London Fashion Week has just ended. Alongside some hot names like Antoni & Alison, Christopher Rauburn and Lola Rose, the Estethica exhibition is showing some of the newest and best designs from long-standing green brands to the latest sustainable designers. For its seventh season, Estethica is illustrating some of the fashion industry’s greatest strides in green fashion.
The British Fashion Council is backing the group of designers and manufacturers working to produce dynamic and competitive fashion lines that leave less of a footprint on our world. One such designer is Mark Liu. His new way of looking at textile design permeates the line Zero Waste, where, by using a specialized cutting technique, 15% of the material in each item is salvaged during production. For this week, Liu’s line Unicorn will present the designer’s organic fabrics and pre-consumer waste designs. These embody what he calls “the key to a brighter future.”
The options only get more fabulously interesting from there. The North Circular is an online company that will launch in October from a group of models who have partnered with a group of knitting grandmothers and friends to create eco knitwear. The concept seems far-fetched, but has caught the attention of the press and other Estethica designers. By using only ethically-produced wool from the sheep sanctuary Izzy Lane’s in North Yorkshire, the team of knitters made sixteen designs in five colors for their The North Circular Collar and Necklace, The Knights and Chunky Diamond lines.
Goodone will also show this week. The completely recycled line was birthed from the desire to rethink common production practices. Since 2005, the two founders, Nin Castle and Phoebe Emerson, have collaborated in sustainable projects such as Noki House of Sustainability, HEBA Women’s Project, and The Hemp Trading Company. An exciting step for the company, Goodone will be featured in a documentary being filmed by Japan’s NHK broadcast network that will showcase the company’s philosophy and designs.
Lastly, the shoes from Elisalex Grunfeld de Castro’s line Nina Dolcetti will make a sustainable statement in London this week. Created from pre-consumer waste materials, the designer has taken the environmentally harmful effects of leather tanning and production into consideration. In order to produce the avant-garde styles without exploitative factory production, Dolcetti has given the manufacturing responsibility to family-run factories in East London. Just because the materials are reused doesn’t mean these shoes aren’t fit for high society. As the website states, the styles “confidently walk the line between decadent pleasures and environmental awareness.”
From reusable materials to ethically-treated animals, these designers and manufacturers are changing the face of the fashion industry—this week is just another great step in the campaign.
