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Story | 09/26/2024 16:15:15 | 7 min Read time

Makers of the world beyond: What is the biggest challenge in the fashion industry at the moment? What makes you hopeful?

We asked these two questions from three fashion and textile industry experts. This is what they had to say.

Chelsea Franklin is the Head of Advanced Concept Design at Pangaia. Pangaia is a materials science company dedicated to problem-solving innovations.
Background: Chelsea is an alumna of the Royal College of Art’s Fashion MA program and received her BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD). Throughout her career she has led projects commercialising new technology into fashion and lifestyle products, exploring new materials, production methods and supply chain models.
Design philosophy: “I’m on a mission to change how clothes are made at scale. After having seen the reality of the mass-manufacturing of apparel I believe that design can be more than a method to drive newness. It can be a problem-solving tool for this industry.”

1. What is the biggest challenge within the fashion industry?

“The biggest challenge within fashion industry today is connectivity across all stages of product creation process. The reason for this disconnect is that supply chains have become so global, product is made so far away from those that are actually making decisions about how it should be made. I think it’s when you can close this gap and build understanding and collaboration across those who are working at all levels of the supply chain that you are able to truly innovate on a product level.

For example, a typical sneaker construction requires 30+ different materials within a single product and it makes shoes very difficult to recycle at the end of their life. Through collaboration with Zellerfeld, Pangaia launched the Absolute Sneaker last year, which was a product made out of one material. And a mono-material product means that it is also 100 percent recyclable.”

2. What makes you hopeful?

“I think change will come in many small steps as opposed to a single force. What brings me hope is the next generation. I think its curiosity starts to spark change. In some ways, in a place where some others see challenges, I see the opportunity. Great designers today can look at this industry and see it is ripe for innovation.

It’s easy to become disillusioned and think you’re part of the cycle, but design can be a problem-solving discipline. You can bring a product to market that creates new ideas, new precedent and is truly relevant. It doesn’t need to just exist under the precedent of newness, it can be something that really moves us forward.”

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Lutz Walter is the founder and secretary general of The European Technology Platform for the Future of Textiles and Clothing (Textile ETP), a non-governmental organization based in Brussels, Belgium.
Textile ETP is a community for textile research and industry experts in Europe. It consults manufacturers, researchers and innovators and brings professionals together to understand and shape the long-term trends and technological development of the textile industry. The platform also helps their members to access EU funding opportunities for textile research.
Background: “I have been involved in the textile sector for 25 years. Everything I know about textiles I’ve learned on the job by visiting companies and working with institutes and research centers.”
Design philosophy: ”Textile materials are one of the oldest materials for humankind. The European textile industry is rich in tradition, diversity, and complexity. I find it endlessly fascinating to find new opportunities and disruptions to battle the challenges of the modern, waste-creating fashion consumption.”

1. What is the biggest challenge within the fashion industry?

“Normally industries try to be very efficient with their resources. What happened in the early 2000s for the textile industry was the opposite. The liberalization of global trade of clothing and textile products allowed companies to maximize their economic value creation by selling more volumes at lower prices. All of a sudden there were resources, mainly cheap offshore labor resources, but also cheap material and energy resources.

Now we’re in a situation where the fashion consumption is constantly growing and generating all this waste. So, the biggest challenge of the fashion industry is a sustainability challenge. We need to find a way to create value from something other than new product sales. We need to turn to material, process and service innovations.”

2. What makes you hopeful?

“The digitalisation allows companies to better measure, identify and communicate what are the best ways and places to improve their use of resources. We also need regulation to make resource consumption more costly. It would force companies to come up with more efficient and sustainable processes. Luckily there is a rise of new business models that are decoupling value creation from new product sales. Instead of buying new, you keep the product longer in use with repair, rental and resale. All these three things create hope for the future but they also ask a lot from the traditional textile industry. That is why I see the change happening rather from newcomers than from the existing companies.”

Liisa Ranta is Director, Sustainability and Market Development at UPM Biorefining (UPM Biochemicals and UPM Biofuels).
UPM Biorefining is creating renewable raw materials that can replace for example fossil-based plastic. For example, UPM BioVerno naphtha is a wood-based alternative raw material for fossil-based synthetic surfaces of shoes and clothing.
Background: “I have been working for UPM Biofuels since 2010, growing professionally with our offering of sustainable biofuels and biochemicals.”
Design philosophy: “Nature has always given me power and energy. I want to give something back by working with bio-based innovations. In my personal life I try to make long-lasting choices with my clothing. I purchase quality over quantity. Sometimes I even get humorous feedback at home as some of my clothes are 20 years old.”

1. What is the biggest challenge within the fashion industry?

“The most important challenge within the fashion industry is the overconsumption of clothing and the low degree of recycling textile materials as well as lack of sustainable alternatives. I think there are a lot of conversation topics on the table at the moment but the big scale action plan for textile lifecycle control is missing. There should be control over the whole lifecycle of the textile material from raw materials to the final disposal. This can be done by creating policies for consumers’ and industry´s textile handling and by coming up with new solutions for alternative materials and their end-uses.”

2. What makes you hopeful?

“It makes me hopeful to think about the growing possibilities to use renewable and recycled materials for fashion – closing the so-called material loop with renewable circularity.

There are several issues that support change in the fashion industry. Consumer awareness adds pressure towards more sustainable choices. New solutions, be it materials or processes, create opportunities for the whole textile sector. Our own solutions UPM BioVerno and BioPura help to reduce the product’s carbon footprint by replacing fossil raw materials. Because of innovative product development this can be done without compromising the qualities of the product.”