10 Rs of circular fashion: the many ways of sustainable fashion

Fashion is an intricate part of our lives. As we have seen in 10 Rs of circular economy, they are the very strategies to create circular fashion. Not only does it show us that there are many ways to make fashion sustainable, we will also see in this article how some methods are more important than others, thus increasing our appreciation of circulating textile as a key resource within our economy.

Why is circular fashion important?

Departing from the traditional linear economy of take-make-waste gives us multiple benefits. Circular fashion reduces waste by greatly maximizing the use of materials and resources, even extending any life cycle of clothing.

For example, making a single cotton shirt requires 2,700 liters of water. Taking growing cotton out of equation to make new clothes, promoting a second hand culture, can potentially direct that water towards other uses.

Or even take textile waste, amounting to an estimated 92 million tons, all value of 400 billion annually. What if we can have a system to prevent all that waste?

10 Rs of circular fashion, 10 strategies for sustainable fashion

Here is a quick recap at the 10 Rs of circular economy, inspirede by the original model from the Amsterdam Economic Board.

Divided into three categories the strategies rank better for secularity from the top from purposely designing the business to be circular, to the “last resort” of waste-to-energy. Circular fashion can also use these strategies.

Refuse

While we cannot go without clothes, we can always manage our wardrobe. We should constantly ask ourselves if it is necessary to purchase a new piece of clothing, especially if we already have similar pieces in possession. Refusing to buy clothes is the ultimate way of contributing to zero negative impact on society and the environment.

Refuse doesn’t only work on our day-to-day basis, because the concepts can be applied to businesses, even creating a zero waste operation. This is the way Sisam fair trade + design does it, refusing things like plastic packaging with the deliveries of their apparel products. Of course, Sisam goes beyond just that, as the other way certification will attest to it.

Rethink

The “Rethink” strategy is one of our favorites, where businesses actually rethink the way they do things. Often, these businesses step back from their linear way of selling products, look at the needs of a circular economy, and let circularity form the foundation of their revised business models.

AirCloset is a good example of this. Rather than going by the traditional stocking and selling, AirCloset offers rental of fashion items as their service instead. They do not sell newly made clothes, but rent out and collects the clothes back, preparing them for reuse by the next client. There is no discard, and the clothes are maintained for use use. Some of you may know this as a sharing economy, or Product as a Service, and they avoid the need to make new, while preventing waste.

Reduce

If we can’t refuse, reducing is still a strong viability for circularity, especially since there are many areas we can’t avoid consuming, like food. Therefore, as consumers, we can consider buying less. How does reduce look like in the fashion industry?

We mentioned Liv:ra before, and there was mentioning again. Liv:ra, by reaching out to their potential customers and measuring the demand, they are able to adopt a make-to-order business model. As such, Liv:ra has been able to reduce the stock to almost zero, leaving only a few pieces in case of error in production.

LOVST, which upcycles discarded apples into apple leather, that’s something similar. The crowd fund the batches of production, so they will always produce just enough for the customers, thus avoiding any waste from excess production.

Reuse

When it comes to the use and fashion in Japan, we think about the second hand culture. Because the Japanese tend to take care of their possessions well, second hand items including clothes often look new. Furthermore, different second hand clothes stores have certain themes, and curate fashion choices accordingly.

In fact, the Junkan Fes in Kyoto is a pinnacle of fashion circularity through reuse. They have multiple collection boxes in Kyoto City, from which they will repair or upcycle the received clothes. Many of the pieces will be up for exchange in the periodic Junkan Fes help within the city. The organizers even collect clothes from participants on the day of the festival itself to encourage textile material to continue circulating.

Repair

There has always been repair services for clothes and accessories, but we do see the number of fashion brands introducing other repair service within the brand. Which makes sense, because who knows their own products better than the brand themselves?

Japanese bag brand MOTHERHOUSE, while known for their fair trade practices, has a strong understanding of the circular economy. They have a repair service centered around extending bags’ life cycles, and retouch to maintain the value of MOTHERHOUSE bags. And in the case of being unable to repair, the old bags are taken apart to make their unique RINNE series!

Patagonia also has a periodic program, WORN WEAR, to provide free on-the-go repair service, bringing a repair service directly to their customers.

Refurbish

Refurbishing is the process of “rebuilding” the item back to its original use. Imagine replacing the torn fabric of a sofa with another fabric so it can continue being used as a sofa.

In the realm of fashion, FROMSTOCK shows us how kurozome, or black dyeing, can be used for fashion. Not only does kurozome, give old clothes a sombre and chic look, kurozome is also effective in masking imperfections like stains.

Remanufacture

The idea of remanufacture is simple: taking the parts of old to make the exact same thing. Simple, but often difficult, because the degradation of quality of material in the process. For this, innovation is often required.

This is why JEPLAN’s “BRING” often amazes. They have developed the technology to extract oil from old clothes to use in making new ones. In fact, they’ve been actively partnering with fashion brands the circulate fashion resources.

Repurpose

Repurposing involves taking all materials to make something different, say making clothes using discarded plastic bottles. Japan has numerous examples of this in the form of upcycling.

Arguably, repurpose is low in the ranks, because there is concern that it does not put circular fashion in mind. And we creating something that may likely be discarded, with little chance of circulating? It is sort of a low hanging fruit, and we want to make sure we avoid greenwashing.

Long time followers of Zenbird would have seen the numerous efforts of brands upcycling, including fashion. Here are some unique ideas to see the potential of the future of sustainable fashion:

• UNTANGLE IT: clothing parts from discarded ocean fishing gear
• FOOD TEXTILE: natural textile dyes from food loss
• Tototo: fish leather upcycled from discarded fish skin
• UZ Fabric: turning disused kimono into new clothing and accessories

Recycle

Finally, we’ve come to the bottom ranks of the 10 Rs, but that doesn’t mean these do not work. Rather, consider them lower on the priority list.

And we see a number of brands doing textile recycling right here in Japan, by collecting all clothes to be used in their own recycling projects. These brands include MUJI, Uniqlo, and even the organizers of the Junkan Fes we mentioned earlier.

Recover

Recover usually refers to waste to energy incineration, or even downcycling, like composting. Usually recover is considered the last resort for circularity, but we did learn about this unique project from syncs.designs, a forerunner in innovative circular fashion. In particular, the use of traditional Japanese paper, washi, to create sustainable and 100% biodegradable yarn for clothes. Their experiments showed that their material was returned to the soil within three months.

In closing

It can often disheartening to read about new advancements in fashion sustainability, and then still see how most brands and businesses still retaining status quo, away from sustainability.

However, we want to show here that there are brands doing their best for society and the environment. These are the brands we want to learn to identify and support, because consumers have an influence in pushing for sustainable, and in this case circular, fashion.