Photo: Gorunway.com1/11Stella McCartney continues to push the boundaries of sustainable design. For Fall 2019, she repurposed old fabric into quilted details on dresses or, in the case of this final look, an entire quilted coat.
Photo: Gorunway.com2/11Sustainable isn’t the word you think of when it comes to Sarah Burton’s collectsions for Alexander McQueen; magical or radically beautiful are more likely to come to mind. Recently, though, upcycling has become a core part of the designer’s message. The swirling ruffles on this Fall 2019 coat were made from scraps of selvedge that would normally be discarded.
Photo: Gorunway.com3/11Marni’s Francesco Risso strung a fishing net from the ceiling of his Spring 2020 Menswear venue, then filled with plastic and trash collectsed from the ocean. It was a prescient reminder of fashion’s role in the problem before the show even began (where models wore hats and brooches made out of similar debris). “We are here today to confirm our position in the world and to move towards action,” he said. “Let’s be vocal about our beliefs.”
Photo: Gorunway.com4/11Ronald van der Kemp’s couture collectsions are made from nearly 100 percent upcycled or reconstructed materials, including this dress, which was painstakingly handmade. “Each piece of fringe was cut on the bias, turned inside out, and sewn into a tube,” he told Vogue’s Nicole Phelps. “I love it because it’s real couture.”
Photo: Gorunway.com5/11London designer Richard Quinn works to be as close to zero-waste as possible. He’s used upcycled crystals and recycled materials in his runway collectsions, and his London studio has a digital printer on-site so he can “create fabrics on demand” and use only the precise amount he needs.
Photo: Gorunway.com6/11Gabriela Hearst’s label is the epitome of slow luxury: The wool in her knits and tailoring is sourced from her family’s ranch in Uruguay, and many of the sweaters are hand-knit by women artisans in the country. This Fall, she also experimented with lofty plied wool cashmere for a coat, which had the look of fur without the harm.
Photo: Gorunway.com7/11Since joining Ermenegildo Zegna as artistic director in 2017, Alessandro Sartori has made upcycling and waste reduction a core part of his message. Twenty percent of the clothes in his Spring 2020 Menswear collectsion were upcycled from old garments, and several pieces included scraps of wool and nylon left on the cutting room floor.
Photo: Courtesy of Rentrayage8/11Known for her work as a Suno co-designer in the early 2010s, Erin Beatty returned to New York Fashion Week this season with a smart new project: Rentrayage, a small collectsion made entirely from reconstructed vintage and upcycled materials.
Photo: Courtesy of Mara Hoffman9/11Since overhauling her label back in 2016, Mara Hoffman has become something of a spirit leader in the sustainability movement. She works exclusively with organic materials like hemp, Tencel, modal, and alpaca, and cotton, seen here on a curvy ribbed knit from Resort 2020.
Photo: Courtesy of Bode10/11The fact that Emily Bode picked up the Emerging Designer of the Year prize at the CFDA Awards (and is up for the LVMH Prize) is all you need to know about wehre the fashion industry is heading. Her cherished quilted jackets and men’s button-downs, like this one from Fall 2019, are typically upcycled from vintage textiles, tea towels, bed linens, and even napkins.
Photo: Courtesy of Altuzarra11/11Joseph Altuzarra entered the sustainability conversation this summer with his Resort 2020 collectsion. Upcycling was the story there, too, presented in multicolored dresses made entirely of leftover fabric from prior collectsions.
