The New Era of Green Fashion
By Natalia Jaramillo
The wave of the new generation does one thing well: sustainability. The next generation of designers will do the same by taking fashion into a new era, making environmentally friendly long-lasting fashion a trend to stay. Trends, typically not forever, will be transformed into habitual findings when it comes to fashion, making green fashion yin-yang. Pushed into the limelight by the new-age designers, sustainable fashion has emerged with these up-and-coming 20 brands.
Transitioning out of the brand’s use of deadstock, a term for vintage clothing, Collina Strada creator Hillary Taymour wants the company to focus more on organic fibers like rose silk because deadstock is even too synthetic for the fully sustainable brand. Collina Strada is a “platform for social issues and change” made through clothing and fashion. The brand’s ss20 collection features tie-dye and psychedelic mixed prints in loud pastel colors with hippie era inspiration and lots of skin showing.
Former Louis Vuitton designer, Kevin Germanier, has created his own brand with sustainability in mind all the way through. He is known for his cool, beautiful and sparkling high-end going-out pieces. Currently, Germanier worked with Matchesfashion to create a range of sustainable bridal wear with upcycled fabric. The gowns feature asymmetrical hemlines and long beaded tassels and ruffles to the classic tea length wedding dress.
His antique designs are made using recycled fabrics such as antique bed sheets or grain sacks that are then hand-painted and dyed to create Skelton’s signature 1900s looks. The collections he creates are all made with sustainable and recycled material which adds to the antique look of the collections. His runway shows often feature models in masks to give off the intimidating look of the 20th century.
Founded by Brendon Babenzien, Noah NYC is a menswear brand that mixes the cool factor of surf and music with punk rock elements. The brand is focused on being innovators in how they run their companies and produce their fabric across the globe, with human dignity and responsibility as some of the main focuses for the company.
Founder Jaclyn Hodes created this fashion brand in 2012 using ethically sourced fabrics, plant-based dyes and environmentally conscious production values. The brand features a whimsical and natural aesthetic derived from Hodes’s love for vintage clothes and long loose slip dresses.
Antonin Tron, who founded Atlein in 2016, created the french-based brand with sustainability in mind. His designs are largely based on upcycled material from France and Italy, short-circuit manufacturing and recycled natural material. His inspiration for the entire brand is the Atlantic ocean and therefore his womenswear designs tend to drape over the body in an elegant figure-hugging rush of fabric.
Innovative brand, For Days, offers a zero-waste recycling membership. They aim to have online shoppers buy their clothes then send them back when they are old and used and get new ones for a great discount, thus promoting their zero-waste and recycle initiative. They even give trial boxes for discounted rates to see if you like the clothes, and if you don’t you simply return them in the same box they send you.
Sustainability doesn’t just have to mean the environment and Bethany Williams proves this point with her socially sustainable line. Williams works with women’s shelters, homeless shelters, drug rehab centers, prisons and struggling youth centers to offer them work or a position to model her clothes. In addition to being green and kind with people, Williams’ brand works only with organic, recycled and upcycled material to create the designs.
This innovative brand goes a step further to create biodegradable clothes. In an effort to be as sustainable as humanly possible, founder Holm, ensures that each piece is either biodegradable or can be easily recycled at the end of its life cycle. On her website, when purchasing an item, she also ensures to list exactly how this article of clothing was made and how it impacts the environment to educate the shopper.
The mission of this brand is to help save the planet through their recycled cotton T-shirts, environmentally friendly dye, recycled water system, seaweed fiber T-shirt and natural wildflower down jacket they are doing just that. This brand has a very minimalistic and primary color style that promotes everything sustainable.
Built over the past 10 years, this brand designs classic and minimalistic menswear. The idea behind the brand is longevity and through their use of organic cotton, regenerative fibers and recycled material. They claim their designs help lower water usage, get rid of chemicals that farmers and rivers are exposed to and often help clean trash and other sustainable volunteer initiatives.
This menswear line was created by a female designer, Bode, and was the first female to show at the menswear show in New York Fashion Week. She creates clothes out of antique garments that recycle old fabric. Her designs have classic men’s structure with subtle female detailing making this collection special and sustainable.
Recent University of Westminster graduate, Priya Ahluwalia, designs with vintage clothing and material in mind. Her designs are based on second-hand clothing and vintage looks that give the sustainability effect to her clothes and bring her Indian-Nigerian heritage into play as well.
A former Addidas designer, Kirkum now makes her own made-to-order shoes out of recycled sneaker material. Her focus is on the story the shoes tell through her unique designs and the human element of creating shoes for people. The shoes range in looking ragged and recycled with classic designs or minimalistic, classic and sophisticated with minimal pastel colors.
The soon to be graduate student from Central St Martins, Needham, has created a name for himself in fashion and sustainability. His line uses upcycled material and dead-stock fabrics to create beautiful pieces. To further advocate for the environment, Needham often dresses actresses like Emma Watson who focuses on fighting for the planet.
The Central St. Martins graduate student created the brand in 2016 with an environmental focus. The brand uses natural and organic cotton, hemp and bamboo cotton to create the womenswear. Some of the threads not used in the clothes go to a factory in Slovenia who recycle the threads into mattress filler and insulation which promotes the zero-waste and environmentally friendly initiative of the company.
The designer has four lines under the brand Marine Serre, one of which is specifically environmentally friendly, called green, and uses only end-of-cycle products. Each product under the green line also lists what it’s made up of. The brand uses typically upcycled cotton for its slim fitted t-shirts.
Focused on the education of sustainability, this brand wants to teach people how to be more green through the graphics on T-shirts and using sustainable materials and sourcing. The clothing is often made in Portugal which is the leader of sustainable practices according to Phipps website. The brand also focuses on ethical processes, alternative energy and re-using treatable water.
The knit-wear expert, Jones, has been featured in many news pieces for her innovative sustainable knitwear. After creating her brand hand-in-hand with sustainability initiatives in mind she now travels around the world presenting workshops on how to create your own sustainable knitwear.
Known for his deconstructed denim and outerwear coats made of dead-stock, this designer has sustainability in mind in everything he creates. The womenswear designer cultivates his designs keeping carbon emissions, child labor and water impact all in mind when creating each piece of classic clothing with cool asymmetrical-twist.
Images katy Jones
