What are sustainable textiles?
What are sustainable textiles? What are textiles, even? And actually, how do we define sustainability?
This term — sustainable textiles — gets passed around a lot. It’s one that’s used by designers sourcing materials that are better or from a particular category, so it is useful to ask: “Do you have sustainable textiles?” But whether we can unpick the responses to truly understand if they’re sustainable or not, that’s what’s important.
Here I’ll give some basics — what textiles are, and what sustainability (in the eyes of the industry) considers. This will be helpful for anyone new to launching any textile-based practice and need to source materials, though also for those already embedded in the industry to aid in your objective questioning.
What are textiles?
I take this definition from a guide I was commissioned to write for Yodomo. [It’s good, so why change it?]
According to Brittanica, the definition of “textile” is as folllows:
“Any filament, fibre, or yarn that can be made into fabric or cloth, and the resulting material itself. The term is derived from the Latin textilis and the French texere, meaning “to weave,” and it originally referred only to woven fabrics. It has, however, come to include fabrics produced by other methods. Thus, threads, cords, ropes, braids, lace, embroidery, nets, and fabrics made by weaving, knitting, bonding, felting, or tufting are textiles. Some definitions of the term textile would also include those products obtained by the papermaking principle that have many of the properties associated with conventional fabrics.”
As you start to imagine all of the materials in your everyday life, you can appreciate how vast the world of textiles is, and consequently, how many types of textiles there are.
You can appreciate also then, how complex and nuanced the sustainability of textiles is.
If we head back upstream to the starting point of clothing production, and pinpoint every textile element within a garment, we can swiftly make a list of all the materials - and energy and resources involved - at each step. This also means we can trace back and see the textile waste that accumulates through this production cycle.
We’re not needing to just consider all of the textiles we use — but all of the textiles we don’t use too. Otherwise how can we actually be sustainable.
Images: 1. Silkworms eat through mulberry leaves in order to grow before they cocoon, which is where silk fibre is taken from [Source: Shutterstock]; 2. A flourishing field of hemp plants [Source: Reddit].
What does sustainable mean?
I’ve covered this one already in this article on what is sustainability?
It’s broad, so if you want more regarding fashion, here you go: What does sustainable fashion mean?
The average definition of sustainability regards it as “conserving what we have now so that those in the future have some too”. The first article considers social, economic and environmental sustainability, while the second considers the antithesis of sustainable — unsustainable. To understand what’s sustainable, we need to recognise what’s unsustainable.
I always come back to the fact that even “bad” things can be sustainable because they sustain themselves. Synthetic materials are sustainable because they’re doing what they were designed to do. So your “sustainable” can branch and intersect many of the challenges and issues regarding social justice, environmental stewardship and economic resilience — and then perhaps sustainability isn’t enough for you, and you want to move towards regeneration and restoration. You’re not sustaining something, you’re regenerating something.
Images: 1. The Aral Sea diminished in size to become desertified due to irrigation for cotton farming; 2. An aerial view of the Atacama Desert where unwanted clothing has been imported and dumped forming a textile waste landfill.
What are sustainable textiles?
Let’s put these two terms together now.
We have textiles — which is basically anything and everything that’s sort of floppy. A material scientist on an Infinite Monkey Cage series 26 podcast episode ‘Magic Materials’ described a material as something you can make a jacket out of. However, the above definition on textiles asks us to pay attention also to the nitty gritty components (cords, embroidery, thread) so it’s not simply what the main body of a textile thing is, but all the bits that ensure it stays together.
With that, we absolutely need to consider the growing, processing, finishing and dyeing stages.
And those tend to be forgotten about in the face of whether we should be using polyester or not.
Then if we throw in all the considerations for whether a thing is sustainable or not, we’ll also be factoring in the social, economic and environmental challenges. It’s not then about this physical material such as polyester that we can make a jacket out of — plus the thread, zip, cords, dyes, waterproofing — it’s the systems around it. Can the polyester jacket be worn and repaired for many years and many lives, or will it be quickly discarded? And will it be discarded overseas disrupting local health and jobs along with the ecosystem?
A textile or material or object is only as sustainable as the systems it lives in and connects with.
I’m not going to tell you that this one is better than that one. It’s not a binary conversation. You can’t go to a fabric trade show and ask for sustainable textiles, choose an organic cotton and expect everything to be ok, that’s it, job’s done, you’re a sustainable designer. No pat on the back for you.
You need to do more.
Images: 1. Circulose mechanically shredded textiles ready to be processed into a new fibre [Credit: Antonio Salgado]; 2. Results from the Fashion Revolution Fashion Transparency Index 2023 showing the highest and lowest scoring brands in terms of transparency (rather than ‘sustainability’) [Credit: Fashion Revolution report screenshot].
How to source sustainable textiles.
This is a course in itself, sourcing sustainable textiles. A constant learning process that you can’t get from a blog. But some actions can be suggested.
1. Do you know what fibres are? Like, really know them.
Some examples: do you understand how and where cotton is grown to recognise the nuances of the organic certifications? do you know how polyester is spun and where any recycled feedstocks may come from, and indeed what a feedstock is? what about the brand names i.e. Nylon instead of polyamide, Spandex instead of elastance, or Tencel™ as a closed-loop viscose? what does closed-loop look like, and is bamboo viscose the same as viscose? where does the bamboo come from, how is it grown and processed, who harvests and what does the land management look like?
You’d expect that you can go to a trade show and be given accurate advice. But if the folk at the trade show don’t have that textile education, are only aware of their product, or simply don’t have time for you, how will you leave knowing all you need to know in order to make informed decisions? So actually, being self-informed really can save time and better equip you ahead of any sourcing visits.
2. Are you aware of the stages of textile production across the supply chain?
That’s what I mentioned above: growing, processing, dyeing, finishing and perhaps even packing and distribution.
At each stage here the textile is susceptible to unsustainable practices. You might very well manage to source a regenerative cotton from a smallholder farm in India, have it spun and woven into greige cloth, but then for some reason decide to have it dyed with synthetic dyes and then some stainproofing coating added to it, shipped across to the USA for quality controlling before manufacture into product in Europe. I don’t know why you’d do this, but the world of textile design is endless and is a global industry, and each of these decisions affects the sustainability of your material. That being said, stainproofing for your product may actually be what you’ve researched and confirmed as sustainable for you, but it doesn’t mean you should fall short everywhere else and create some confusing textile that no-one can fully understand.
Try to map out the chain. You could even do a lightweight lifecycle assessment where you note all the possible interactions of the supply and value chain for a product you want to make. This will highlight blackspots. Of course, if you don’t know what the chain looks like in the first place, then you’ll likely miss some integral stuff. This brings me to point three.
3. Are you working in a silo?
If you’re a small label then chances are you don’t speak to anyone else. You might manufacture everything yourself from fabric bought from a shop rather than a mill, so don’t have the production relationships of larger labels. All decisions are reliant on your knowledge. However, larger labels also work in silos, where the departments really don’t mingle, so a lot of energy and effort can be used up in both scenarios. It’s integral to sustainable practices that you recognise when you need wisdom or experience. Of course, experimentation is wonderful, and is needed for innovation. But if, for instance, designers don’t speak to wool farmers or spinners, they’re not getting the full story. Like the actual real life story of what the people and land and animals are going through in order to put a finished textile in your hands. Then, you’re unable to fully pass this on to customers. No one wins if conversations are not had, and a willingness to learn.
Conversations need to be had at trade shows too. They’re incredibly tiresome for agents and visitors alike, though if you just go and look at some nice swatch hangers with interacting, neither of you will find out what the other wants, and nothing will shift. Those agents won’t bother finding out for you what happens to waste water, or if workers have access to PPE and are able to unionise. We don’t need surface level icons of a germinating plant to highlight that a textile is ‘plant-based’ and that’s that. We need to know who owns and manages the land that the plants come from, and what dyes and finishing agents were used, and what the trade routes are. We need conversations.
Images: 1. A Fairtrade supported farmer in India handpicks a ripe cotton boll from the plant; 2. Levi’s Water<Less jeans, a denim line that reduces water use across the processing, dyeing and finishing stage through specific Levi’s technology (that they allowed open sourcing of proprietary information to other manufacturers) [Source: Levi’s].
What if I’m not a designer?
For those of you here not as a designer (or buyer) and instead looking to support your personal purchasing decisions, then the same considerations apply. Do you know what fibres are, do you know what stages the textiles have gone through, are you asking questions?
Here’s an example of what sustainable textiles are to me.
I wear black clothes. This is already inherently horrific. The colour can only be produced by synthetic compounds that’ll stick around in waste water. This is coupled with the likes of polyester or nylon and elastane for use in compressive gym clothes. I do actually choose clothes with recycled content, and I do the research to ascertain where the feedstock came from. I’m aware that recycled polyester tends to come from PET bottles that are in fact unused and produced just for that purpose, rather than collected and cleaned, or from a polyester fibre source. Synthetic fibres require less water use overall than a natural fibre in the processing and dyeing stages, and water can be captured without necessarily infiltrating groundwater (if a closed-loop process) however, they do require a lot of heat energy for extrusion, for fixing dyes, for washing.
None of this is sustainable. It is resource-intensive and extractive. But, neither do I find it sustainable to wear organic natural fibres naturally dyed for my workouts; the clothing will stretch, need washing more often, and lose character over time. Instead, my black synthetic gym clothes dry quickly and have been repaired over their 8+ year lifespan. I use a microfibre ball in my washing load, and wash with soapnuts, then air dry.
It’s not the best option, but frankly, there’s no perfect solution.
You have to simply be as informed as you possibly can be, where possible ask questions or do research, make your decisions accordingly, and ensure you keep those clothes in tip top condition so they can have multiple lives.
Images: 1. TikTok post from Andrea Cheong that unpicks the labelling greenwash of an H&M garment [Source: @andreacheong_, TikTok] 2. Piles of textiles are abandoned in a warehouse [Source: Fashion for Good].
Resources:
Yodomo Textile Waste Glossary [to unpack terms like ‘circularity’, ‘deadstock’ and ‘biodegradable’
Farming Fashion: Wool Guide [for designers and farmers to understand how to work together]
Yodomo Textiles + Sustainability Guide [to learn about what happens when textiles have been produced]
16 books to learn about textiles and fashion [my own compilation]
Sustainable Fashion Design short course UAL [this is the one I teach]
Please comment if you have any specific queries and I can point you in the direction of some further resources.
Thank you for reading.
Read similar THOUGHT posts on fashion, such as:
A visit to Brickpits organic farm.
Evaluating + revaluing textile waste.