Cutting New Cloth

Sustainability is the hottest trend in luxury fashion this season, from alternative textiles to eco-conscious sourcing and animal-free fur, and it looks like it’s here to stay. Melissa Twigg introduces designers and brands leading the eco-friendly movement.

- Melissa Twigg

Once bitter foes, sustainability and fashion are finally coming together as big brands realise that making a difference is also good for business. For decades, Stella McCartney was a lone voice in advocating fashion that helped preserve more than just your figure, but she now has illustrious company as sustainability becomes the year’s biggest trend.

In fact, there is barely a brand that hasn’t announced its commitment to the environment. Versace, Michael Kors, Calvin Klein, Tommy Hilfiger, Armani and Gucci have all recently renounced fur, while Gucci is pushing it even further by banning PVC and introducing organic cotton, recycled polyester and nylon made from recycled fishing nets. And that’s before we look at smaller fashion stars such as Reformation, the ultratrendy Los Angeles brand that is built entirely on sustainable principles and only uses recycled fabrics.

Increasingly, these brands are announcing partnerships with businesses that have worked out how to make leather without cows, silk without worms, fur without animals and fabrics from recycled waste. Salvatore Ferragamo has been selling scarves made of orange fibre and has just launched the Rainbow Future, the first shoe inspired by the principles of sustainability.

Stella McCartney, meanwhile, has gone one step further by producing two outfits made with spider-inspired silk. After studying spiders’ DNA and their webs, Bolt Threads, the company her brand has partnered with, developed similar proteins that are injected into yeast and sugar and then fermented. The resulting liquid silk is turned into a fibre through a wet-spinning process that creates strands that can be knitted into fabric.