Sustainable Materials

To be sustainably aware would mean to know how our actions can affect and even damage the planet, to then work more environmentally friendly.

I believe a main problem we suffer with is that we have become more and more demanding as a society. People experimented how to create synthetic fibres making materials less costly and faster to create, however the chemicals are ending up damaging nature. Companies attempted to use more organic, natural materials, but fashion, as well as many other industries, moves so fast, it’s becoming difficult for the Earth to keep up.

There is also the huge issue in textiles with the amount of water being used for printing and dying techniques.

http://www.eleathergroup.com/

E-Leather is a company that have experiment and now sells material in a way to make leather last longer. This material has been described as, ‘bionic leather’. Made with natural leather fibres and the power of water to produce a unique new material.

Although I don’t agree with leather, I can see this as a much better option as companies could then meet higher demands without using as many cow skins.

http://www.upcyclingtextiles.net/

Rebecca Early is an eco-friendly designer, mostly known for the 100 shirts projects she is running. This is based around experimenting ways to create amazing fashion shirts from recycled materials. On her website she says, “Over the years what began as a personal textiles recycling project, has become an experimental and collaborative ‘upcycling’ research project”. She has also spoken about writing a book to help designers be more eco-friendly.

I think it would be great to see more top designers re-using material, not just for trends but because they actually want to make a difference, as these are the people smaller companies look to.