New York Fashion Week, now underway, is a celebration of creativity, crafts, imagination, and human ingenuity. But of course in the year 2019 one aspect of creation is integrating technology, so perhaps it’s little wonder that some designers are relying on data collected by the Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba to inform their looks.
The H&M Group has partnered with The Renewal Workshop to debut a new test collection made from unsold clothes that have been repaired and brought back to market through its COS (Collection of Style) branded stores.
H&M says this ‘first of its kind’ ‘Restore’ collection developed by its internal innovation department ‘The Laboratory’ will and its fashion brand COS (Collection of Style) will launch tomorrow in three stores located in Berlin, Stockholm and Utrecht. The COS brand launched in 2007 and currently operates over 250 stores in more than 40 worldwide markets.
European fashion brands who buy readymade garments from Bangladesh agreed on Tuesday to hand over responsibility for issues like worker safety to a new body called the Readymade Sustainability Council (RSC).
RSC, governed by the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA), and brands and workers’ representatives, will replace the Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh to ensure compliance with work-place monitoring in the industry.
Thirty-two leading global fashion and textile companies gathered ahead of the 45th G7 meeting to sign the Fashion Pact as environmental protection and sustainable development has become one of the most critical topics of global development. They have committed to achieving practical objectives together in three areas: Climate, Biodiversity, and Oceans, aiming to reduce the environmental impact of the fashion and textile industry.
Japanese designer Yuima Nakazato has created a haute couture collection for Paris Fashion Week in collaboration with synthetic spider-silk specialist Spiber.
The garments were created by harnessing a variety of Brewed Protein materials and blended textiles.
Brewed Protein is a new protein material developed by Spiber, created through a fermentation process, and which is not reliant on petroleum or animals.
This might sound strange, but if you were to take all the water you would be able to drink in the next 13 years, you would have the amount that it takes to make one T-shirt and a pair of jeans. Yet how many pairs of jeans and how many T-shirts must the average person own? For most, the total number is likely in double figures, which is to say: it will have taken a lot of H2O.
Plastic waste is one of the big problems of this time. By 2050, the oceans could contain more waste than fish. Consumer demand for recycled fashion is on the rise, and more and more sports and fashion companies work with it - in different ways.
It’s an unsightly plight and causing damage to marine life globally, as plastic from our lifestyles ends up in the oceans. According to data UNEP (United Nations Environment Programme) eight million tons of waste ends up in our seas every single year, 640 thousand tons of fishing nets abandoned at the bottom of the ocean.
Thirty-two luxury, fashion and textile companies have signed a new commitment to protect climate, biodiversity and the oceans of the world, calling the new initiative the Fashion Pact.
Representatives presented the idea of the new agreement to the president of France, Emmanuel Macron, at a special meeting in Paris on August 23. Mr Macron arranged for the leaders of the G7 group of the wealthiest states in the world to see a presentation on the Fashion Pact during the G7 Summit in Biarritz, which takes place from August 24-26.
PrettyLittleThing and Missguided have hit the big time selling £5 dresses and £1 bikinis to the youth market but another online British brand, Hush, is expanding rapidly in a backlash against fast fashion.
Sales at London-based Hush, which is run by a husband and wife team, jumped 35% last year to more than £40m as its jumpsuits and dresses found an audience among women aged 35 to 45 who, it says, “like fashion but are not a slave to it”.
Considering the number of apparel retailers on the ground and online, it would appear to be a winning category. But broad sales trends are not in the sector's favor.
Several apparel retailers are struggling. Ascena is regrouping as sales plummet, unloading its discount banners entirely. L Brands is propped up by its personal care brand Bath & Body Works as Victoria's Secret loses share. J. Crew is in disarray, hobbled by debt and putting its hopes into its much smaller Madewell brand.
