London Fashion Week: Sustainability at the forefront

As the world calls for action towards the global warming issue, designers at London Fashion Week are examining their own production practices in a growing effort to promote greater transparency within the fashion industry. The main aim is definitely that of exploring new, sustainable and ethical practices, pushing fashion forward within a cleaner, eco-conscious and innovative business.

“I think that we have to be aware of what we’re doing, how we’re treating the other, the animals and the Earth. We have to be responsible human beings”, Tommy Hilfiger said in his recent interview with The Independent. “As an industry, we have to do the right thing for society; recycling, upcycling, making fabrics out of plastics and cleaning the oceans are our duty to the world and to ourselves.”

Since 2013, the American designer has indeed been teaming up with Better Cotton Initiative, which invests in spreading greater agricultural practices in order to minimize negative impacts on the social, economical and environmental schedule.

As a result, this season Tommy Hilfiger successfully achieved his previously-fixed purpose of utilising 100% organic cotton by 2020: it’s the core material of his SS20 “see-now, buy-now” collection presented at London Fashion Week, not to mention that 75% of the collection was entirely made of recycled and renewable fabrics. Low-impact washed denim was obtained with reduced water and energy, while leftovers were employed for the finishing touches. And check this out: if you bump into a tiny green line alongside Tommy Hilfiger’s signature blue-red-white stripes on price tags and labels, it means the clothing piece has been made through sustainable practices. What better way for the brand to signal its own commitment to transparency towards customers?

Roland Mouret is a convinced supporter of transparency within the fashion industry as well: “The price of every product must tell the ecological truth”, he wrote on his FW20 collection‘s notes. The core fabrics are 70% sustainable, and the brand will be soon 100% carbon neutral thanks to offsetting. Connectivity is essential for the brand in order to accomplish a good, sustainable result: the French designer is indeed entailing important collaborations with socially-conscious brands, such as Dear Frances for the shoes (which uses sustainable processes to slow down the fashion cycle) and Bottletop (which creates chain mail accessories through upcycled metal ring pulls, empowering also disadvantaged young people through health education and vocational training projects).

A fertile partnership stands also at the heart of Shrimps cruelty-free and eco-friendly brand strategy. With an Italian mill committed to creating recycled and environmentally conscious fabrications, Hannah Weiland was able to work with a special fake fur -entirely made of recycled materials- as the core material of her Fall 2020 collection.

Old samples and dead stock fabrics were instead the materia prima Ashley Williams used to conceive creative patchworks for her Fall 2020 collection. 

Matty Bovan wants to challenge our very perceptions and barriers about what is socially acceptable and what is not, through his mix&match approach in fashion. Upcycling old items -from Fiorucci olds denims, Swarovski crystals and baby dolls – and assembling them with the designer’s ace in the hole (knitwear pieces) proved to be the perfect creative solution in order to fully represent his conceptual “free associations”.

 

 

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