{"id":16605,"date":"2020-04-07T13:54:42","date_gmt":"2020-04-07T05:54:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/?p=16605"},"modified":"2021-06-23T15:45:53","modified_gmt":"2021-06-23T07:45:53","slug":"sustainability-future-fashion-trend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/2020\/04\/sustainability-future-fashion-trend\/","title":{"rendered":"Sustainability – Future Fashion Trend"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Fashion industry makes efforts to create sustainable consumption and production behaviour <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Lynne Rao in Luzhou<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fashionable\nand Sustainable<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI love fast fashion, but I have to throw\naway many clothes every six months,\u201d says Shum Man Yin, a Year 2 student\nstudying history at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shum, like any other girl of her age, loves\nshopping from Zara, a Spanish fast-fashion brand, to keep up with the latest\ntrend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fast\nfashion is one of the fashion business models that provides inexpensive\ngarments of the latest trends, encouraging frequent and excessive consumption\namong consumers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Recycling bin in a community
(Photo courtesy of Shum Man Yin)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Being trendy, however, leaves Shum in a dilemma. As much as she cares about trends, she is also concerned about textile waste in Hong Kong. \u201cIt (fast-fashion clothing) is cheap but poor in quality. I always buy a lot but don\u2019t wear them much,\u201d shares Shum. She tries to buy less now and makes it a habit of putting away unwanted clothes into recycling bins placed in the community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A New Choice<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m regretful every time I throw away my clothes,\u201d says Shum, \u201cbut I have to (do so) because it\u2019s hard to manage my wardrobe.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Keeping up with fashion trends often leaves consumers with an overloaded wardrobe. Four in ten Hong Kong shoppers said they threw away clothing after wearing it just once, according to YouGov<\/a>, a private research centre, in 2017. The survey shows that the number of garments purchased by individuals grew by 60 per cent each year between 2000 and 2014 alone.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Toby Crispy, Upcycling Designer
(Photo Courtesy of Toby Crispy)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPeople buy and throw away their garments so quickly, and that causes so many environmental problems,\u201d says Toby Crispy, an upcycling fashion designer who used to work for a commercial fashion brand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Crispy points out that overconsumption is accelerated by fast-fashion retailers who break down industry\u2019s \u201cfour-seasons-a-year routine\u201d into 52 mini collections a year. The brands use synthetic materials for their cheap garments which are mainly oil by-products and cause pollution during laundry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The garment material is not the sole problem of fast fashion. Having worked in the fashion field for over two decades, Crispy says she has witnessed the dark sides of the industry, such as \u201csevere pollution, animal abuse and exploitation of labor.\u201d \u201cI (no longer) could accept to work hard for this selfish and ignorant industry,\u201d she says. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tired and disappointed, Crispy quit her job as a design manager at Agnes b. HK\u2014 a label she worked for before creating her upcycling fashion label. She created her upcycling fashion brand, Lastbutnotleast in 2013. She is committed to fighting against waste and pollution problems in the fashion industry by repairing, reshaping, and redesigning secondhand garments from customers.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
A hoodie designed with t-shirts collected by a secondary teacher over 6 years
(Photo courtesy of Toby Crispy)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Crispy believes upcycling can\nmake the best use of old clothing while it also helps reinforce the sense of\nattachment customers share with their belongings. \u201cIt\u2019s\nso touching every time I listen to stories people have with their garments and\nsee happy faces when they receive redesigned clothes,\u201d says Crispy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Crispy holds regular workshops in an effort to promote sustainable fashion. She explains how garments are made and shares tips on how to turn old clothes into new ones. \u201cI feel proud when I see the participants feeling happy and learning different types of upcycling skills in my workshops,\u201d she says. \u201cThe mission as a designer is to propose a sustainable lifestyle, rather than producing the unnecessary.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s Redress<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The fast-fashion model adopted by Zara and\nH&M has been successful in sales since the 2000s. They are especially\npopular in Hong Kong with net sales of 1,502 million kronor (around HK$1.23 billion),\naccording to H&M\n2018 annual report<\/a>.  The figure is significant considering the net\nsales of other neighbouring regions like Taiwan and Singapore are just 600 million (around HK$467\nmillion) and 800 million kronor (HK$ 620 million) respectively. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to figures from the Environmental\nProtection Department of Hong Kong, about 0.125 million tons of textile garbage\nwere dumped into landfills in 2018. On average, about 343 tons of textile waste\nwere produced per day. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

To combat textile waste, Redress, an environmental NGO in Hong Kong, makes efforts to change the public perception of fashion and reduce textile waste. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Volunteers sorting out second-hand clothes at Redress’ Sort-a-thon during their Get Redressed Month 2019
(Photo courtesy of Redress)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Redress, founded in 2007, has held various campaigns to promote sustainable fashion through recycling and upcycling. Redress encourages the public to adopt a circular model by collecting, sorting, and reusing or upcycling secondhand garments. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Redress Design Award 2019
(Photo courtesy of Redress)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The NGO also holds the Redress Design Award every year to spread the message of sustainable fashion with designers of various backgrounds. \u201cWe work to change mindsets (of fashion consumption) and (related design) practices to reduce textile waste, as well as to create systems and partnerships that will bring out the values (of) existing waste,\u201d says Kay Liu, circular fashion programme director at Redress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
H&M Conscious line explained on its official website
(Picture sourced from H&M official website)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Fast-fashion retailers are also looking for sustainable models to address environmental concerns. H&M introduced an environmentally conscious label, \u201cConscious\u201d in 2019, which means their products \u201cmust contain at least 50 per cent sustainable materials, such as organic cotton and recycled polyester\u201d according to H&M\u2019s official website. Zara also has its eco-friendly collection, \u201cJoin Life\u201d, which uses organic cotton, recycled wool, and forest-friendly fibre, Lyocell as the primary materials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThese changes do not only offer consumers\nmore sustainable choices but also push other practitioners in the industry to\nchange,\u201d Liu adds. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Liu thinks changing\nconsumption behavior is the key to promote sustainable fashion. She points out\nthat consumers lack awareness of the impact of over-consumption. \u201cMany\nconsumers don\u2019t realise that they are buying one of the world\u2019s biggest\npolluted goods when they purchase fast fashion,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Liu asks consumers to keep three \u201cRe\u2019s\u201d in mind to practise sustainable fashion trends, which are, to Re-think before buying, Re-organise wardrobes, and Re-create old into new. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Edited by Soohyun Kim<\/em>
Sub-edited by Kayi Tsang<\/em>
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On average, about 343 tons of textile garbage are produced every day in Hong Kong. Conscious fashion experts make efforts to promote sustainable fashion trends and reduce textile waste in Hong Kong.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":16737,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1801,836],"tags":[1439,43,1438,76,1436,1437,1095],"class_list":["post-16605","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-issue-155","category-lifestyle","tag-environment-friendly","tag-fashion","tag-fast-fashion","tag-recycling","tag-sustainability","tag-textile-waste","tag-upcycling"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16605","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16605"}],"version-history":[{"count":29,"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16605\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16856,"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16605\/revisions\/16856"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16737"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16605"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}