THE CLOTHING INDUSTRY.....GLOBALLY....

01

Is the fashion industry sustainable? How Levi’s are carving a new path

© Provided by Smart Company is the fashion industry sustainable

The global fashion industry is a $2.5 trillion sector, but it’s also the second largest polluter in the world, following closely behind the oil industry. From water pollution and consumption, to waste, chemicals and soil degradation; the fashion industry’s greenhouse gas emissions, energy wastage and rainforest destruction are wreaking havoc on our planet. 

Why? Because consumers want affordable products. As such, companies need to produce garments that are affordable; and to get affordable products, companies more often than not have to make sacrifices.

It’s called ‘fast fashion’ and in the fashion world, it means cheaper materials, toxic textile dyes and worker exploitation. 

While many brands are happy to continue working as they are, a small number of brands are working to break the status quo by bringing sustainable practices to the forefront of the way they do business, and providing a better tomorrow for future generations.

Levi’s is one such company, and they’re leading the charge in the fashion industry, https://clothing-site.happytiger.co/,  for sustainability. 

Over the past decade Levi’s has implemented numerous initiatives, developed programs and pioneered material product innovations. In 2011, the company started their Worker Wellbeing initiative, which aims to improve the lives of people who make their products, assisting with their health, financial security and gender equality.

In their effort to reduce their environmental footprint Levi’s has also committed to sourcing more environmentally-friendly materials and using less water. 

Here are some of the ways Levi’s is changing the world of fast fashion.

Materials

Levi’s has been a pioneer in sourcing sustainable materials, continually innovating and looking for ways to produce the same product without the same reliance on cotton (which is traditionally very water intensive). 

Something you’ll see a lot of this season (and beyond) is Cottonised Hemp. Levi’s is not the first brand to use hemp in their garments, however Levi’s has found a way to “cottonise” it, meaning the final product is just as soft as cotton. 

Why hemp? It requires less water and land to grow, improves soil health, and needs fewer pesticides. You’ll also see the likes of Tencel and Ecovero in their products — both fibres produced from wood.

Water<>

One of Levi’s biggest achievements is their Water

Wellthread

The Levi’s Wellthread range is their most sustainable collection, designed and modelled on four principles — materials, people, environment and process. The products in this range are made in Worker Wellbeing facilities from rain-fed Cottonised Hemp or recycled denim and finished using their Water

Levi’s goal is to continue to develop innovative and sustainable design solutions and influence more responsible production practices across the industry.

The fashion industry is a competitive market, but with the world more focused on the environment than ever before, sustainable practices are guaranteed to place companies like Levi’s a step ahead.

The post Is the fashion industry sustainable? How Levi’s are carving a new path appeared first on, https://clothing-site.happytiger.co/,  SmartCompany.

02

Alexander Taylor launches online clothing platform to tackle fashion industry waste

© Provided by Dezeen Alexander Taylor launches online clothing platform ATID to tackle fashion industry waste

London designer Alexander Taylor is launching an online platform called ATID that will sell technical apparel made from biomaterials and leftover inventory.

Over two years in the making, ATID is a new website from design and innovation studio Alexander Taylor where the brand will present its sustainability-led material concepts and products.

© Provided by Dezeen Alexander Taylor launches online clothing platform ATID to tackle fashion industry waste

The online platform, which launches on 4 August 2020, will start by selling a series of introductory garments made from biomaterials and unused fabrics – deadstock –taken from outdoor garment factory KTC.

Tired of the "endless production to feed the consumer world", Taylor decided to do away with the traditional seasons of the fashion industry.

© Provided by Dezeen Alexander Taylor launches online clothing platform ATID to tackle fashion industry waste

Instead, ATID will have families of products produced in the time slots that are made available to them in the KTC factory.

"The idea of seasons within fashion generates huge amounts of waste, due to deadlines and 'consumer' demands, unsold inventory and the endless creation of new textiles," Taylor told Dezeen.

© Provided by Dezeen Alexander Taylor launches online clothing platform ATID to tackle fashion industry waste

"Fashion as it is now and sustainability does not work together – the idea of sustainability has to be questioned because there are such huge volumes of waste generated every day," he added.

ATID will work exclusively with waste materials that have been leftover as unsold garments from KTC's other brands, where possible, as well as biomaterials such as AlgiKnit – a material comprised of yarns and fibres made from macroalgae.

© Provided by Dezeen Alexander Taylor launches online clothing platform ATID to tackle fashion industry waste

"The fashion and sports industry could run for years and years without making any new materials, yet we keep making new textiles every season," said Taylor.

"So often we see new materials and technology created or invented which does not consider the product. You have to understand what you would like to make in order to design the machine, rather than the other way round."

© Provided by Dezeen Alexander Taylor launches online clothing platform ATID to tackle fashion industry waste

ATID's introductory products marking the launch of the initiative include a three-layer waterproof, seam-taped mac, parka jackets, and bags that are engineered using heat-bonded frames fused to super-lightweight ripstop textiles.

Other products include pairs of "perhaps the most lightweight shorts in the world" and thin, mesh, long-sleeved tops.

© Provided by Dezeen Alexander Taylor launches online clothing platform ATID to tackle fashion industry waste

Taylor got the idea to start ATID after he was invited to visit the factory of outdoor technical garment producer KTC – which represents brands like Rapha and Helly Hansen – by its managing director, Gerhard Flatz.

"It was such an exciting opportunity and from the outset a true meeting of minds and we just had to find a way to start something together," said the designer.

"Keen to generate purpose around our collaboration, the conversation led us to discuss waste in industry and especially in the world of fashion and accessories."

© Provided by Dezeen Alexander Taylor launches online clothing platform ATID to tackle fashion industry waste

Each product is designed in London before being made at the KTC partner factory in China from the waste materials. The final pieces are then shipped by boat to Alexander Taylor's London studio, from which they will be sent to buyers.

Next, the studio plans to set up a network of deadstock material partners, and ship products directly from the factory to the consumer to cut out energy-intensive fulfilment centres or retailers.

© Provided by Dezeen Alexander Taylor launches online clothing platform ATID to tackle fashion industry waste

In the future, the clothes will be unofficially pre-ordered by people registering their interest, which would give the studio the data it needs before committing to making batches, meaning they could manufacture on an almost on-demand basis.

"This will take a little time once we are able to gain visibility," said Taylor.

All the items ATID produces will be limited and controlled in number due to the finite nature of the materials and the size of the studio.

ATID will endeavour to limit the postal returns that buyers can make by encouraging people to "truly appreciate and think about what they are buying, not just simply click with the knowledge they can return".

© Provided by Dezeen Alexander Taylor launches online clothing platform ATID to tackle fashion industry waste

"There is only so much we can do from the outset in terms of digital communication and aid tools for sizing comparisons and translation tools of consumers individual data in terms of 'fit'," said Taylor.

"However we anticipate technology being able to help us in the future," he added.

© Provided by Dezeen Alexander Taylor launches online clothing platform ATID to tackle fashion industry waste

Taylor is setting up ATID as a platform that will function as an outlet for the research and development of new materials and ideas for a more sustainable future.

The studio previously designed a pair of running shoes for Adidas that were woven from yarns made from the recycled Parley Ocean Plastic.

"This project triggered a new way for me to work and imagine how my studio could adapt and evolve in the future," said Taylor about the trainers.

"A designer can be the agitator and the agent for change."

Project credits:

Founding Partner: KTC Limited

Brand identity: Studio Veronica Ditting

Website: Future Corp

Packaging: Avery Dennison

The post Alexander Taylor launches online clothing platform, https://clothing-site.happytiger.co/,  to tackle fashion industry waste appeared first on Dezeen.

03

Apparel industry needs to recognise its truth worth

"If you don't know your own value, somebody will tell you your value, and it'll be less than you're worth," stated Bernard Hopkins Jr, one of the most successful boxers of the past three decades. As the world slowly comes to terms with the new norms following the global Covid-19 pandemic, is it time for the ready-made garment (RMG) industry of Bangladesh and the wider global apparel supply chain to reassess the value of the product that it produces and increase end-consumer awareness of the true costs of the fashion purchases that they make.  

The RMG sector of Bangladesh has enjoyed rapid growth since its inception in the late 1970s and, until the devastating effects of the coronavirus hit home, had established the country as the second largest global supplier of apparel, with a 6.4 percent market share in clothing and with the RMG sector accounting for 83 percent of Bangladesh's exports, employing some 4.4 million people and contributing over USD 36 billion to the economy.....https://clothing-site.happytiger.co/

A few short months later and the entire fashion industry landscape has changed. Retailers and brands around the world have seen demand for their products shrink dramatically as their customers have been restricted by lockdown measures and, even as these measures are being relaxed, are reluctant to resume the purchasing habits they followed prior to the outbreak of the pandemic. The RMG industry has felt the consequences of this contraction in the fashion industry, with orders from customers being cancelled, delayed or, worse still, payments being withheld, leaving many companies in the industry facing a bleak future.

How could it have come to this in such a short space of time? An industry that was the pride of the nation has been brought to its knees in a matter of weeks and this has raised some serious questions about how we recover and shape the sector for the future.

Lest we forget, the rapid rise in the fortunes of the Bangladesh RMG industry were largely based upon the supply of "value" product, with the industry able to rely on a ready workforce whose salary expectations were, until recently, very low. The current apparel industry in Bangladesh is heavily reliant on "basic" low ticket price production, although some 40 percent of exports in 2018 were on higher ticket price fashion items. Due to this, the sector runs on extremely low profit margins, often eroded through increasing taxes, rising charges for fuel and power and greater expenditure on transportation and wages.

Covid-19 has exposed the fragility of this reliance upon lower ticket price items manufactured by workers who depend on their salaries to support themselves and their dependents. For too long a culture of price pressure from our customers has instilled a situation whereby, in general, the lower the cost paid for any apparel item, the lower the salary of the workforce that produce it.

But have we been missing a trick here? Has the RMG industry, over the years, lost sight of the true value of the product that it produces? I am not for a moment suggesting a wholesale increase in the purchase price of apparel products produced in Bangladesh but what I think needs to be realised is that the prices being paid for the product we produce are being kept artificially and, as has been proven, unsustainably low. In a post-Covid world we need to readdress this imbalance and, together with our business partners establish a fair pricing system for apparel produced in the country.

We should not forget the advances and investments that have been made in the RMG industry in the aftermath of the Rana Plaza disaster in 2013. We have been rightly proud of improvements in ethical, social and environmental standards and, at all costs, we must not turn our back on what has been achieved. Now is the time to engage with our customers and ensure that they understand our needs and the true value of the product we produce rather than continually chase orders for the lowest purchase price.

I appreciate that this approach will be alien to many involved in the Bangladesh RMG sector, but recent events have proven that we cannot let things carry on as normal. In fact it would be foolhardy to assume that things will return to normal once the ravages of the pandemic subside.

Now is the time, through engagement with our customers, to ensure that the true costs of any apparel item, whether produced in Bangladesh or in other sourcing hubs, are clearly communicated to the end consumer. There is an emerging groundswell of consumers in our key markets of the UK, Europe and the USA, https://clothing-site.happytiger.co/,  that want to be assured that the product that they purchase is produced in the most ethical, environmentally sound manner possible. The Covid-19 pandemic offers the opportunity to inform those consumers and, together with our business partners, we can champion the virtues of the apparel product that we produce as a nation.

The Bangladesh RMG industry can no longer rely on the level of business that we enjoyed before the pandemic broke and we will need to adapt. There is much talk about the "survival of the fittest" within the global apparel supply chain. There is a common misconception that when asked to describe the process of natural selection, as defined by Charles Darwin in his work On the Origin of Species and the term survival of the fittest, many assume "fittest" to mean the best physical specimen of the species and that only those in the best shape and best health will survive in nature.

However, this is not always the case. Individuals that survive are not always the strongest, fastest, or smartest. By that definition, then, survival of the fittest might not be the best way to describe natural selection as it applies to evolution. Darwin did not mean it in those terms when he used it in his republished book. He intended "fittest" to mean the members of the species best suited, or able to adapt to the immediate environment, and it is this process of adaption that will ensure that the Bangladesh apparel industry can survive going forward.

Through engagement with our business partners, the championing of the advances the RMG sector has made and the establishment of meaningful partnerships based on a fair pricing strategy, the industry will continue, albeit in a different format to what we all knew before the Covid-19 crisis took hold.

Mostafiz Uddin is the Managing Director of Denim Expert Limited. https://clothing-site.happytiger.co/,  He is also the Founder and CEO of Bangladesh Denim Expo and Bangladesh Apparel Exchange (BAE). Email: mostafiz@denimexpert.com