Today is the World Earth Day, as a worldwide environmental protection activities, it is receiving more and more attention from all walks of life, with the aggravation of the severe situation of the environment, the reuse of resources, the reduction of pollutant emissions, renewable energy research and development has also become an urgent thing, for this reason, what efforts have been made by the fashion industry?
VOGUE has always explored a variety of cultural and social topics from a fashion perspective, including, of course, sustainable development, a major issue that all mankind is keenly concerned about. From last November, the issue focused on the magnificence of nature and its awesome power, in order to evoke love for the common home of mankind.
Vogue Apparel & Beauty, November 2021
Photographed by Zhang Jiacheng Leslie Zhang
Styling: Audrey Hu
By january this year, we had made a new effort to express our determination and confidence in protecting the human homeland through five chapters on five key sections of sustainable development and climate change.
Fashion & Beauty VOGUE, January 2022
Photo: Prince Qian
Styling: AUDREY HU
In this article, we start from a small aspect and focus on the Spring/Summer 2022 Fashion Week – as the first season of large-scale return to offline release after the epidemic, what sustainable practices have been adopted by the brands at the four major fashion weeks to compensate for the impact of fashion release on the environment? Let's look at the numbers below to see how these brands are contributing to the sustainability of the industry at the beginning of the new season.
Acne Studios
Acne Studios' designs in recent years have focused on marine themes and textile recycling, with 30% of the SS22 collection made from sustainable materials, while 84% of them are knitted sweatshirts and wool products.
Burberry
On the eve of the Spring/Summer 2022 womenswear show, Burberry officially announced that it will increase its emission reduction target from 30% to 46% by the end of 2030 and achieve net zero emissions by the end of 2040.
Bally
In bally's CEO Nicolas Girotto, there is no absolute right answer to sustainable efforts, "because no one can really say what is sustainable." Just like the "preferred material" that the brand used for 40% of the products in the Spring/Summer 2022 collection, that is, the choice of more environmentally friendly materials within the cognitive range, the proportion increased by 20% compared with the previous season.
Kick
For Botter, founded by Lisi Herrebrugh and Rushemy Botter, while the brand isn't large enough to support the development of a large number of sustainable materials, 60 percent of the fabrics in the new season are produced by Parley from recycled marine plastics.
Balenciaga
Balenciaga's Spring/Summer 2022 collection features this massive fluffy gauze dress made from 63% recycled nylon and 37% viscose from reliable sources.
Chanel
According to the IPCC Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5°C, in the face of global warming, limiting the magnitude of climate warming to 1.5°C instead of 2°C or higher will avoid a range of climate change effects. For example, by 2100, if global warming is limited to 1.5°C instead of 2°C, global sea-level rise will be reduced by 10 centimetres. As a result, Chanel made a commitment under the Paris Climate Agreement, under the name "Mission 1.5°", to limit global warming to within 1.5°C higher than in pre-industrial times. Currently, 41% of Chanel's global electricity comes from renewable sources.
Chloe
Chloé's SS22 collection continues to use eco-friendly fabrics such as organic silk, recycled cashmere or waste stock fabrics, which together account for 55% of ready-to-wear products.
Diesel
In Glenn Martens' debut at Diesel, all denim for the first part of the styling came from Martens' newly established "Denim Library", providing a more sustainable production solution for this traditional denim brand. In the future, fabrics from the "Denim Library" will account for at least 40 percent of the company's denim products.
Edeline Lee
How to digest the remaining stock fabrics is a challenge for young designers who need to constantly innovate and attract consumers' attention. Edeline Lee used the remaining fabrics from her studio this season to create 32 colorful looks. "I didn't think it was right to order new fabrics, so I decided to run out of all the remaining fabrics in the studio, and finally the whole collection included 53 colors," she says.
Ferrari
Ferrari's first fashion collection, designed by Rocco Iannone, explores the sustainability of fashion from a sporty temperament, whether it is racing jackets, racing pants, or a variety of dazzling accessories, of which 80% are gender-free styles for men and women, thereby reducing the cumbersome production and research and development process and making it more suitable for the daily needs of consumers; on the other hand, the show did not set up a special runway, and the catwalk is Ferrari's assembly line in Maranello, Italy.
Gucci
From 2018 to 2020, Gucci's scrap-free process saved a total of 137 tons of leather scrap. Starting in 2022, Gucci will launch an innovative animal-free material called Demetra, which contains more than 77% of plant-based raw materials, made from sustainable viscose, wood pulp compounds, and bio-based polyurethanes from renewable sources.
Gabriela Hearst
Nearly 40 percent of this season's collection is made from stock materials, and she hopes to take that percentage a step further, achieving 100 percent recycled or unused materials by the Early Fall 2022 collection.
Louis Vuitton
Currently, 60% of the wool, 67% of cotton, 78% of leather and 91% of gold used in Louis Vuitton's production meet the highest environmental standards, and plans to achieve 100% responsible sourcing of raw materials by 2025 and completely eliminate single-use plastics by 2030. While the brand is currently researching alternative protective materials and shipping methods to help eliminate the environmental impact of plastic film on new shoes, belt buckles, dials and handbag hardware, the brand has now reduced single-use plastic by 16% in packaging and has reused or recycled 93% of activity and window materials.
Matty Bovan
For Matty Bovan, handmade can go some way to addressing the scarcity of outsourced processing in the UK during the pandemic while achieving carbon sustainability, "97% of the work in this collection is made in my studio. ”
Marine Greenhouse
Marine Serre's Spring/Summer 2022 collection, which contains 45% renewable materials and 45% recyclable materials, is her most sustainable collection to date.
Nanushka
Under the UN Fashion Charter for Climate Action, Nanushka has committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 30 percent by 2030 and achieving net zero emissions by 2050 to become carbon neutral.
Osman Yousefzada
The new collection is inspired by the concept of biodegradation and is based on the theme of "How was the fashion collection from the last season?" As the theme of this season. Fifteen of Yousefzada's SS22 collections are made from sustainably sourced wood pulp fabrics that can be seen as alternatives to silk, and have partnered with three independent factories to repurpose fabric scraps left over from previous seasons.
Prada
Group CEO Lorenzo Bertelli recently said Prada will use 100 percent recycled nylon materials from the end of 2021 to ensure luxury brands become more sustainable without sacrificing profits.
Roksanda
From the perspective of the show, Ilincic Roksanda chose to simplify the complexity, reducing the number of physical releases from 50 to 16 models, more streamlined, more concentrated, and more emission-reduced.
Rick Owens
Rick Owens agrees that even though full sustainability is still a long way off, as long as you keep improving and setting higher goals in each quarter, you can get closer and closer to achieving it. This season, the vast majority of the Rick Owens range uses sustainable textiles such as organic cotton, biodegradable waste cotton, back silk and FSC certified viscose.
Star McCartney
Stella McCartney's SS22 collection's new Frayme bag is made from Mylo fabric, a leather alternative grown from mycelium that is very similar to animal leather and is made using 100% renewable energy.
Saint Laurent
Saint Laurent is committed to achieving net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2030. Starting with the Spring/Summer 2022 collection, all garment covers used during transport will be reusable, looping through the process from the studio to the store.
Threeasfour
Threeasfour's Spring/Summer 2022 collection, in partnership with Israeli agency Kornit Digital, uses a new type of "waterless" printing that claims to reduce water use in the printing process by 95 percent, while its NeoPigment can halve energy consumption in the manufacturing process.
Vivienne Westwood
For the first time, 98 percent of the materials in this collection were obtained in a low-impact, non-cruel way, and for the first time, raw synthetic fibers were not used, and even wool came from "recycled agriculture" farms.
Carpenter
In the Spring/Summer 2022 collection, Zimmermann and her team implement the Circular Yarn Initiative, where high-quality natural fibres, silk, linen and cotton account for nearly 90% of the collection. By participating in three pilot projects to recycle textiles, Zimmermann has reused about 8 percent of the excess fabrics. In addition, the brand uses digital printing instead of screen printing, saving 60% of water consumption than before.
In addition to the sustainable initiatives of fashion brands, if everyone has the concept of "taking the world as their responsibility", strict self-discipline and leading by example in daily life, we can gather sand into a tower and contribute to environmental protection. Maybe we can start with the little everyday things around us, like using reusable water glasses; walking, cycling, or electric vehicles; recycling clothes to reduce the number of new clothes we buy; and investing in items that can be used for generations. These seemingly trivial behaviors and simple adjustments to spending habits can have cumulative effects.
Environmental protection is not a buzzword, and we need to do more and more forcefully to do so.
Author: Xu Shanlai
Fine Arts: Roland