GARMENT EVERLASTING
BY FOCUSING ON LONGEVITY, BRANDS, RETAILERS AND FIBER MANUFACTURERS COMBAT FASHION’S BUILT-IN OBSOLESCENCE
REPORT
Fashion’s obsession with newness leads both to overproduction and to unimaginable amounts of waste. However, a growing coterie of brands is making indestructible clothing using extremely high-tech materials. What’s more, retailers are contributing to the longevity of garments by setting up in-store care and repair workshops. We might be seeing the dawn of a garment everlasting – a piece of clothing that is so durable that it may last for up to 100 years, and when no longer wanted or usable, it may continue to live as another garment.
Vollebak, a maker of clothing it labels as “indestructible”, uses unconventional materials such as carbon fiber usually found in jets and supercars, ceramic technology used in the International Space Station and the Nobel Prize-winning Graphene to produce extremely durable items, such as its ‘100-Year Jacket’, ‘100-Year Hoodie’ and ‘100-Year Pant’. These garments are designed to withstand fire, nature and water, not to mention the usual wear and tear.
Care and maintenance know-how is another element necessary to make garments live longer. Denham’s key retail spots across the globe are home not only to new collections but also to Service Co., the brand’s all-in-one denim maintenance shops where highly skilled staff will stitch, darn, hand-wash and reinforce each pair of jeans by hand. Like a true atelier, Service Co. units are equipped with vintage sewing machines by Union Special and Singer from the USA and Germany, which have been expertly restored.
Similarly, Rozenbroek offers a lifetime repair and recycle service for all of its sustainably produced garments, which are made-to-order to reduce waste. Fabric cut-offs are fashioned into zero-waste tote bags and the label produces all of its garments in a solar-powered factory in Yorkshire, England. Blackhorse Lane Ateliers, maker of selvage and organic raw denim jeans, also offers a lifetime repair policy for its jeans. Big multibrand retailers are tapping into the repair culture, too: thus, Selfridges has introduced Repairs Concierge as part of its new Project Earth five-year plan, aimed at attracting sustainably minded consumers.
Brands and retailers can help to make a ‘garment everlasting’, but durability starts with the raw materials. Cordura has long been renowned as a maker of extremely durable fabrics resistant to abrasions, tears and scuffs. And for fabrics that allow the garment to continue to live even after it’s been retired, look out for recyclable fibers. For instance, DuPont Sorona’s recyclable spandex-free stretch is compatible with single stream polyester recycling, meaning the fabrics made with it can be transformed into new clothes after the garment’s own – hopefully very long and eventful – life has come to an end.