The future of fashion: sustainability and innovations

Like you, we love fashion and all the beautiful things it brings to this world. But we also cannot ignore its dark side. The bitter truth is that the fast growth of the fashion industry turned it into one of the world’s largest pollution problems. Sounds terrible, we know, but there are some improvements and innovations which can change the situation.

In this blog, we’ll share with you some of our favourite innovations in the fashion industry and try to predict what the future of fashion will look like.

The environmental cost of fast fashion

Before jumping to the innovation part, let’s see why we keep on talking about sustainable fashion and why it's important.

The fashion industry is responsible for for 8-10% of global carbon emissions. This impact is higher than the output of all international flights and maritime shipping combined together. Have you ever thought that your wardrobe costs that much?

Fashion releases emissions on every stage of product manufacture: from pumping water to irrigate textile crops, oil-based materials and pesticides, harvesting machinery, to production technologies, and finally transport.

Fun fact (not that fun actually): Fashion is the 2nd largest polluting industry in the world. Only the oil industry is worse.

Source rollinggrenades.com

We’re not trying to scare you with these numbers although we understand that it's easy to feel overwhelmed and hopeless by all of this. But knowing what we know now doesn’t let us just sit and do nothing.

The terrible outcomes of the industry increased demand for ethical and sustainable production processes, novel types of fabrics/dyes, and implementation of innovative manufacturing practices. Let’s see some innovations that we hope will shape and revolutionise the future of fashion.

Sustainable fashion solutions and innovations

Natural-based and 100% biodegradable fabrics & dyes

The sector of natural fabrics and dyes is growing fast, although it is still far from the mass adoption, unfortunately. Here are some of our favourite vegan fabric producers:

Desserto is an award-winning cactus material producer. Desserto is considered a pioneer in cactus-based materials. Their ethical clothing material alternative is a sustainable and vegan product that closely resembles leather in appearance, texture, durability, and use.  Kaia Mar bags are produced from Desserto material, and we assure that you’ll love it from the first touch.

Ananas Anam is another amazing alternative made of, you guessed it, pineapple.  The company has developed a Piñatex, a natural and biodegradable material alternative made from pineapple leaf fibre. 

Infinited Fibre Company has patented a technology for creating fibre out of cellulose-rich waste. The company takes cotton-rich textile waste, paper, cardboard waste, and agricultural waste such as straw and converts it into new, cotton-like fibres for the textile industry.

Circular economy practises

A circular economy is aimed to create better products and services for customers while contributing to regenerating the environment. Here are projects that champion the circular fashion economy:

Circular.fashion company has developed a software that helps fashion brands become more sustainable. Their software also allows players in the fashion ecosystem to identify and manage products in the most sustainable way for a circular economy.

Veshin is the world's first vegan factory specialising in bags and accessories. This is the place where Kaia Mar bags are produced. Veshin's philosophy is based on the circular economy and eco-friendly manufacturing practices. At Kaia Mar, we stand for fair wages, ethical labour, and sustainable methods of production. Collaborating with Veshin is the key to our mission and values.

Good on You is a mobile app that provides ethical ratings for fashion brands. Each brand is rated on its impact on the planet, animals, and people. The rating system aggregates standards, certifications and publically available data sources into a 5-point score to promote transparency across the fashion industry and to allow customers to make conscious purchasing decisions.

Digital Sampling

Digital sampling technology allows you to try on clothes virtually, just as you would in a store. This is especially handy during the pandemic time and saves people time, nerves, and money.

TAAS is an innovative digital sampling solution that is aimed to lower production costs for retailers and designers. More importantly, digital sampling reduces the need to create physical samples, thereby saving time, energy and resources while simultaneously eliminating waste.

We can see that fashion slowly shifts towards sustainable solutions and circularity. These positive changes mean that the future of fashion will be green, with a focus on eco-friendliness, circular economy, and innovations. We’re excited to be on that journey and build a brand that makes a difference.

Explore our collection and discover the Kaia Mar today!