Circular fashion. It’s a campaign that you may or may not have heard about, but one that you can contribute to in aid to help the planet step by step. Nearly every single person in the world influences and contributes to the fashion industry whether they realise it or not, making it one of, if not the largest industry on our planet…but that’s not always positive.
The world has evolved so much recently in a push to save Earth while we still can. It’s a norm to put your rubbish in the bin, put your plastics in the recycling and put your dog’s poop in the right bin, but what about your clothes? Do you know where they go when you dispose of them? Do you know how much waste is created by the fashion industry every year? This is where circular fashion comes in to play.
What is circular fashion?
The idealism of circular fashion is that of sustainable fashion, clothes that are designed to be reused and remade at the end of its use, clothes designed to maximize longevity and durability, produced with non-toxic, biodegradable materials, and most importantly, clothes that can be effectively reclaimed and recycled.
It is bizarre to think that some of the brands that you purchase from do not have these values and just sell their clothes for the money, not thinking about the impact on their own planet.
How can you contribute to circular fashion?
Even if you yourself are not selling the circular fashioned clothes, what can you do to contribute to the campaign you may ask? It’s simple really, by only purchasing items that you intend to keep and use for as much time as you possibly can, will contribute to fewer clothes being incarcerated.
By purchasing items that are organic and use non-toxic materials, items that can easily be redesigned or repaired rather than going out spending more money on new clothes. Last, but certainly not least, make sure to hand in any clothes or accessories that are no longer needed or of any use to charity organisations or second-hand shops to give them a new life, and help save ours.
What brands incorporate circular fashion?
Stella McCartney is just one brand of clothing that has turned that prospect of circular fashion into its own reality. Not only is this luxury brand taking steps to cement circularity into its company, but it is also always creating innovative ways to reuse materials such as polyester and nylon.
Stella McCartney ensures that their clothes are made with natural sources by supporting restorative farming practices like sourcing viscose from sustainably managed forests in Sweden.
What does the future hold for circular fashion?
The future is ours to make (very cliché, I know, but so true), making it up to us to create a future where circular fashion is used consistently in all fashion brands. Circular fashion the one-way ticket to putting a stop to this contribution and as the future progresses so does innovation in the circular fashion industry.
12.5% of the fashion industry committed to circular fashion in 2019 with that percentage growing yearly. Also, ‘Circularity ID’ is being sewn on clothes that have been recycled to improve the ease of recycling. As well, plants are being used as textile fabrics as The Sustainable Sting project uses nettles into organic fibres.
Furthermore, clothes are being made by Petit Pli that allows the material of the clothes to grow along with the child from up to nine months to four years old, reducing the needs for parents to replenish their child’s wardrobe.
Moreover, there are new methods being developed all the time to make low-cost fulfilment models, embedding circular design principles, and changing consumer principles away from their luxury brands to cheaper, safer, and more-environmentally friendly brands.
You and the circular economy
It is true that most clothes are put to waste. Even if you have just driven to your favourite retail outlet, walked into your favourite fashion store, and purchased a shirt that you may think the world of at that time, it will go to waste and be put on a landfill or incarcerated.
Circular fashion is vitally important, not only for the world and climate change, but for you yourself, you will be contributing to saving the world, being part of a revolution, and even saving money by using recycled clothing and material.
As our future, and the future of the circular economy progresses, fashion will be a topic that people will be more engaged with and interact with more as by healing the world, a sense of togetherness is formed, a sense that we are all in this as one.
So…what are you waiting for to be part of this revolution?