When life gives you lemons, make a dress: Sustainable Textile Trends
As global clothing consumption grows, consumers’ preferences have evolved. People want clothing that is recyclable, sustainable and stylish. In response, innovative brands have designed new fabrics that are smart and eco-friendly. From citrus-based materials to garments designed by robots, read below to learn more about these new textile trends.
Top trends in fashion and textile
1. Leveraging AI and machine-learning to design clothes that actually fit.
Many people don’t fit neatly into dress sizes, so smart designers are creating clothing that matches customers with garments based on their personal dimensions. Style Lend a designer rental company offers women the chance to rent unique garments for specials occasions. To make sure the garments are a good fit they use AI to predict the best styles and size to rent.
2. On-demand production of clothing
Many brands have to deal with the issue of excess inventory. Scalable Garment Technologies Inc. (SGTI) has designed a solution for that issue – on-demand production. Its robotic knitting machine can make bespoke seamless clothing from start to finish on-demand.
3. Sustainable citrus-based fabric
What if there was a fabric that was not only sustainable but sweet? Orange fiber uses citrus by-products and is a fragrant and durable product. Orange fiber comes from the extractions from the fibers that are discarded when oranges are processed.
4. Biodegradable Glitter
It turns out that not all that glitters is gold. ‘BioGlitz’, the first eco-friendly glitter is a biodegradable glitter made from eucalyptus tree extract. Traditional flitter doesn’t disintegrate quickly, so this alternative curbs waste.
5. Realistic Vegan Pleather
The accessories brand Matt and Nat brand has gained popularity for their stylish vegan leather designs. Now other vegan leather fabrics are taking the spotlight, like the company Provenance Biofabrics, who has won praise for its pleather made from ‘self-assembling’ collagen molecules.
6. Compostable Clothing
Another big trend to watch is compostable clothing. Brands are using plant-based fabrics like algae or fruit-based fabrics. Crop-a-porters designs are exactly what they sound like – they use cellulose from leftover pineapples or bananas that would otherwise go to waste.