Materials are a key determining factor in sustainable fashion and of a garment's footprint. And petroleum-based synthetics and water-gobbling cotton are still dominating. Luckily, incredible innovations are emerging: spider-inspired silk, lab grown leather, orange-based fiber. Ready to see what you may be wearing next?
The textile usage in the fashion industry is surprisingly consolidated: 60% of apparel is synthetics (of which 80% polyester) and 25% cotton. Where synthetics rely on petroleum and energy-intensive production processes, cotton requires astonishing amounts of water and pesticides. Taking this as a starting point, incredible innovations in sustainable alternatives for fabrics have manifested over the last years, including bio-fabricated, fruit-based and recycled fibers. This article walks you through a few inspiring examples!
Bio-fabricated fibers
From the lab to your body? Common Objective defines fiber bio-fabrication as: "a process of growing fabrics using living organisms called microbes, instead of creating them from extracting raw materials from oil, from animals and plants." Unfortunately still in a start-up phase and with limited economic viability to scale up to date, today’s biofabric mills offer promising opportunities for the fashion sector. Great examples include collagen-based Zoa leather by Modern Meadows, spider-inspired Microsilk by Bolt Threads and mushroomy Mylo leather by Bolt Threads.
Rather than creating fibers from extracting raw materials from oil, from animals and plants, biofabrication is a process of growing fibers using living organisms called microbes.
Modern Meadow, New York based, grows "animal-free, animal materials". Say what? Through DNA editing, non-animal cells are designed to produce collagen, the predominant protein found in animal skin. Modern Meadow grows, purifies and biofabricates this collagen is to create materials that mimic traditional leather - with the only difference in construction. Zoa takes a liquid form, allowing it to morph to any shape instead of being stitched.
Inspired by how a spider produces strong, elastic, durable and soft fibers when spinning her web, Bolt Threads developed a technology replicating this process. First, proteins are developed by using bioengineering to put genes into yeast, then these are produced at large scale through fermentation, using yeast, sugar, and water before the silk protein is isolated and purified and spun into fibers, similar to those like rayon and acrylic.
A few years ago, materials from mushroom mycelium were introduced as a green alternative to synthetic plastic packaging, foams and construction materials. Today they provide alternatives to fashion. Bolt Threads grows myceliumcells on beds of renewable, organic matter until they form an interconnected 3D network, that is processed, tanned and dyed into Mylo leather. adidas, Kering, lululemon and Stella McCartney have partner to invest in further innovation with Mylo.
Fruit-based fibers
A few facts to get you straight: Common Objective noted that for every kilo of many food crops harvested,1.5 kg of plant residue is left to rot or be burned. And the waste of banana, pineapple, sugar cane, rice straws, flax and hemp plants alone are worth more than 250M tons of fiber per year - or 2.5x the current global fiber demand. You can see it coming: leveraging food waste turns out to be a sustainable, regenerative resource for fashion textiles. A lot of innovation is happening in this space, including leather from pineapples, silk from oranges and leather from mushrooms.
The waste of banana, pineapple, sugar cane, rice straws, flax and hemp plants alone are worth more than 2.5x the current global fiber demand
Piñatex® is made of fibre from the waste leaves of the pineapple plant in the Philippines, where they are a by-product from existing pineapple harvest, so no additional environmental resources are required for production. Once washed, dried and purified, the extracted fibers are processed into Piñafelt fabric. The rolls of Piñafelt are then shipped by boat to Spain or Italy for specialised finishing, where the fabric is coloured using GOTS certified pigments and a resin top coating is applied to give additional strength, durability and water resistance. Piñatex has been used by over 1000 brands worldwide including Hugo Boss and H&M. Not only is Piñatex® a natural, sustainably-sourced, cruelty free material - their use creates an additional income stream for farming communities.
Italian Orange Fiber patented and manufactures the first sustainable fabric from citrus juice by-products. Orange Fiber is produced from hundreds of thousands of tons of citrus juice byproduct, the so-called “pastazzo,” that otherwise would be wasted. The citrus cellulose is spun into a high-quality and completely new, silk-like cellulose yarn that can be blended with other materials. When used in its purest form, the resulting 100% citrus textile features a soft and silky hand-feel,lightweight, and can be opaque or shiny.
Okay, fruit and vegetables. Dutch MycoTEX is a 100% biodegradable material based on mycelium, the root of mushrooms. The textile is grown into custom-fitted moulds, which eliminates the need for yarns, weaving and other process steps. The material is 100% biodegradable and has anti-microbal properties. This project is currently part of the WEARsustain project and has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 732098. MycoTEX has been part of the first batch of the accelerator program Plug and Play – Fashion for good for disrupting the fashion industry.
"From Seaweed to Fiber." AlgiKnit Inc. is a biomaterials company that creates durable yet rapidly degradable yarns from kelp. Kelp is one of the most renewable organisms on the planet, absorbing CO2 and working against global warming and ocean acidification. Algiknit fabrics are intended for footwear, accessories and apparel. The company explains with a wink on their website that the materials will remain intact when being worn, and only degrade when exposed to humid, fungi rich environments found in composting facilities for a prolonged period of time.
Dutch company Flocus presents a range of kapok textile materials, offering naturally sustainable and regenerative alternatives to the fashion industry: kapok is a non-food fruit crop which can be picked, needs no irrigation, no pesticides, and no fertilisers. Kapok fibre is 100% biodegradable and 100% recyclable. The textile is 5x times lighter than cotton fibre, has waterproof and hypoallergenic properties and is a very effective natural insulator - but it needs to be blended with other (sustainable) materials.
Other examples include:
Bananatex, a durable, waterproof fabric made purely from Banana plants
Woocoa, a non-animal wool made from hemp and coconut fibers treated with enzymes extracted from the oyster mushroom
Leather alternatives: cork leather Quecork, Conanti's olive leaves tanned leather, Muskin vegan mushroom leather, Desserto's vegan cactus leather, Apple based leather Frumat
Recycled fibers
Evrnu® is a Seattle-based textile innovations company, founded in 2014, that develops technologies to create engineered fibers from discarded clothing while ensuring great performance. Their vision is a fully circular garment lifecycle. In 2016, Levi's partnered with Evrnu and created a pair of 511 jeans manufactured from a mix of virgin cotton and yarn made from approximately 5 discarded cotton T-shirts. Three years later, the adidas by Stella McCartney Infinite Hoodie was the first garment made from ‘100% recyclable materials’. The hoodie used NuCycl fibers with customized performance features and was created in an ultra-limited run. Truly made to be remade, it was designed to be disassembled and returned to the NuCycl system.
Siizu's SeaWool fabric was developed as an alternative, eco-friendly textile that serves as a a soft wool-alternative and provides a number of benefits including being naturally anti-odor and providing insulation to stay warm in cold weather. It is made from sustainably sourced recycled oyster shells from the food industry. The oyster shells are then mixed with recycled plastic bottles and ground into a fine powder.
Other examples include:
Cotton: Recover, Pure Waste, Eco2Cotton
Conclusion
While many of these brands are not economically viable at large scale today, they offer a sneak peek into what the future of sustainable fashion may look like. One in which we have moved away fromt unsustainable raw material production that does not take the limitations of our world's resources into account. One in which we are getting closer and closer to a circular ecosystem, in balance with the planet we live in. And clearly, one where science and food are closer to fashion than you could have had ever imagined!
Sources: Common Objective Masterclass: Sustainable Fabric Innovations, Fashion for Good Innovation platform
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