Category: Sustainable Fashion

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Week 2/ 2 response to readings

In her text, the author, Alice Payne, talks about the life-cycle of fashion garments in the Australian market. Even though this study was done in Australia, I believe, the findings in general can apply to the whole fashion industry. The first step of the life-cycle of clothes is FIBER. In Australia, the most used fibers are cotton, polyester and regenerated fibers. Cotton is a natural fiber, however it requires a lot of water to grow the plant to in large quantities it is harmful for the environment. Companies have to start at the level of fibers, they need to choose ones that are not environmentally harmful however those are often more expensive. The next phase is TEXTILE PRODUCTION. Spinning, weaving, dyeing and finishing phases of textile production often involve poor labor practices and toxic waste is reduced to the environment. Companies have to think about designing clothes in the phase of DESIGN that are made from textiles that are colored and made in a way that is not harmful. Thus, whatever kind of textiles are available and can be made in a sustainable, natural way could influence trends. According to the reading,  “waterless dyeing techniques are important innovations, but are currently prohibitive in the mass market due to cost and volume.” Decision are made in the level of design that will impact the whole cycle. Manufacturing is the next phase of the garment’s life-cycle. Often said to exploit the lives of workers. The next phase is distribution which is an important phase, as this is where the product?company will interact with the consumer.  According to the reading, ” in design for sustainability, retail is an opportunity to engage with consumers in new ways, whether through co-design or through implementing product service systems (PSS).”

The phase that has the biggest environmental impact. It was shocking to read how harmful my t-shirts are for the environment. â€śpurchasing a 250g cotton T-shirt implies purchasing 1,700g of fossil fuel, depositing 450g of waste to landfill and emitting 4kg of CO2 into the atmosphere.” These numbers are very shocking to me. 

The last step is disposal. In order to create sustainable fashion, designers have to keep in mind what happens with the clothes we do not want to wear anymore. Can they be recycled or repurposed? 

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Week 2: Response to Payne, Alice. “The Life-Cycle of the Fashion Garment and the Role of Australian Mass Market Designers.” – Hanna Rinderknecht-Mahaffy

While reading her article, I was struck by Alice Payne’s words, “All actors within the fashion system, from trend forecasters to buyers, designers and journalists, potentially have the ability (or responsibility) to effect change through not promoting aesthetic trends founded in unethical practices” (Payne 5). I found this comment encouraging, because it gives people at all points in the fashion cycle (designers, consumers, advertisers, etc) the power to affect change in a responsible way. I have never before considered that an unsustainable, environmentally polluting practices often only exist due to fashion trends, such as the worn jean look Payne discusses in her article. While I try to consider the sustainability of the fashion stores I shop at, I do not tend to think about the sustainability differences between different fashion trends within a company. 

In her section on Garment Use, Payne discusses the current problem with closed-loop recycling. “Currently, the cost in energy to disassemble a garment, reprocess it to fibre and then into a textile may be higher than the energy used to produce virgin polyester…..However, C2C thinking in itself can influence change in the mass market, if consumers and designers alike recognised that their garments are resources to be valued. From here, a diverse range of end-of-life options could be explored to minimise the impacts of the garments” (12). Currently, closed-loop recycling is far from a sustainable method. However, in the long term, this strategy is an essential step in making the fashion cycle more sustainable. Payne argues that a cradle-to-cradle approach to fashion on all levels can help to minimize the environmental impacts of clothing. This means that is the responsibility of the consumer and producer to make responsible choices which encourage this cycle. 

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Week 4: The Life-Cycle of the Fashion Garment Payne | Gabriel Chi

Reading through Alice Payne’s paper on sustainability and the life-cycle of a product, I began to realize the importance of modifying our current methods of creating garments. Although the paper is specifically about Australia, many of the points Payne introduces are very relevant to the fashion industry as a whole. For example, Payne incorporates the fact that, ““purchasing a 250g cotton T-shirt implies purchasing 1,700g of fossil fuel, depositing 450g of waste to landfill and emitting 4kg of CO2 into the atmosphere. These figures are largely driven by the energy required to launder and dry the T-shirt during its life cycle” By purchasing only one cotton t shirt, you are putting a large toll on the environment essentially by prolonging the garment’s usability. We must start to understand the heavy environmental consequences that is caused by our current methods of garment creation. For example, cotton requires the use of large amounts of water, only for a single t-shirt. 

When walking through the fabric markets on Saturday, I consistently saw signs boasting “100% real silk” or “pure cotton”. The importance we place on “valuable” fabrics and textiles such as silk or cotton, that cause serious environmental consequences, must be assessed. As consumers, it is our own responsibility to purchase garments and support companies that encourage the use of sustainable fabrics and promote models of a sustainable life-cycle.

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Response to Alice Payne – Salomon Ruiz

In this text Alice Payne describes the ideal life-cycle of a fashion garment. She explains the different phases of this life-cycle and also the problems they involve. Concerning the fibre choice,  although some materials like cotton or bamboo seem to be more sustainable, their production is often more expensive and also polluting, therefore it is hard to find materials that can be sustainable and also cheap.  Something that really surprised me is how sandblasting is a dangerous practice for workers, as most of the stores sell denim with this characteristic, and I have even bought jeans like this without knowing their negative impact. Alice Payne explains in this example how big is the influence of the media and fashion forescasters to start a trend that people will follow, no matter how some practices in the fashion industry are unethical. For instance, I have seen in California some products like sunglasses with a label warning people about toxic substances contained in the product, but people might buy these products regardless of this label, because they look cool or a celebrity is using that product.  Therefore, fashion magazines, media, etc should do more research about the products they promote and the government should more the fashion industry practices. Another point that I found interesting, during the garment use phase, is how washing clothes is a big environmental issue, as we waste a lot of water and also add chemicals to this  water through detergents  that becomes then hard to recycle. I had really never thought how washing clothes can have a big impact on the environment, as it is a daily life activity and even more, using dryers also requires a lot of energy. Therefore, it is crucial that designers find materials that do not need to be washed that often like denim, so we can reduce the impact of washing. In conclusion, clothes should be designed according to the life cycle described by Payne, so they can really be recycled and follow the cradle to cradle model, however every phase has issues that are yet to resolve like finding the right textiles, having a fair manufacture, etc. Some companies have started to adopt this life-cycle of the garment, but their prices are often higher than fast-fashion prices, so a lot of improvement has to be done. 

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Week 3: Response to Alice Payne – Samanta Shi

Payne’s essay confirmed a lot of the material that I researched and read about in preparation for our topic presentation on textiles. However, I did learn a few new things:

  • Since Australia is in the Southern Hemisphere, they have “been traditionally a fashion season behind Europe and the US” enabling Australian designs to “knock off” products from Gap, Zara, and Topshop (Pg. 6)
    • Payne calls this a “process of sourcing and product development” instead of design, which I entirely agree with. 
  • Garment use in Australia suffers from large amounts of waste:  “The Wasteful Consumption report found that an estimated AUD1.56 billion per annum is spent on clothing, accessories and personal products which are never worn or worn only once (Hamilton, Denniss and Baker 2005).” (Pg. 10)
    • I was surprised by the amount of money that was spent on things that were never used. This is incredibly upsetting and I agree with Payne that the industry should find ways to “encourage consumers to develop deeper relationships with their clothing” (Pg. 9)
  • Nano-technology can be used to repel odor: “Australian workwear label King Gee has utilised nano- technology at a fibre level to repel odour, enabling the garment to be less intensively laundered (Stead 2010)” (Pg. 9) But, the long-term effects of disposing of such enhanced materials are unknown.
    • This kind of innovation is very exciting.  I believe that going into fashion design today requires a more in-depth understanding of the entire life-cycle of a piece as well as a desire to innovate using new techniques and technologies.

I also liked that Payne emphasized the challenge that designers face: they might have a great idea, but oftentimes budget limitations impact their designs. This is applicable throughout various industries. I myself have been faced with this challenge. For example, a UX designer cannot merely think about how to make the product useful and usable, but they also have to take into account the goals of the business, clients, internal stakeholders, and technical feasibility.

Understanding the entire life-cycle of a product as well as making ethical design choices is becoming all the more important for all kinds of designs. I am happy to see that more and more people seem to be concerned with creating change in the fashion industry.