Do you know what materials are used to produce the clothing you’re wearing at the moment without checking the care label? Try this; write down the materials you think your outfit consists of and check it in the labels. Again, 70% of the impact of a clothing item is due to the material choice of the item. Last week at Copenhagen Fashion Week we started off with an interesting workshop on materials with the @Zalando Academy. Together with @mrspress and @diokurazawa we dove down into what materials are most used nowadays, what makes a material more sustainable and what lies ahead material wise in our (near-) future. Talking about materials, these can be divided in synthetics (mostly made using oil; polyesters and nylons) and natural (cotton, linen, hemp, wool). Most materials used globally is easily won by synthetics(55%), with by far the biggest being Polyester with 52% of total. To name some characteristics to determine if a material is more sustainable; - Durability, materials that are strong and everlasting make a fashion item wearable for a longer time which greatly lowers it’s impact. (Examples of materials that have good durability; hemp, leather and polyester) - Water use, for example hemp uses half the amount of water in the growing process compared to cotton. - Recycled and recyclability, to recycle more is such an important step in the future of fashion. By creating items using a mono (just 1 single) material it makes it easier to recycle at the end of the lifecycle. Also, all recycled materials in general create less carbon emissions. - Chemicals, some materials need more chemicals in the production than process than others. For example dying (coloring garments) used to be always toxic, though nowadays you see more and more natural dying; for example dying with strong colors from fruits like beetroot. There are loads of new innovations in the making, like lab grown leather and lab grown cotton, 3D printing and 3d sewing techniques, new and better recycling techniques; all to bring down the impact the fashion industry has on our climate. #knowwhatyourewearing #fashion #sustainability #ZalandoSustainability #cphfw #Denamrk #Copenhagen