Industry Report: The Development of Eco-Friendly Textile Dyes

Wednesday, May 02, 2012

According to a report titled "Textile Dyes: A Global Strategic Business Report" by Global Industries released a couple of days ago, the global market for textile dyes is projected to reach 5.9 billion by 2017. The main factors in this projection was the change in perception of consumers,  technological innovations (see our Invisible T-shirt post!), consumer spending and population growth.  

Textile dyes are considered an age old chemical business, but it has come a long way and evolved into a specialty field. Fashion is categorized as a short-term factor in the textile industry, as it is always changing. No matter how short-term a trend is, it still has a predominant role in determining the colors to be used. Environmental regulations are becoming more strict and producers worldwide are developing innovative materials to abide by these new laws. The growth of the textile industry in the future is dependent on the changing customer preferences and rising demand for sturdier infrastructures in emerging countries. 

Ecological concerns are gaining momentum in the textiles industry, which we love to see and there is a worldwide eye on these developments. In recent years, we have also seen various dyes being prohibited across the globe due to environmental concerns. With the increasing demand for eco-friendly textiles, companies are starting to recognize the need to increase spending on innovative dyes.  

We were very excited to read how far dyes have come as well as the interesting projections that conscionistas all over the world (including ourselves!) have to look forward to. If you've had a chance to read the report, what was most interesting to you? Do you think it is accurate for where the market is heading? We'd love to hear your feedback so leave a comment and be sure to let us know what you think!  

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Large Companies Look to Small Businesses for Innovation in Sustainable Fashion

Monday, April 09, 2012

Having a large company has always been considered as "the" achievement for most businesses, but as Seth Godin's book "Small is the New Big" expresses - the age of "big business" has come to an end. Smaller companies are becoming the leaders of innovation and in the sustainable fashion world this shift provides huge opportunities for small eco-fashion businesses. 

Small organizations are led by specialists and the small scale of the company provides more flexibility and adaptability to diverse markets and economic turbulence. In the past few years a trend has emerged whereby large corporations and small businesses across all sectors collaborate. In today's hyper-segmented markets, big brands need the flexibility and the fresh ideas that only small businesses can guarantee. As a consequence, more large businesses decide to outsource innovation to small, highly specialist organizations, which in turn help them to stay ahead of the crowd and remain (or become) unique.

Fashion and creativity go hand in hand. Fashion brands invest in innovation because this is the only way they can compete. Every year fashion trends change and evolve so it takes a lot of work to keep up. The fashion industry in its present incarnation has got through one of the biggest negative impacts on the environment as well as on communities. The situation is such that the fashion business really desperately needs to change its business model to embrace creativity that reaches out beyond mere product design to break rules and minimum standards.  Equally, if not more importantly, there is a business case to be made for re-thinking business models in a sustainable manner.  An increasing number of awards in the industry celebrate fashion businesses that pioneer and go beyond sustainability rules, such examples include the Ethical Fashion Forum's Innovation award, the Guardian Sustainable Business Awards and the Observer Ethical Awards. 

As in other sectors, there has been a trend of big fashion brands and retailers partnering with and sourcing from sustainable small companies. Tesco's in-house brand F&F partnered the pioneering upcycle fashion brand, From Somewhere to make use of the textile waste stored in warehouses of some of its Sri Lankan factories. This led to the launch of a six-piece collection made of obsolete fabrics in a green factory in Sri Lanka with a 'zero waste to landfill' policy. The first collection sold 1500 pieces and was succeeded by another two collections.

Levi's has just launched a campaign to refit vintage Levi's 501 in collaboration with Reformation, a fashion brand that repurposes vintage clothing and materials in their studios in New York and Los Angeles. Customers will be invited not to throw away their old jeans, but encouraged to send them back to Levi's reducing the amount of discarded garments going to landfill.

Worn Again is yet another interesting case. This tiny company is a conglomerate of bright entrepreneurs full of unconventional ideas on what to do with textiles. Its credo is that things are "just too good to waste" and it partners with corporations such as Virgin, Royal Mail and Eurostar to help them re-use textiles they would otherwise discard. The results are stunning bags out of postal workers' decommissioned storm jackets. 

Are there any other examples of big companies looking to smaller organizations to innovate sustainable fashion that you've been inspired by? Leave a comment and share here to receive 10% off your next emiLime purchase!

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