Innovations and Movements in the Fashion Industry

The article “4 Innovations helping the fashion industry embrace the circular economy” by Johnny Wood, discusses how the technological innovations developed help with the environmental movement of the fashion industry. One innovation is the use of plant based materials in sustainable leather and other textiles. This natural process doesn’t use any harmful chemicals which are present in regular leather nor the pollutants in pleather. This way, the leather is able to be biodegraded into natural ingredients and is overall better for the environment. There has also been a development to give clothing a digital ID. This is known as CircularID and also helps to make fashion more sustainable by allowing brands to to sell, and resell their garments numerous times while tracking its lifecycle. The ID contains information about the fabric makeup which can help the garment to be recycled at the end of its life. Overall, there have been many other implementations of technology in an effort to make fashion more sustainable. Pertaining to the growth of environmentally conscious practices in the fashion industry, Johnny Wood’s article states that the global second hand market is set to nearly double by 2027, reaching $350 billion. It is important to recognize that the fashion industry and its influence continues to skyrocket throughout the years, and clothing production will continue to do so as well without alternatives. Fast fashion practices and countless short-lived trend cycles will inevitably cause further harm to our environment, and the second-hand market is a major solution to part of this problem. Therefore, our utilization of second-hand shopping is extremely positive. It can be confidently stated that this will continue to grow not only because of data and growth recorded in the field, but also because of a fashion trend’s ability to cycle through, die down, and resurface years later. This practice enhances the value of purchasing clothes second-hand, as a piece that was in style 20 years ago and discarded by its owner then may be sought out now by someone else. The future of our planet is relying on us to reduce the mass amounts of useless waste, and this has been made possible by the popularity of second-hand shopping. Now that platforms online, such as ThreadUp, Depop, TheRealReal, and others are increasing in sales, we can hope for better effects on our environment in the future. Overall, without the use of technological developments and the effort of other innovations like upcycling, the fashion industry would not be moving in the same direction towards being sustainable. All of these factors work hand in hand to create more environmentally friendly methods in the production of clothing into the end of the lifecycle by recycling clothes properly. Based on this article, i think that the fashion industry will continue to become more and more sustainable as there is new technology introduced. Especially in our generation, people are very environmentally conscious and prioritize this in their daily life through many things, one being the clothes they wear. Because of this, i think fashion brands will also prioritize sustainability in order to attract consumers.