The Latest Fashion Trend: Eco and Sustainable, Part 1 of 2

In recent years, eco fashion consumption and supply has been a hot global topic. Earlier, in 2019, there were around 150 fashion brands who had signed the G7 Fashion Pact, which is a fashion coalition aimed to tackle environmental impacts from the fashion industry. In 2020, we have seen many fantastic eco trends in fashion raw materials, dyeing techniques, fashion designs, marketing and digitalization, and of the production life cycle, all this covers most of the fashion supply chain.

First let’s see the sustainable trends presented in Fashion Week. The Dakar Fashion Week open air event was held in December 2020 in Senegal's capital with the theme of environmental responsibility. Copenhagen Fashion Week is staging an even more intensified focus on sustainability by implementing stricter rules. Effective January 2023, fashion designs need to meet a series of 17 sustainability standards in order to participate in the event. Some of the requirements include using 50% recycled or organic materials, pledging not to destroy unsold clothes, packaging ecologically, and so on. Virtual fashion week uses online platforms or live streams to publish new fashion designs globally, which are more sustainable, economic, fast, and wide spreading than traditional fashion week.

Let’s now go behind the scenes and understand the recent effects of environmentally friendly and innovative ideas surrounding the raw materials used in the fashion world. In 2020, some newly invented plant-based clothing materials were made with kelp, algae from the sea, cactus, soybean, sugarcane, pineapple leaves, and minerals collected from perspiration. Kanye West's Yeezy Foam Runners, released in 2020 as a new style of trendy shoes, are also made from algae foams. Evidently, more fashion products may soon follow this leading technology and style. With a fast surge in the plant-based diet and a rise in sustainable fashion trends globally year by year, the ski industry is also catching up. Club Med now produces more snow wear with synthetic and plant-based fabrics. The plant-based raw materials are derived from soybeans and hemp. Some of the final products include the vegan jackets and vegan boots, which are becoming very popular.