IS UPCYCLING THE NEXT BIGGEST TREND IN THE FASHION INDUSTRY?

With the onset of the era of sustainability, one has to rely on sustainable and eco-friendly practices in every walk of life. The drastic climate change, the global pandemic and the horrifying damage caused to flora and fauna- all indicates the need for a change in our mundane lifestyle. Just because fashion too is a significant part of our daily life, one needs to ponder on it too. As the designers and textile manufacturers are delving more into slow and zero-waste fashion, the sustainable and up-cycling trends has experienced a huge surge in the recent years. 

credits: livekindly.com

When one walks into a sustainable textile brand which adheres to the concept of up-cycling and zero-waste, one can see innumerable bins of fabric scraps. The trash bins are not filled with discarded waste fabric pieces that you’d come across at any other fashion studio, but rather storage bins that stores the each and every piece of unused textiles, where they await to get magically turned to a brilliant fashion statement in the future. The process of up-cycling not only showcases the excellent creativity of a designer but their awareness towards mother earth. This is in completely opposite to the concept of garment manufacturing in majority of the apparel brands out there that adhere to the norms of fast fashion. Often they have been subjected to backlash for incinerating, throwing away, or else destroying leftover stock and fabric instead of giving away, reusing or even selling it on discounts.

credits: zoomtventertainment.com

Fast fashion undoubtedly looks attractive due to its dynamic change in tends but it increases the carbon footprint manifold. Upcycling is in stark contrast to fast fashion and its wasteful nature. This sustainable development is definitely a positive change to the fashion industry. These can be divided to two broad categories. On one hand, there are popular fashion brands with shiny sustainability initiatives that claim to do zero harm to the nature but actually green-washing rather than causing authentic advancement. And on the other hand there are actual up-cycling brands that transform textile scraps to fresh new apparels and accessories that would otherwise go to waste. They value the old, discarded materials to generate new and sophisticated garments. At times they even serve a purpose like social justice or gender-equality or garments devoid of animal-cruelty.

If it’s possible to earn profits while being genuinely sustainable, zero-waste, free from animal-cruelty and ethical, then these fast fashion brands can also re-think their policies when it comes to sustainability. As consumers are growing more conscious, demand for mindful and up-cycled garments continues to grow. Fast fashion brands will eventually have to alter their path. Up-cycling is not just a part of dynamic trend but a long-term concept that is going to be an integral part of us as we proceed in life towards a better future.

Fast fashion generates more waste than one thinks it to be as it is creates more than ninety million tons of global waste every year which is four percent of the world’s entire waste. The tossed trash on the bins is picked up as treasures by the sustainable textile designers. Instead of tossing endless fabric scraps into the trash one can creatively transform them to brand new clothing or accessories.

credits: medium.com

One has to consider the economic or ecological impact of that waste before indulging in the wasteful nature of manufacturing clothes. The fashion industry will have to come terms to it eventually. The consumers too have to be completely aware of it. Adopting sustainable fashion is not a concession but a way of living your morals as well as creating a valuable, unique and individualistic approach towards personal fashion styling. Gradually, with more environment conscious people, the fast fashion industry too shall have to alter their methods.