Responsible Fashion Design Goes Beyond ‘just’ Using Sustainable Fabrics

The second Future Fabrics Expo was hosted at the London College of Fashion on November 7th – 9th 2012, and was attended by a rather large number of designers, buyers, and students. Roughly 650 fabrics with reduced environmental impact, from around 50 textile mills worldwide, were showcased, along with inspirational and/or interactive videos and information panels.

By looking deeper into the fashion and textile supply chain, to drive forward the discussion on sustainability, the second edition provided an even more inspiring and informative experience than the first edition. It managed to demonstrate that responsible fashion design indeed does go much beyond ‘just’ using sustainable fabrics.

Future Fabrics Expo: Background and Aims

The exhibition was organised for the second time by The Sustainable Angle (TSA), a UK-Swiss non-for-profit organisation whose mission is to initiate and support projects that contribute to minimising the environmental impact of industry and society.

The Future Fabrics Expo project focuses on the fashion industry, how its environmental and to some extent social impact can be reduced through innovation in the textile industry, and novel ideas to transform the fashion system and design practice. Its intent is to inform and inspire current and soon-to-be fashion designers and buyers about the variety, availability, and viability of sustainable fabrics; to spread knowledge about the use of sustainable textiles in fashion; and to change how these fabrics are perceived in the fashion industry overall. To achieve that, the organisation works in a variety of ways, both hands-on and conceptually.

Consequently, key efforts go into tracking down fabrics with the quality that high-end fashion designers expect. Designers and buyers are willing and happy to learn about how these fabrics have been produced, and in what way they are different, better, than what is available to them ‘off the peg’. Fashion designers are thus informed and updated about the existence of high quality sustainable textile options that are currently available and that are suitable for mid- to high-end fashion brands.

Further, while designers are usually presented with only small swatches to determine the suitability of a fabric for their purpose, TSA offers them access to sample fabrics instead. As this allows the designers to experience drape and feel of a fabric, they immediately develop confidence that the fabric will perform exactly as they require.

TSA’s Educational Role

Another important role of the Expo is to encourage designers to be open to ideas that go beyond materials, and impact their whole supply chain, their own design practise, and the fashion system – habits, traditions, state-of-the-art approaches – within which they are building their brand.

Finally, the TSA’s educational role cannot be underestimated – not only for students but also for professionals within the industry, from category buyers to brand designers, range managers, and merchandisers. Decision makers in the mainstream retail industry are not always sufficiently familiar with the quality, performance, and production differences that come with different fabric types. The fact that large luxury brands such as Gucci are in the initial phase of building their own sustainable fabrics library shows that education is indeed relevant, and that there is an opportunity window whereby these brands will be able to influence and engage with their second-tier suppliers.

Selection Criteria

When evaluating the fabrics and the mills to be included in their exhibition, TSA focuses primarily on the environmental criteria detailed in Illustration 1. Equally important are quality, aesthetics, and suitability for both fashion and function, as well ethical and local production, recycled materials, and entirely certified supply chains.

図1: Future Fabrics Expo evaluation criteria
(Source: (c) thesustainableangle.org)

Future Fabrics year-round

TSA’s activities do not stop with organising the yearly Future Fabrics Expo, however. In addition, the organisation acts as a marketing channel for suppliers, presenting products to key industry members and press, for instance. On appointment, the full range of fabrics can be viewed and touched in TSA’s small, effectively organised showroom in North Notting Hill, London, and their experts are available to assist designers and brands in their efforts to source more sustainable fabrics. The Expo – either as a whole, or only for a subset of specific fabrics – is also available by appointment as in-house event for medium to large brands.

Information for interested fabric mills
Fabrics and mill credentials, and verification to the environmental criteria outline above, are subject to a rolling application and thorough review throughout the year.

The Sustainable Angle requires interested fabric mills to send samples as well as detailed production/certification information with all submissions.

The current range of fabrics represented by TSA is produced by mills from around the globe: Europe, the Americas, Asia, and Africa.

Further supplier documentation can be found here.