Top 5 Sustainability Trends for Apparel and Fashion Industry

In this fast-paced world, sustainability has taken a back-seat in numerous industry. Apparel & Fashion is one of them. Everyone is chasing fashion so blindly that we often ignore its dark spots on the environment. Fashion is all about choices – choices that you make for yourself and for our mother earth.

According to a report by MarketLine, the global apparel industry has been growing at a yearly rate of 4.78% yearly since 2011. Now the sales value of apparel and fashion in the year 2017 was 1.4 trillion dollars. There’s no sign to slow down the growing market of apparel and fashion as the market is projected to experience 5.91% yearly growth over the next three years.

By 2020, the market value of apparel and fashion is expected to reach a mind-boggling 1.65 trillion sales in US dollars worldwide. And so, it’s the waste. The more we buy, the more we discard.

And then, what happens to the discarded clothes? 4/5^th go into the waste disposal stream and 1/5^th goes into recycling and sorting streams.

“57% of all discarded clothing ends up in landfill”. Click to Tweet

While brands and industry leaders are all set with their advance sustainability strategies. Here are 5 trends embracing sustainability like anything.

Before I start, I would like to emphasize on the baseline of sustainable fashion.

“Beautiful Fashion Shouldn’t Cost us Earth” – Greenpeace

1. Do More with Less:

Your wardrobe doesn’t need to be overflowed with clothes to give the best of your look. All you need to do is the streamline the wardrobe and explore more to wear with less clothes. The process of streamlining your clothes starts with streamlining your choice. With each piece that you plan to buy, look for the alternate options to wear it. Mix-and-match can do much better than you can imagine, and moreover, it will give you an exclusive look every time.

And don’t feel embarrassed to repeat clothes. When Mark Zuckerberg can wear his grey t-shirt religiously, why can’t you? And when you have much more important thing to focus, fashion becomes frivolous.

 So, keep your wardrobe capsule enough to grab and go!

 “Wear your values more than your dress”.

You may also like : Why Fashion Circularity is Important for sustainability?

2. Say “Hi” to Vintage fashion:

Do you know “Thrifting fashion” can make you stand out? No, I’m not kidding. Seriously, you can trust thrift store, garage sale, flea market to get a stand out style. Vintage fashion is driving people of all generation crazy. Shoppers are flaunting vintage fashion flawlessly in their style.

No fashion is old, in recent decades vintage fashion has become one of the trendiest fashion among all generations. In the era where newer is better, crazy shoppers are choosing to wear blatantly outdated outfits seems counterintuitive.

The vintage style begins with merging 1920’s fashion in today’s fashion. And fashion becomes trendier than ever.

Ask your parents about the fashion of their time, find it and flaunt their fashion in your style.

“Fashion is old until you don’t bring it back with style”.

3. Second-hand: The latest trend:

Today’s generation is chasing second-hand clothing like ever before. Currently, the fashion industry is driven by two major factors – firstly, the growing demand for clothing and secondly, less negative impact on the environment. Considering these two factors, second-hand clothing is the best way to make your fashion more sustainable. 

No brand-new clothing can be more sustainable than second-hand clothing. Gone are the days, where second-hand was barely an option for people. Now, it’s becoming the choice. Smart shoppers are making their choice smarter and more sustainable.

Moreover, second-hand clothing is more original, comfortable, durable, and not to forget pocket-friendly. If you haven’t started with second-hand shopping yet, join #secondhandseptember to make your fashion more sustainable and stylish.

“Pick second-hand clothing without any doubt and wear it with pride.”

Read more: Second-Hand Clothing: The New Trend

4. Recycling and Upcycling:

What if I tell you that using new fabrics is getting old? No, I’m not kidding. New fabrics are no more attracting smart shoppers. As consumers are becoming more environmentally-conscious – Recycling and Upcycling is the newest of trends.

We should know what we consume and how can we consume it even better. Consumers need to understand the way apparels are transformed or re-processed. Recycling can reduce the consumption of energy and raw materials used in manufacturing new clothes. And for sustainability, reusing before recycling is even better.

Upcycling is using discarded materials to create a high-quality product. This newest trend can reduce cloth and textile waste by reusing deadstock or gently used fabric to create new apparels. It can be done by using pre-consumer or post-consumer waste or a combination of the two.

“Fashion is more about HOW we use than WHAT we use.”

5. Local is Luxurious:

When it comes to sustainability, the question is who is more luxurious – big brands or small brands? Sustainability is a resolution now and brands who are not taking is seriously are falling behind. No matter- how big or small you are as a brand. If you are ignoring sustainability, shoppers will ignore you.

According to a report by CGS survey, 68% of consumers prefer sustainability-conscious brands, 28% said sustainability ethical practices will make them brand loyal, and one-third of consumers are willing to pay up to 25% more than the original price for a sustainable product.

That’s the reason small brands are all set to give tough competition to big brands with their sustainable initiatives. Along with that, the other factors driving the growth of local sustainable brands are transparency, education, and clear branding.

“Sustainable brands are more powerful than big brands.”

All That Matter:

Sustainability has become an inherent part of brands, retailers, and consumers. Shopper and sellers both are getting smarter day-by-day to embrace sustainability.

Today’s shoppers are more conscious about the sustainability contribution of their picks. They are choosing sustainable fashion over any other. Young and mature brands are embracing sustainability to earn consumers loyalty.

According to industry experts, sustainability is the only future of fashion that’s going to stay till the end.

Check out our other blogs on Sustainability here.

Join us to bring the idea of Sustainability – Circularity.