The fashion business is no newcomer to technological advancements. Fashion, both as a business and as an art form, is defined by its capacity to change over time. So, why has the fashion industry gone so far behind other industries in terms of environmental stewardship? What role do startups play sustainably?
First, let’s take a look back at how we got here. Fashion remains a slow and individualized process in the first half of the nineteenth century. Middle-class women’s clothing was made by local dressmaking enterprises, while women from lesser homes continued to sew their clothes.
As a result of the increased demand for new clothing items, nonrenewable resources employed in industrialized agriculture and industry are being depleted. The “wear-once-and-throw-away” fashion trends popularised by Zara, H&M, and others enabled people to buy items and participate in fashion on a wider scale than ever before.
The True Cost, a film on the fashion industry’s underbelly, startled both fashion fans and environmental campaigners in 2015. Unexpectedly, a new light was shone on the genuine consequences of our fashion choices. The Rana Plaza collapse, which killed at least 1,132 laborers and injured over 2,500 others, is widely regarded as a watershed moment in public perception of the fashion industry.
The Current Fashion Situation
The Fashion Agenda for the World The CEO’s Report 2020 acknowledges that the existing model has been a great engine for global development and growth, but claims that those who invest in lengthy social and environmental sustainability, rather than short-term financial incentives, have a compelling economic argument. While changing long-held habits is difficult, the authors believe (as do we) that the fashion business may serve as an example for other industries to improve and progress before it is too late. And invention is a big part of that.
10 Startups Reshaping Sustainable Fashion
Circular Fashion
Good on You
Good On You is the nation’s biggest brand evaluation system and online fashion discovery platform. It connects ethical customers with fashion retailers all around the world. Their unbiased, trustworthy ethical brand evaluations answer a real problem for the millions of customers who want to buy smarter and merchants that want to reach them.
This sustainable fashion firm has graded over 2,500 brands for their effect since 2015, empowering millions of buyers to make better purchasing decisions. They honor designers and manufacturers who are doing good while also providing shops with the resources they need to engage with the expanding conscious consumer market.
Armadio Verde
Armadioverde is a sustainable way startup to become Europe’s most recognized community-based service platform for high-street clothes exchange.
With a growing user base, the industry’s highest customer retention rate, a collection of 200,000 affordable items, new collections published four times a day, and a talented team in Milan, armadioverde enables its people to exchange items and retool their style in an affordable, convenient, and long-term manner.
EcoFashion Corporation
The mission of ECOfashion Corp is to improve the fashion and textile industry through sustainable construction and a source to story’ business model.
MetaWear (B2B), YES AND (D2C), and Farm to Home & Seed to Style are the four verticals that make up the global leader in sustainable fashion (QVC.) EFC was born with environmental and social justice in its DNA, from source to story, farm to the finished fashion. EFC is firmly devoted to doing well by doing well in the world, from sustainable farming and climate action to inclusivity and women’s empowerment.
Precise
Precise is a fashion e-commerce size assistance. It aids fashion shops in increasing conversion rates by removing size uncertainty and lowering return rates by proposing the most appropriate size.
End-users can answer questions about their bodies and/or film a 7-second video of themselves rotating around in front of their smartphone camera to acquire a size suggestion from Precise, which will provide them with accurate size recommendations that they will buy (+50%) and keep (+50%). Precise is the only holistic system on the market that produces a result both with and without a video.
New Textiles & Engineered Fibers
Drop
Droplet is a sustainable fashion business that focuses on our favorite materials, such as cotton, and improves their performance over time. Droplet is a performance fabric that combines an entirely new organic technology to keep the softness and permeability we adore while also delivering superior performance never seen before without compromising on hand.
They can make apparel “life-proof,” including stain and spill-resistant, by using their patent-pending material science and cotton processing technologies. Drupal uses material science and textile engineering to develop high-performance natural materials that promote sustainability in the fashion sector while also reducing the pollution caused by polyester-based microfibers in our oceans.
Kintra Fibers
Kintra Fibers (Kintra Fibers) are a type of synthetic fiber that,
Did you know that every time you wash a piece of synthetic textile apparel, 1,000,000 microfiber cloths are released? Even though the fact that synthetic fabrics account for 65 percent of total fiber manufacturing, just 8% of brands are aware of their supply chain down to the chemical vendor site.
Kintra Fibers is a materials science firm that develops high-performing, 100 percent bio-based textile polymers that are designed to keep our oceans free of microfibers. They use 100 percent bio-based materials, and their polymers are 100 percent compostable at the molecular level. This means that any Kintra fibers released during fabric laundering cycles will end up in a wastewater treatment facility’s compost environment, rather than ending up in the ocean like standard synthetic textiles.
Azolla
Azolla is a biotechnology business that is developing technology to convert pollutants into biomaterial to replace harmful materials with sustainable, economical alternatives. Azolla’s biomanufacturing platform will enable businesses to convert CO2 into biomaterials that can be utilized to produce daily items, beginning with textiles.
Their patented organism converts CO2 into nanocellulose for the textile sector, which consumes 98 million tonnes of non-renewable resources every year. Their novel synthetic biology method uses bacteria that convert CO2 directly to lignocellulosic biomass without the need for fermentation, making it cleaner, faster, and less expensive. This green fashion firm offers a one-of-a-kind, completely sustainable, and regenerative method of producing this flexible and commonly used material.
Dyeing innovation
Vividye
No other printing/dyeing technology contemplates the decoloring process, which is a necessary step if the fashion industry is to ever become entirely circular. Even though the fact that customers are becoming more conscious of the need to be more responsible in their purchasing habits, most of them still prioritize being stylish. Vivdye’s approach allows them to work closely with their consumers, giving them guilt-free access to their fashion dreams.
Vividye has created a resource-efficient dyeing method that may be used to dye fabrics in a variety of colors and patterns.
DyeCoo’s
DyeCoo’s objective is to help the textile industry become more lean and clean. The CO2 technology developed by DyeCoo is the world’s first water-free and pesticide-free textile processing solution. Providing geographic independence from water sources and a head start on legislation limiting the use of harmful process chemicals for textile industries. Its minimal running costs enable you to achieve both short-term and long-term goals.
Werewolf
Werewolf creates biodegradable fibers that are naturally colored and perform well. Werewolf creates textile fibers with built-in color and performance features using microorganisms rather than hazardous polymers, dyes, or finishes. They’re utilizing proteins. these proteins impart desirable features like color, elasticity, and waterproofness to their textile fibers, mimicking nature’s method for material performance. Their fibers cut out harmful dyeing and finishing procedures from the textile supply chain, reducing reliance on agriculture, livestock, and petrochemicals.
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