The Future of our Fashion

Have you ever thought about what our clothes will look or feel like in the future?

Have you ever considered being more environmentally friendly when it comes to fashion?

Have you ever thought about how much our fashion industry nowadays will have a negative impact on the life of future generations?

I never had before I watched a documentary on YouTube called 'The Next Black'. I found it such an interesting and inspiring documentary to watch so I would definitely recommend checking it out. It was all about the future of our fashion industry and the changes that could be made to make it a more sustainable and environmentally friendly industry. Us as a consumer has a vital impact on the fashion industry. Our constant need for new fashion has caused a negative impact on both the industry and the environment. We need to be more mindful when it come to fashion or else the world around us will quickly deteriorate. 

"Fashion passes, style remains" - Coco Chanel

This quote shows that we don't always need new fashion items every season as our personal style stays the same. Investing in pieces that last a lifetime is much better that constantly changing up your style with the trends. We are all unique individuals so there is no need to all dress the same. Standing out and having your own personal style is better than being the same as everyone else around you.

Chapter 1: Merging Fashion and Tech

Chapter 1 in the documentary was all about how fashion is starting to incorporate many forms of technology. This can also be referred to as 'smart textiles' or 'wearable tech'. At Studio XO the founder, Nancy Tilbury, has created a company specialising in fashion technology. Her and her team use 3D printing techniques to create amazing designs. They believe that what they create could be the future of our fashion industry. They are currently working on ways to make the items more wearable and sustainable by limiting the amount of wires, electrical parts and even making the garments washable.  Studio XO created an amazing dress worn by Lady Gaga, known as the 'Anemone Dress'. The dress incorporates technology that allowed it to blow out bubbles in different directions. Wouldn't it be amazing if our clothes were interactable and wearable at the same time; I certainly think it would...

Lady Gaga wearing Studio XO Anemone Dress

Chapter 2:Smart Clothing

At the Adidas headquarters in Nurnberg, Germany, Matt Hymers and his team are also using technology in their products to benefit the athletes wearing them. Over the past few years they have worked on creating a product that incorporates monitors to track the real time performance of athletes. They have come up with an under shirt design that has a built in heat rate monitor. This technology can help athletes improve their fitness and may even help reduce injury. The team at Adidas work very closely with the AC Milan football team to test out their products and help with any developments or changes that need to be made. At the start of their creation a lot of the team refused to wear the shirts as they were too uncomfortable and had to many wires. This helped the Adidas team to develop the design and make it much more wearable and comfortable for the athletes. Wouldn't it be great if our clothing can help improve or monitor our fitness and health; definitely...

Chapter 3: Brewing Sustainable Fabrics

Over in Southwark London, Suzanne Lee (founder of Bio Couture) has created a natural form of fabric that truly blew my mind. She states that even though fabrics, such as cotton, are made from natural fibres the fabric as a whole is manmade and not organic. The staff at Bio Couture have generated an organic naturally made fabric alternative. Suzanne started off her research working with a biologist to generate the perfect recipe. She started adding ingredients to a tray and leaving it to develop in her bathroom. After being successful she created her own company to grew more organic fabrics and to spread the word about her creation. The fabrics are made from: green tea, sugar, acetic acid (such as a cider vinegar) and the started culture (yeast and bacteria). The ingredients together generate a fabric that takes the shape of the container it grew in. The fabric created starts off with a sugary sweet smell but once it has been dyed it has no smell at all. I think it is truly amazing how something so simple can be created organically with very little environmental impacts and waste. With this sort of invention their isn't any need to use synthetic fibres or fabric. As the fabric is made from scratch it can be adapted to have certain uses such as: to repel water, to protect the skin or give nutritional value to the fabric. With the right development we could be seeing clothes made only by this technique in the future...

Chapter 4: Fast Fashion

In Ojai, California the founder of Patagonia, Rick Ridgeway, is spreading awareness of fast fashion and it's negative impacts on the environment. Between 2000 and 2010 the consumption of fast fashion has increased by a staggering 47%. This is why Rick Ridgeway is sending out messages to others (even his own customers) to spread awareness. He created a black Friday ad telling people not to buy a jacket from his store. Instead he wanted people to think about whether they really needed it. He believes it is important to only buy the things that you need and encourages other to repair, sell or recycle unwanted clothes instead of going out and buying new ones. This really made me think about my own consumption of fast fashion and all the clothing I buy that I either don't need or don't even wear. After watching this part of the documentary I found myself having a huge clear out of all my clothes and giving then away to charity and selling some newer piece on Ebay. I have decided now that I am going to work hard to reduce my consumption of fast fashion and only buy what I need. I am also a lover of buying second hand clothes from charity shops and selling websites such as Vinted and Ebay. Next time I want a specific item, instead of buying it from a store I am going to look at getting it second hand. If we all did this it would help to reduce fast fashion, save us money and also reduce the clothing that goes to the landfills. Next time you go to buy something, think about it...

Chapter 5: Dying without Water

This part of the documentary was very interesting and shocking at the same time. Sophie Mather, founder of the YEH Group over in Bangkok, Thailand has created a way of dying fabric that has much less impact of the environment that the traditional dying techniques. She started to develop her method after seeing litres and litres of fabric dye polluting the water that was feeding the watermelons we eat. She knew from this moment something had to change so she came up with a way of dying fabric without using any water at all. If you are unaware, fabrics are usually dyed with horrible chemicals and the excess is rinsed off with water. That excess then gets washed down the sink polluting the water supplies. Sophie has created a way of dying fabric that only uses carbon dioxide and heat. This method of dying fabrics is a no brainer for the future fashion industry. They just need more people in the industry to be aware of it and incorporate it into their own textiles. This method is so much better for the environment as it uses 50% less energy to create and also 50% less chemicals pollute the air and water in the process...

Chapter 6: Fixing Things

The last part of the documentary was all about repairing the items you already have. In San Louis Obispo, California a clothing repair company called IFIXIt are helping people learn to care and repair their own clothing. They believe that not only does this save the customer money, as they won't have to purchase a new product, but it also has less impact on the environment as less products will have to be created and wasted. Learning to fix you current clothing has a bigger positive impact than you think. Rick Ridgeway (founded of Patagonia fashion company) said that 50% of the environmental impact from a piece of clothing comes from the manufacturer. The other 50% comes from the consumer and how they care for the piece. I totally agree with this claim as us consumers don't care for our clothing enough and get rid of so many things. Repairing and caring more for clothing could see an increase in slow fashion instead of the fast fashion we see today. Next time your clothes have a hole or stain think about how easy it could be to repair it instead of chucking it away...

Like I said before this documentary was very interesting and inspirational to watch. I would 100% recommend giving it a watch and seeing how much it can impact your own thoughts towards the current fashion industry. I hope you enjoyed reading this post and you leant something from it. If you want to read more discussion posts from me then definitely head back to my blog every Friday for more. I hope to see you back here again soon...

Emma Victoria