Sustainable fashion trends in 2022

In the last few years, the fashion industry has taken swift steps towards sustainability. A global pandemic, rampant wildfires, scandals of fast fashion companies and the rising awareness of the climate crisis have gradually left their indelible mark on us. For conscious consumers, fashion must not only look good, but also be good for the planet. Short-lived fashion trends are becoming less relevant, while sustainable fashion trends are gaining more and more traction. And with rapidly advancing climate tech, sustainable fashion is making steps forward every year. APEX Textile have researched sustainable fashion trends for 2022 and show you which trends will remain relevant for more than just one season.

But let’s clarify one thing right from the start: when we talk about sustainable fashion trends, we are not referring to specific cuts, colours, patterns or new style combinations that we have discovered on the catwalks of Fashion Weeks but rather to new production processes and revolutions in the fashion industry. It’s about long-term trends that can make the fashion world, our awareness and our consumption, more sustainable in the coming year and in the future.

• Recyclable textiles
  
• Renting fashion
  
• Fashion on demand
  
• Local production
  
• Product Passports & Transparency
  
• Metaverse fashion

Linking the above, we share relevant support actions with the textile industry.

One of the biggest problems of the fashion industry is the throwaway approach to old clothes. The fast-changing collections of fast fashion companies and the low quality of their short-lived products have made fashion disposable over the last decades. Moreover, as our consumption patterns have roughly doubled since 2000, the fashion industry is now responsible for around 40 million tonnes of textile waste every year!

It’s therefore only natural that recyclable textiles represent a significant trend for sustainable fashion. After all, products made from biodegradable materials developed with recycling in mind can help limit raw material exploitation and reduce textile waste. In the long run, recyclable textiles could transform the fashion industry into a circular economy, making it much more sustainable and environmentally friendly!

Speaking of production, it is not only the “how”, but also the “where”. Ethical fashion should be both environmentally friendly and fair. At APEX Textile, we emphasis local production in family-owned companies  with fair payment. Local production in fair facilities not only guarantees ethical working conditions but also reduces transport and the associated CO2 emissions.

As a result of the pandemic, the global production standstill and logistical problems that came with it, local production has taken on a whole new significance. We therefore believe that sustainable fashion trends and local production will go hand in hand in the future.

One of the most important aspects of sustainable fashion is maintaining transparency. As the number of sustainability initiatives in the fashion industry has increased, so has the number of greenwashing campaigns. But technologies such as blockchain or product passports allow production steps, initiatives, certifications and efforts to be traced and verified.

Product passports are basically a portfolio for storing and sharing product information that is relevant for both consumers and production partners. With this technology, counterfeits and greenwashing can be identified more effectively.