PREMIÈRE VISION - the leading trade fairs for the upstream international fashion, textiles and material industry – has published the first part of its FASHION & SUSTAINABILITY white paper to present an overview of some of the industry's major concerns, including recycling, bio-sourcing, traceability and biodegradability.
According to the fair organisers at Première Vision (PV), their mission is to facilitate the global industry to move forward together towards a cleaner future, in the face of today's pressing climate challenges, while the fashion industry is both committed and innovative, inventing and re-inventing itself to reduce its environmental imprint through manufacturing methods incorporating circularity and sustainability.
In recent years, the awareness and commitment of the industry's key players, together with a change in consumer habits, have led to the implementation of concrete solutions to foster more ethical and responsible fashion, according to PV.
Ever since 2015, PV has been promoting the industry's sustainable approaches through its Smart Creation initiative, with which its complementary content analyses the sector's major challenges and spotlights new values combining creativity, innovation and sustainability, by way of the following areas.
• The Smart Keys: a series of helpful, actionable articles to decode key eco-sustainability topics, and move towards more enlightened sourcing.
• Smart Creation, the podcast: a monthly exploration of the potential of sustainable fashion with guest experts sharing new ideas.
• Smart Talks: each season, a series of engaged conversations around the challenges of eco-responsibility, and the solutions and innovations put forth by textile professionals.
As the fashion landscape continues to move into a hybrid world, respecting human and natural resources is a key cornerstone, it is vital to balance pragmatism and frivolity, and reconcile sustainability with attractiveness.
The benefits of virtuous design include:
• Respect for decent working conditions, in accordance with human rights, guaranteeing safety, health and a basic living wage.
• Traceable and transparent production operations throughout the sector.
• The selection of organic and recycled raw materials respecting biodiversity concerns and animal welfare.
• Compositions that promote circularity, by opting for single-material products or recyclable blends.
• Transformation processes favouring the reduction of water consumption, and treating wastewater using innovative technologies ; of energy consumption, with the use of solutions emitting less CO2; of chemical substances, from the first inputs to the finished product; of waste, and improving waste management.
• Finishes and dyes that favour mechanical processes or are inspired by the intelligence of nature for biomimetic innovations.
• The guarantee of durability thanks to qualities tested for their tensile strength and resistance to pilling and abrasion.
• Anticipating a product's post-use environmental fate as of its creation, including the possibility to reuse, repair, recycle, or upcycle.
• A concrete and global measurement of environmental impact.
