The Sunday News
Peter Matika Let’s get stylish
LAST Friday I had the honour of judging one of Zimbabwe’s perceived, innovative pageants – Miss Environment Zimbabwe, which advocates for the preservation and resuscitation of the environment. At the event, where the stunning young lasses wore attire and accessories made from recyclable material, I asked myself whether Zimbabwe was ready and capable of using, let alone appreciate this material.
In fashion terms this is called sustainable fashion, which is also called eco fashion. It is a part of the growing design philosophy and trend of sustainability, the goal of which is to create a system, which can be supported indefinitely in terms of environmentalism and social responsibility.
According to environmentalists, sustainable fashion is part of the larger trend of sustainable design, where a product is created and produced with consideration to the environmental and social impact it may have throughout its total lifespan, including its “carbon footprint”.
Also according to the May 2007 Vogue, sustainable fashion appears not to be a short-term trend but one which could last multiple seasons.
While environmentalism used to manifest itself in the fashion world through a donation of percentage of sales of a product to a charitable cause, fashion designers are now re-introducing eco-conscious methods at the source through the use of environmentally friendly materials and socially responsible methods of production.
I read that Earth Pledge, a non-profit organisation committed to promoting and supporting sustainable development, at least 8 000 chemicals are used to turn raw materials into textiles and 25 percent of the world’s pesticides are used to grow non-organic cotton. This causes irreversible damage to people and the environment, and still two thirds of a garment’s carbon footprint will occur after it is purchased.
International designers say that they are trying to incorporate these sustainable practices into modern clothing, rather than producing the current type of clothes we wear today.
Due to the efforts taken to minimise harm in the growth, manufacturing, and shipping of the products, sustainable fashion is typically more expensive than clothing produced by conventional methods. Due to this expense even though the motive is to save the environment I really don’t find it feasible for countries such as ours.
I read in a magazine that sometime in 2012 the world’s largest summit on fashion sustainability was held in Copenhagen, where at least more than 1 000 key stakeholders in the industry converged to discuss the importance of making the fashion industry sustainable.
The Copenhagen Fashion Summit has since then gathered thousands of people from the fashion industry in their effort to create a movement within the industry.
In the same year the Sustainable Apparel Coalition launched the Higg Index, a self-assessment standard designed to measure and promote sustainable supply chains in the apparel and footwear industries.
Founded in 2011, the Sustainable Apparel Coalition is a non-profit organisation whose members include brands producing apparel or footwear; retailers; industry affiliates and trade associations; the US Environmental Protection Agency, academic institutions and environmental non-profits.
It is also said that working with recycled material is as good as using new textiles and the aim is to use more recycled post-consumer material in the future.
It should not be any different at all in look, quality or appearance compared to our conventional cotton orders. The difference is the source of raw material.
The current recycling technology of post-consumer textiles is rather limited to mechanical recycling of natural fibres such as cotton and wool.
In the mechanical recycling procedure the textile fibres are being regenerated in a way that makes the textile fibres shorter and with lower quality than virgin fibre.
They, therefore, need to be blended with virgin fibres to reach the quality standards we have.
Fabrics made from recycled items are now becoming more commonplace with recycled polyester made from recycled soft drink bottles now being made by companies such as Patagonia, Marks and Spencer and Armani Jeans.
Armani Jeans have been incorporating eco fabrics and design since the mid 90s. Their first eco project started in 1995 with the development of a process to recycle denim.
This was revolutionary for the time and the jeans were displayed at the Science and Technology Museum of Milan.
Later that year, Armani Jeans developed new materials using 60 percent recycled wool and recycled cross dyed cotton and introduced hemp eco washes into the collection.
This experimentation has continued with the production of an organic knitwear range, the use of pure alpaca and the engagement with fair-trade cotton projects in Peru and Bolivia and recycled polyester.
Some fashion businesses use fabric waste generated during the manufacturing process or material that has been designated as unusable due to minor faults.
Companies like From Somewhere specialise in creating collections from this kind of fabric, and refer to this process as “upcycling” rather than recycling.
None the less eco fashion is on the rise but will definitely need more capital injected into the project to see it grow in Africa’s developing countries such as Zimbabwe.
Till next week let’s keep styling. For feedback please sms or whatsapp ONLY 0772 337 433
