The exquisite and gorgeous fashion shop windows will not tell you that the greenhouse gas emissions from textile production are as high as 1.2 billion tons per year, which is much higher than the sum of all international air and sea emissions; and some clothing will release ultra-fine plastic after washing. Fiber, these ultrafine fibers that can hardly be removed and enter the food chain, about 500,000 tons flow into the ocean every year. There is no doubt that the younger generation is the consumer group that many fashion brands most want to attract. According to reports from relevant agencies, 72% of young people are willing to spend more money on things that are produced in a sustainable manner. The implication is that non-environmentally friendly fashion has been difficult to get into their eyes. To this end, many fashion brands have tried their best to increase investment in sustainable development and recycling and environmental protection. Among them, H&M and NIKE have achieved remarkable results in their familiar fields.
Turning waste into sustainable fashion
this year epidemic raging, H & M’s design team did not seek inspiration from the past, but to stimulate creativity, appreciate the value of various things around. They start thinking about things that are easily overlooked, such as garbage can be made into fashion? Can waste be turned into beautiful clothing? Inspired by this, the H&M design team used waste recycled materials to make all the clothes in the Conscious Exclusive 2020 autumn and winter series.
Conscious Exclusive is an incubator of new fabrics and new ideas. Eventually, these new fabrics and new ideas will be integrated into H&M’s main clothing series. The emergence of recycling and reuse technologies means that waste can be transformed into beautiful fashion. This unique “fabric-fabric” recycling process allows H&M designers to convert discarded fabrics into high-quality polyester fibers. For example, Hemp Biofibre is made from sesame oil seed waste, and Naia Renew is recycled fiber. The fabrics of Conscious Exclusive 2020 autumn and winter series are mainly from old carpet fibers, old plastic packaging and plastic bottles.
This series emphasizes a variety of single products with various functions, which can be dressed up or low-key. The exaggerated fluffy design, soft and beautiful version, gorgeous and elegant hemming and trendy fashion temperament create a dark poetry and feeling, which is the perfect choice for the holiday season. Important women’s wear made from recycled polyester, including a yellow drop-shoulder print dress (with exaggerated fluffy folds on the chest), black taffeta mini skirt (with eye-catching puff sleeves), and forest green tights Dress skirt (pleated corset and asymmetrical lantern sleeves). A dignified black short suit and wide-leg pants made of Naia Renew silk blend fabric. Necklace and earrings made of various recycled metals are bold and bold, creating a sense of rebellion for this poetic and elegant costume.
The men’s suit fabrics of the Conscious Exclusive 2020 autumn and winter series are also made of recycled polyester, Tencel (Tencel), and wool blends, with detachable flower decorations. In addition, the yellow jacquard work jacket is made of recycled polyester, and the trousers are made of sesame oil seed waste.
Environmental protection, from jeans began
last year, the UK environmental charity Ellen MacArthur Foundation released a new “The Jeans Redesign” (jeans redesign) guidelines, designed to reduce the impact of denim clothing production process on the environment. To this end, the guidelines put forward requirements for the durability of clothing, the safety of materials, recyclability and traceability.
Based on this guide, H&M launched a modern tooling style men’s denim series. The denim fabric of the H&M series is a blended fabric (containing organic cotton and 35% recycled cotton). Compared with traditional dyes, the dyes used can reduce water waste and energy consumption. To achieve the recyclability of denim, H&M uses Tencel yarn instead of polyester yarn so that all garments can be easily recycled at the end of their life cycle.
Through the “Denim Redesign” project, H&M has been actively rethinking the design and production of denim products. That is to go further on the original basis, and strive to achieve complete recycling of all processes. H&M’s designer Jon Loman said: “Sustainability and recyclability should be regarded as parameters that designers must follow. As a designer, the most important thing is to find new opportunities and learn more about denim clothing. Production technology. Through this series, we hope to take the next step towards a more sustainable product.”
H&M’s Nordic denim brand Weekday focuses on desizing, color-retaining, washed, and simple, neutral-fitting jeans and jackets. Weekday designer Per Axen said: “Weekday clothing fabrics contain 20% recycled materials. We considered all the details and use as few new fabrics as possible. For this reason, we checked the spinning table and used thicker The spinning thread to prevent the fabric from fraying and breaking, and the spinning thread is biodegradable. This project is both a challenge and a good opportunity to learn, because circular design is the future of fashion. Denim is our core clothing category, so we start with denim And it seems natural to lead the fashion frontier.”
There is no doubt that the prospect of H&M’s innovative design of denim is worth looking forward to.
The story behind sustainable Kids
recently, H & M and China Taiwan illustrator Whooli Chen cooperation to create a sustainable children’s clothing line. Whooli Chen’s works are full of dreamy colors and artistic levels, and are famous for their organic artistic language and surreal style.
For this children’s clothing series, Whooli Chen commented: “I imagine a forest filled with dense fog, where flowers are everywhere, and there are furry animals everywhere. The children set out to find all kinds of wild things.” When designing, Whooli Chen was right. Animals, flowers, and other natural objects are expressively and fancifully expressed. “I always find inspiration from plants and animals, but literature is also a magical source of inspiration. I try to tell stories in all of my illustrations.” The first step in her creative process is to create pencil drawings, and then use digital tools to add Gradient colors to manipulate colors.
The entire collection is made of sustainable materials, such as organic cotton, recycled polyester, Tencel, cotton purchased through the Better Cotton Initiative, and Texloop RCOT, which was used in children’s clothing for the first time. Texloop is a fabric with high recycled cotton content. It processes high-value waste cotton into new fabrics, retaining the original fiber quality and using it for the next generation of recycled materials. Sofia Lofstedt, head of children’s clothing design at H&M, said: “In this collaboration, we used more sustainable materials. For example, long-sleeved T-shirts are made of 50% Texloop RCOT recycled cotton, which is the highest percentage of recycled cotton used by H&M. Of course, we are very excited to work with Whooli Chen. Her illustrations are very unique and beautiful, soft and precise. These illustrations look very beautiful in the design of children’s clothing.”
