On average it’s estimated that a remarkable 60-80% of a garment’s environmental impact is decided at the design stage, which is the area that includes sourcing and choosing materials.

As a designer or fashion line leader, balancing your creative concepts with your production and manufacturing decisions can quickly become overwhelming. But because the design stage is such a fundamental area of fashion manufacturing, it’s more important than ever that this stage becomes a stepping stone to implementing a robust sustainability strategy for your brand. And that can start by sourcing sustainable fabrics.

Materials have such a profound impact on the longevity of a garment, how it will be perceived by consumers, and even what happens to it at the end of its life cycle that the materials sourced in this stage are worth getting right.

So if sourcing sustainably is all new to you, or if it’s a practice you’d like to pursue when choosing garments, read on for my best industry tips as to how to source sustainable materials for your clothing line.
Interested in sustainability? Read more about it in our brand friendly guide to sustainable fashion.

Check Your Materials

Any fabric or textile fibre will have certain environmental or social impacts attached to it because of the way in which natural materials are sourced. Its impacts could be related to the consumption of energy or water, how much land it needs to grow, or even its impact on the carbon footprint.

All of these factors are the reason why an informed decision must be made when it comes to sourcing materials. If the material has the word, “organic”, “recycled” or “regenerative” in front of it - you’re looking in the right places as these types of materials are designed to have less environmental impact than their counterparts.

Good examples are: Organic cotton, which is produced without pesticides, and with 85% less water consumption than its conventional counterpart, reducing its carbon emissions by 46%, Vegan Leather which involves vegetable tanning as opposed to a hazardous tannery, making it better for the environment and for working conditions, and linen - an entirely biodegradable fabric made from the flax plant.

2. Check for links with animal fibres

Predominantly when we think of sustainability we think of carbon footprints and greenhouse emissions. Perhaps what we don’t think about enough is the knock on effect that farming animals for fabrics has on the environment due to water and land consumption, as well as production processes.

Traditional farming can cause mass deforestation, add chemicals to our waterways, and raise CO2 levels. However a new method of farming called “Carbon Farming” aims to restore the balance in the environment by farming consciously to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through the implementation of new environmentally friendly practices.
That’s why it becomes essential when sourcing materials derived from animals, like wool or cashmere, to ask the source questions regarding their farming practices. Depending on how the fabrics are produced will depend on exactly how sustainable the materials really are.

3. Look for OEKO-TEX® Green Certifications

OEKO-TEX® are a name you may have heard about if you’ve previously been searching for sustainable and non-harmful fabrics. OEKO-TEX® test textiles for harmful substances and have a range of different certifications that suppliers can assign against their products.

However, be aware: The most common OEKO-TEX® certification is the ‘Standard 100’ and some suppliers have been cheekily telling manufacturers that the certification encompasses sustainability checks. But it doesn’t. The ‘Standard 100’ instead checks for harmful chemicals in the end fabric, and isn’t related entirely to sustainability because it doesn’t check that harmful chemicals weren’t used in the production process, nor does it check the material’s eco-credentials.

Instead, if you are buying fabrics that are OEKO-TEX® certified, look for the Made in Green certifications. These certificates assess both the chemicals in the fabric as well as the conditions where the fabric was produced.

4. Check the quality

One major part of sustainability is its longevity. Sustainable clothes differentiate from fast fashion by becoming pieces that have a long wear cycle, and won’t disintegrate after a handful of washes. Instead, they’ll wear after a handful of years and even then can be recycled or biodegraded into the environment to make a new product.

Capturing that longevity starts in the fabric itself, so it’s imperative to make sure that the fabric quality is correct. Many suppliers will run independent tests, which evaluate areas such as how the fabric reacts to abrasions, movement and even temperature washes.

However it’s still advisable to run your own checks on the test issuer to make sure you know what the tests have covered and also how they’re scored. A 10 on one test could be fantastic and a 10 on another could be a fast fashion horror show, so you don’t want them confused.

Another tip is to run your very own fabric tests on samples you receive. You could even wear the sample and consider the end use and how it may react to a potential customer. For example if the item is sustainable swimming wear, you could test the sample in a chlorinated pool and then in a wash to measure its performance.

5. Experiment with new biomaterials

Finally, if one of your brand values is to be innovative, why not experiment with using brand new biomaterials? These materials are fabric alternatives that are being developed and released in line with environmental concerns.

Find out more about brand values in our blog on determining the identity of your fashion brand.

To develop the materials companies are using new technologies that explore the core of natural fabrics and materials to then create brand new biomaterials which sustain the qualities of the fabric but don’t come at a price to the environment.

We’ve listed the most new and notable below, but recent, popular additions to the market include leather made from cactuses, fish skin and grapes, fibres made from seaweed and algae, and zippers made from recycled plastic water bottles.

Crabshell: Currently being used in t shirts
Orange fiber: Leather made from orange peel
Vegea leather: Leather made from grapes
Mirum: Leather made from plants
Recycled fibres: Recycled textiles like down and feathers
Oceanworks: Zippers made from recycled plastic

Looking to source materials for your fashion line?

At James Hillman we can research your fabrics as part of our design development services, and then we can source the fabrics that suit your needs in our fashion production services. That means whatever your fabric needs, we’ve got you covered with our expertise and meticulous attention to detail. Why not tell us how we can help?