrics to later rinse and dry.

Hazardous dying

Apparel industry actually requires a lot of innovation that’s why critiques are quite happy with the technology of Air Dying fabrics. This technology though limited to US and to synthetic materials, can be a big breakthrough for the world in the days to come.  Fashion industry has a big hand in polluting water as each colored fabric requires about 100 gallons of water to dye, in the traditional ways.

Rivers get badly polluted due to industrial waste

The bad implications of marine life are another side effect of this water dying. Thus Air Dying fabrics did really change the face of the fashion industry, in eco-friendly way. Apart from Air Dying fabrics, many other revolutions are required today to make the fashion industry, a sustainable one. There is an increasing need of waste disposal. There are thousands of garments cut and designed every day, not each of them is used and most of them are thrown away in the big bins.

Large bins storing waste cloths

SO what do you think can be the ways in which fashion designers can add a little innovation in their work and save the planet?