Sustainable Fashion Round-Up: February 2019

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Balenciaga x Farfetch

Thanks to growing industry regulation and an increasingly eco-conscious consumer, sustainability is being pushed to the forefront of every fashion brand. From new production processes, to ethical luxury and ultimate transparency, brands and retailers are finally embracing green thinking.

Smart Luxury: The beginning of the year has seen a clear uptick in sustainable luxury. Balenciaga’s latest collaboration with e-tailer Farfetch is entirely free from leather and fur, with proceeds donated to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

French fashion brand Loewe has launched a ready-to-wear menswear collection designed for, and inspired by, nature. Eye/Loewe/Nature features technical and natural fabrics, with the brand donating £15 ($19) for every purchase to help fight plastic pollution.

Partnering for Good: US retailer J.Crew has partnered with non-profit Habitat for Humanity on a denim buyback programme. Customers are able to return any old jeans to J.Crew stores (in exchange for a $20 gift card), which will be recycled into insulation material for the housing charity.

Meanwhile, sustainable fashion platform The Global Fashion Exchange has partnered with creative studio The Canvas to launch a permanent bricks-and-mortar Swap Shop in Brooklyn, New York.

A New Production Process: US-based T-shirt subscription service For Days is rolling out its circular recycling business model – which encourages customers to return old items for every purchase they make. Its first partnership is with US bra brand Harper Wilde, which will now provide boxes and shipping labels with every purchase that allow customers to return any bra back to the brand to be recycled.

Ultimate Transparency: A number of fashion retailers are placing their sustainability credentials at the forefront of their brand strategy. US brand Reformation is now reporting its sustainability wins and losses in the same vein as public profit earnings – allowing customers to check its entire environmental footprint.

Similarly, luxury American consignment store The RealReal’s Sustainability Calculator shows the water, energy and greenhouse gas savings from the most popular women’s clothing items consigned on its e-commerce site since January 2012.

For the latest news, see Sustainable Fashion Round-Up: November/December 2018, and stay tuned for our quarterly round-up, publishing in March 2019.