Circular Fashion: Today and Tomorrow

What Circular Fashion Means for the Future

“We are starting to understand the social and environmental impact of overproduction and consumption of our clothes. But it doesn’t have to be this way. Circular fashion is a great way to better the environment and recycle clothes. More fashion brands need to start implementing it like H&M is. I advise people to start shopping for clothes that will last them years rather than what is trending at the moment.” -Brandon Alfaro

“Let’s enable the products of today to become the resources of tomorrow.”

The concept of circular fashions starts with seeing products and materials kept in use for as long as possible. This would include: restoring fabrics, cutting out waste, reselling pieces, and recycling everything possible.

There are multiple unique circular design practices. Today I would like to focus on one aspect—raw materials. The beginning of a circular fashion system starts with textiles. All fabrics fall into one of two categories. The first is mono materials the second is blended materials. Mono materials consist of one material instead of a blend making it easier to reuse and recycle. Blends or composite materials have several fibers causing difficulties in the recycling and reusing process.

To create a circular fashion cycle, suppliers and designers must work together to consider using mono materials in their collections.

Look for the recycling label when shopping.

“What if clothes were alive and photosynthesized?”

Imagine a circular fashion cycle where the raw materials can decompose into the ground to fertilize the earth we walk on. I would like to introduce biogarmentry, an innovative technique for creating the first living fibers.

This fiber is currently a work in progress and is 100% biodegradable. This disruptive textile is created from algae and acts as a plant, absorbing CO2 and releasing oxygen.

Once the lifespan of the textile is over, it can decompose into the soils of the earth. How cool is that?

By understanding the concept behind circular fashion, our minds can explore the limitless possibilities of improving this strategy. So years from now, circular fashion can create a sustainable plan that will forgo the existing wasteful dynamic of the modern fashion industry and allow us to discover a fully circular fashion cycle.—By Thy X. Phan (Your Daily Cup of Thy)