British designer Vivienne Westwood, whose punk and new-wave-encouraged garments created her a vogue icon, died Thursday. She was 81.
Westwood’s eponymous manner house declared her demise on social media platforms, expressing she died peacefully surrounded by spouse and children. A cause of loss of life was not disclosed.
“The globe demands folks like Vivienne to make a adjust for the better,” the manner dwelling wrote on Twitter.
United states Now has attained out to Westwood’s representative for comment.
Westwood’s fashion occupation began in the 1970s with the punk explosion, when her radical method to city street style took the earth by storm. But she went on to appreciate a extensive vocation highlighted by a string of triumphant runway shows in London, Paris, Milan and New York.
The title Westwood became synonymous with design and mind-set even as she shifted aim from 12 months to year. Her assortment was vast and her work was hardly ever predictable.
Westwood formed a skilled partnership with Malcom McLaren, who turned regarded for managing punk rock band the Intercourse Pistols, in 1965. The pair headed Allow It Rock, a secondhand store that bought 1950s vintage outfits and rock records from McLaren’s selection, and afterwards opened the boutique Seditionaries.
Westwood, a self-taught designer, also made clothing types dependent on McLaren’s ideas, which integrated distressed T-shirts emblazoned with “surprising antiestablishment slogans and graphics” and bondage pants inspired by sadomasochistic aesthetics.
Westwood ultimately struck out on her personal as a designer, opening different boutiques and manufacturing once-a-year menswear and womenswear collections. She also designed bridal apparel, footwear, cosmetics and perfumes.
Despite her creations’ subversive edge, Westwood generally drew inspiration from the past, including historical British costume parts and the classical artwork of Jean-Honoré Fragonard, François Boucher and Thomas Gainsborough. This retro-modern day tactic was found in her Pirates selection, exhibited in her first catwalk display in 1981.
Her runway exhibits have been generally the most stylish occasions, drawing stars from the glittery entire world of movie, music and tv. But Westwood spoke out from consumerism and conspicuous consumption, even urging folks not to buy her high-priced, superbly designed apparel.
“I just notify people today, cease purchasing apparel,” Westwood said. “Why not shield this reward of lifestyle even though we have it? I really don’t take the mindset that destruction is inevitable. Some of us would like to stop that and enable people endure.”
Her disdain for consumerism apart, Westwood’s eye-catching fashion grew to become a pop society darling in its possess correct. Sarah Jessica Parker famously wore a Westwood wedding day gown as Carrie Bradshaw in 2008’s “Intercourse and the Town,” and pop star Rihanna donned a black, silk taffeta corset to the yearly Victoria’s Magic formula manner clearly show in 2011.
Whilst other designers of her era struggled to court members of Generation Z, Westwood’s adherence to her punk roots and activism served her models come across a spot with more youthful consumers.
A Westwood triple pearl choker established with the house’s orb symbol has even been dubbed the “TikTok necklace,” with scores of influencers drawn to its blend of common class and punk panache.
Westwood’s creative contributions gained her national recognition in her native England as the designer become an Officer of the Purchase of the British Empire in 1992 and later Dame Commander in 2006. In the course of her 1992 excursion to Buckingham Palace to acquire her medal, Westwood wore no underwear and posed for photographers in a way that built that abundantly crystal clear.
As her stature grew, she seemed to transcend trend, and her types have been revealed in museum collections during the entire world. The young girl who had scorned the British establishment inevitably turned one particular of its main lights, and she applied her elite situation to lobby for environmental transform even as she retained her hair dyed the shiny shade of orange that became her trademark.
Westwood is survived by her second husband, Austrian-born Andreas Kronthaler, and her two sons: fashion photographer Ben Westwood and businessman Joe Corré.
The production of blue jeans, one of the most popular apparel items ever, has for decades left behind a trail of heavy consumption, diminishing Earth’s water and energy resources, causing pollution, and contributing to climate change. The harm done by the fashion industry has intensified, not diminished, in recent years.
The making of jeans is water intensive, yet much of the world’s cotton crop is grown in semiarid regions requiring irrigation and pesticide use. As climate change intensifies, irrigation-dependent cotton cultivation and ecological catastrophe are on a collision course, with the Aral Sea’s ecological death a prime example and warning.
While some major fashion companies have made sustainability pledges, and taken some steps to produce greener blue jeans, the industry has yet to make significant strides toward sustainability, with organic cotton, for example, still only 1{cfdf3f5372635aeb15fd3e2aecc7cb5d7150695e02bd72e0a44f1581164ad809} of the business.
A few fashion companies are changing their operations to be more sustainable and investing in technology to reduce the socioenvironmental impacts of jeans production. But much more remains to be done.
Eternally current and always fashionable, blue jeans are among the most-worn articles of clothing on Earth, transcending time, trends, and social class. Their popularity is ubiquitous, so much so that legendary designer Yves Saint Laurent once declared: “I wish I had invented blue jeans. The most spectacular, practical, relaxed and nonchalant. They have expression, modesty, sex appeal, simplicity — everything I hope for in my clothes.”
Unfortunately for the planet, the production of this garment takes a huge environmental toll.
A single pair of cotton jeans consumes between 10,000 and 20,000 liters (2,600-5,300 gallons) of water along its supply chain. Add to that large doses of synthetic pesticides, fertilizers, dyes and other chemicals that pollute soils and waterbodies, impacting wildlife and people, plus major energy expenditures that generate high greenhouse gas emissions.
Those consequences haven’t slowed sales, with more than 70 jeans-related garments sold per second, according to the Science and Industry Museum, a Parisian institution that recently presented the exhibition “Jean.” That equates to more than 2.2 billion items bought yearly.
While some companies are acting as early innovators in sustainability and have taken steps to make blue jeans “green,” the majors of the fashion industry, though declaring themselves committed to sustainability and to “the Jeans Redesign” circular economy guidelines, still work with oil-derived synthetic fibers and with conventional cotton, while chasing the idea that more production is always better.
Fishing boats resting on the bottom of what was once the Aral Sea. Image by Arian Zwegers via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0).
The Aral Sea cotton catastrophe: A warning to the world
The story of jeans begins with cotton: the vegetable fiber and raw material for making denim fabric. Each kilogram of cotton requires between 8,000 and 10,000 liters of water to grow, or about 960-1,200 gallons per pound. That figure reaches more than 22,000 liters per kilo (2,600 gallons per pound) in some regions in India.
Cotton’s intensive water needs can be sustainable in agricultural areas that get copious amounts of rain, but oddly, the lion’s share of cotton-producing areas in today’s world receive uncertain precipitation, with the crop heavily irrigated by surface water and groundwater — often putting extreme demands on streams, lakes, reservoirs, wetlands and aquifers.
Extracting excessive amounts of water from such sources, a common practice in cotton-producing countries, has already led to the destruction of at least one major ecosystem: the Aral Sea, in Central Asia.
Located mostly in semiarid Uzbekistan, one of the world’s top 10 cotton producers, the Aral Sea has suffered from escalating desertification since the 1950s, when it was the world’s fourth-largest lake. From then on, the Soviet Union began aggressively diverting the rivers feeding the huge inland waterbody to irrigate pesticide-soaked crops, ultimately including 1.47 million hectares (3.63 million acres) of cultivated cotton.
The Aral Sea, once home to 24 fish species and encircled by vibrant fishing communities, shrank to 10{cfdf3f5372635aeb15fd3e2aecc7cb5d7150695e02bd72e0a44f1581164ad809} of its original size by 2012. Diminished by excessive water use and climate change-driven drought, it shrank from its original 6.6 million hectares to just 600,000 hectares (16.3 million acres to 14,800 acres). Today, the Aral Sea’s vast expanse of dry lake bottom is the source of salts and carcinogenic pesticide residues, carried on winds that cause throat cancers and respiratory disease.
Since the 1950s, river water entering the Aral Sea, once the world’s fourth-largest lake, has been diverted to irrigate cotton crops. Today, the sea spans only 10{cfdf3f5372635aeb15fd3e2aecc7cb5d7150695e02bd72e0a44f1581164ad809} its former surface area. Image by NASA/Earth Observatory via Flickr (CC BY 2.0).
According to critics, this ecological catastrophe offers a warning of what happens when government policies and fashion industry profits trump a region’s basic ecological needs.
“This is not just climate change, this is an extinction issue,” said fashion designer and environmentalist Katharine Hamnett, commenting on the cotton industry’s harm in the region. “The fashion industry is one of the most polluting industries in the world, causing human misery, enormous cost of life and gigantic environmental devastation.… Conventional cotton (as opposed to organic cotton) has got to be one of the most unsustainable fibres in the world.”
However, the fashion industry does deserve credit for its strong response from 2011 onward to human rights and labor violations in the production of Uzbek cotton. The industry’s implementation of raw cotton production traceability showed that it has the capacity, when motivated, to act on the social and environmental concerns of consumers. But long years of harm still means that a reversal of the Aral Sea’s destruction is unlikely.
The critical threat posed by water-intensive cotton production in semiarid regions is even more urgent today due to intensifying climate change. In Brazil, for example, more than 90{cfdf3f5372635aeb15fd3e2aecc7cb5d7150695e02bd72e0a44f1581164ad809} of the nation’s cotton is grown in Mato Grosso and Bahia states — part of the semiarid Cerrado savanna biome whose ecosystems and crops could collapse due to worsening drought in the next 30 years.
Machines harvest cotton. In Brazil, production is dominated by large-scale agribusiness, which initially deforested the Cerrado savanna biome for cattle ranches and soy crops. Image by USDA via RawPixel (Public domain).
But despite this forecast, some Bahia agribusiness farmers are authorized by the state to withdraw up to 1.8 billion liters (476 million gallons) of water daily for free, according to a report by investigative news outfit Agência Pública. This massive extraction of water has not managed to keep pace with global warming-accelerated drought, and the cotton crop saw declines in 2022.
Still, Brazil’s garment industry seems mostly unworried. Newton Coelho, business director for Santista JeansWear, one of the country’s largest denim manufacturers, is typical: “We still don’t face chronic drought problems, as in Texas, U.S.,” he told Mongabay. “The tendency is for irrigation to grow [in Brazil] with the increase in climatic variations and the greater risk of future crops … There is a lot of room for increasing exports [from Brazil], considering the quality of the products, adaptation to fashion trends, and increased actions for the lowest possible environmental impact in the jeans value chain.”
This optimistic view fails to heed researchers’ warnings that heightening drought could lead to aquifer depletion and devastate not only ecosystems, but Cerrado agribusiness too.
Pivot irrigation of cotton. Image by USDA (Public domain).
Irrigation and climate change on a collision course
Cotton is currently grown in about 70 countries and is a major source of livelihood for around 50 million family units, most in developing nations. India and China are the world’s largest producers, with 50{cfdf3f5372635aeb15fd3e2aecc7cb5d7150695e02bd72e0a44f1581164ad809} of production; followed by the U.S., Brazil and Pakistan. Together, these nations control around 80{cfdf3f5372635aeb15fd3e2aecc7cb5d7150695e02bd72e0a44f1581164ad809} of the global cotton supply.
Today, cotton cultivation methods remain similar the world over, requiring massive and unsustainable water use and pesticide consumption, with national regulatory policies failing to keep pace as irrigation demands grow due to increasing extreme weather, including heat and drought.
Embrapa, Brazil’s agricultural research agency, observes that: “A large part of the world’s cotton production is carried out under irrigation. It is an essential practice to obtain high yields. Its main advantages are greater efficiency in the use of fertilizers and the absence of crop loss risk due to droughts.”
Those same water-intensive policies remain entrenched in the U.S., says Cotton Incorporated, an industry-funded not-for-profit research organization: “With rising production costs and the devastating effect of drought on yield, adopting irrigation to supplement rainfall in the humid areas, and improving irrigation in the dryer areas, is becoming increasingly essential to stay competitive.”
More than 90{cfdf3f5372635aeb15fd3e2aecc7cb5d7150695e02bd72e0a44f1581164ad809} of commercial crops in China, including cotton, are grown on irrigated farmlands and rely on pesticides, fertilizers and plastic films. Plastic is used to cover the soil, increasing its temperature to promote early cotton growth and conserve water. But according to a 2021 U.N. report, plastics contain toxins and are “a major source of contamination” of soils, posing a threat to ecosystems and human health. Waste plastic “has become a common soil pollution phenomenon in China.”
In Pakistan, cotton production also depends largely on irrigation, and backbreaking work. Small-scale farmers with properties smaller than 5 hectares (12.5 acres), represent 86{cfdf3f5372635aeb15fd3e2aecc7cb5d7150695e02bd72e0a44f1581164ad809} of total growers, and during cotton season they already regularly labor at temperatures of between 40 and 45° Celsius (104-113° Fahrenheit). Climate change-driven drought and higher temperatures are increasing there too, threatening crisis among small growers.
Farmers harvest organic cotton in India. Image by India Water Portal via Flickr (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0).
Saving the Earth and the cotton industry
The cotton supply chain is already being gravely affected by a warming world. In recent months, India and Pakistan experienced temperatures up to 50°C (122°F). Heavy rains slashed cotton crops in India, while causing an unprecedented humanitarian disaster in Pakistan. The semiarid U.S. Southwest, that nation’s largest cotton-growing region, has been suffering prolonged annual droughts for decades, with its 2022 harvested acreage the lowest in 13 years.
Things are expected to get worse: A report by the NGO Forum for the Future along with Acclimatise, a company specializing in climate change risk management, estimates that 75{cfdf3f5372635aeb15fd3e2aecc7cb5d7150695e02bd72e0a44f1581164ad809} of the world’s cotton-growing regions will suffer increased heat stress by 2040. With heat stress comes drought.
“Countries and companies need [to promote] a rapid transition to [cotton] regenerative practices that sequester carbon in the soil, with less use of fertilizers and pesticides, and a reduction in overall [cotton] production through the increase of [denim] recycling,” said Hannah Cunneen, principal program manager of Cotton 2040 at Forum for the Future. “Not managing this on a global scale leads to a world that is not viable. It requires the industry to work together in ways that have not been done before,” Cunneen told Mongabay.
Last year, the NGO released an interactive map incorporating risk scores for 12 climate indicators, such as long-term drought as projected for the 2040s in cotton-growing regions. The map is intended as an early-warning system for “understanding the climatic realities of cotton sourcing origins, which will impact supply chains, and inform appropriate environmental and social action.”
Women farmers in a cotton field in Gujarat state, India. Conventional cotton production uses synthetic pesticides that contain chemicals that may impact fertility and affect pregnant women. Image by Ray Witlin / World Bank via Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0).
“It is important to recognize the valuable role the small-scale farmers play in the industry, and the pressures that are being placed on smaller farms to produce more for less,” Cunneen said.
According to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), smallholders who grow cotton in areas of half a hectare (1.2 acres) in developing countries earn just $400 per year on average — leaving them mostly unable to respond to increasing irrigation and pesticide demands. By contrast, a mechanized farm in an agribusiness-dominated nation can gross more than $2 million annually, with larger operations earning more than $50 million.
The chronic financial instability of small cotton farmers in India has made this group a leader in the number of suicides. Nearly 400,000 cotton farmers in India committed suicide between 1995 and 2018, a rate 47{cfdf3f5372635aeb15fd3e2aecc7cb5d7150695e02bd72e0a44f1581164ad809} higher than the national suicide average.
“Small and marginal farmers are the worst hit because they have challenges in managing the input costs every year, and post-harvest they are at the mercy of the market, as the price offered by the buyers for their yield varies each year, leading to distress sales,” said Nanda Kishore, a medical anthropologist in public health and co-author of the 2021 study “Cultivating distress: Cotton, caste and farmer suicides in India.”
An auditor and a worker during a tour at an organic cotton factory in India. Once harvested and cleaned, cotton is straightened into long lengths of slivers to be spun into yarn. Image courtesy of Didier Gentilhomme/Fairtrade International.
Petrochemical dyes
Once mature, cotton is harvested and separated from the seeds and waste, then placed in a machine that straightens it into long fibers. These cotton slivers are next placed on spinning machines that twist and stretch them to form yarn. These large yarn rolls are then run through a dyeing machine and drenched in chemically synthesized indigo — the characteristic color that blue jeans wearers know so well.
In the past, this dye was extracted from plants of the genus Indigofera, used to dye fabrics for at least 6,000 years. But after the indigo formula was discovered in 1883, it didn’t take long for German chemical manufacturer BASF to develop an artificial version. “Synthetic indigo is sold worldwide, especially in China,” says the company website. Costing a fraction of natural dye, synthetic indigo dominates the world market today.
After indigo dyeing, the yarn is woven on large industrial looms and the fabric takes shape in a pattern of diagonal parallel ridges of blue and white threads. Before it’s finished, denim also must undergo physical-chemical treatments that, besides turning the fabric blue, minimize shrinkage, make it softer, or give it a fashionably worn-out look. Acids and heavy bleaches are also used. Many dyes and treatments contain highly toxic heavy metals such as lead, cadmium, mercury and chromium; azo nitrogen-compound dyes contain carcinogenic amines.
In the developing world, these dangerous substances are often handled by factory workers, who inhale fumes and dust due to a lack of proper protective equipment. Wider environmental contamination also occurs: In 2010, a Greenpeace investigation revealed cadmium levels of up to 128 times above the safe limit in the Chinese city of Xintang, where thousands of denim factories are based.
In Brazil, factories and industrial laundries in the towns of Caruaru and Toritama, known for jeans production, discharge wastewater without treatment into the Capibaribe River. “In certain stretches, the river has the color of indigo. Rural settlements close to the Capibaribe no longer have access to the water,” Tainá Faustino, a public health specialist, told Mongabay.
The spinning line of a cotton mill. Image via PixaHive (Public domain).
Petrochemical synthetic fibers
Originally denim was made entirely of cotton, but in the last two decades, polyester and elastane fibers, derived from oil, coal or natural gas, were added for durability and strength, wedding the jeans industry firmly to the petrochemical industry, with its attendant environmental impacts.
Consumer environmental concerns have caused global jeans fashion brands to increasingly adopt recycled polyester, among other synthetics, according to the NGO Changing Markets Foundation in its “Synthetic Anonymous — Fashion brands’ addiction to fossil fuels” report.
But even the shift to recycled polyester, sourced from PET plastic bottles, has its problems: “While recycled polyester requires 59{cfdf3f5372635aeb15fd3e2aecc7cb5d7150695e02bd72e0a44f1581164ad809} less energy to produce, but still more [energy] than cotton, and emits less CO2 than its virgin counterpart, these figures do not take into account the impacts of [the original] plastic bottles production,” notes Changing Markets Foundation campaign manager George Harding-Rolls.
Although denim as manufactured today contains fewer synthetic fibers than other fabrics. Harding-Rolls explained that synthetics can prevent jeans from being recycled into new clothing at the end of their life spans. “Some recycling technologies are able to deal with a tolerance of around 10{cfdf3f5372635aeb15fd3e2aecc7cb5d7150695e02bd72e0a44f1581164ad809} of non-cellulosic fiber presence. [But] for some stretch jeans the percentage is higher, which makes recycling difficult. And if you are adding in complex blends of other fibers, that is also going to be a barrier.”
Synthetic-content fabrics are also a main ingredient of “fast fashion,” which responds to rapidly evolving consumer apparel trends with high-speed, low-cost production to make cheap, short-lived clothes.
“The high-street fashion industry still operates in a world of tight margins and tends only to move [to act on socioenvironmental concerns] when pushed, or when there is a market advantage. So far there has been little incentive for them to act on synthetics” and move toward more environmentally friendly production, said Harding-Rolls.
Jeans are one of the most popular garments in the world, with more than 2.2 billion pieces sold every year. With cotton as the main material, toxic chemicals and fossil fuel-derived fibers also represent a part of its manufacture. Image by Waldemar Brandt via Pexels (Public domain).
Early paths toward a more sustainable future
Some mainstream fashion companies are making changes to reduce environmental impacts, though they also keep turning out millions of jeans products annually that don’t even remotely qualify as sustainable (just 1{cfdf3f5372635aeb15fd3e2aecc7cb5d7150695e02bd72e0a44f1581164ad809} of cotton made today is organic, for example). There’s also the potential for higher-priced jeans items promoted with fraudulent green claims of “organic cotton grown without chemical pesticides, chemical fertilizers and genetically modified seeds” due to a faulty, “opaque certification system.”
What follows is a snapshot of a few efforts to adopt ecologically sensitive standards:
Soorty, Pakistan’s largest denim and jeans manufacturer, in partnership with the NGO Organic Cotton Accelerator, is funding more than 1,000 farmers from Balochistan, one of the country’s poorest provinces, to transition to organic cotton over the next four years.
For the past decade, Soorty has also been investing in water- and energy-saving technologies, while reducing chemical usage and introducing new engineering processes to redesign how denim and jeans are made.
Tommy Hilfiger, a PVH Corporation brand, is investing in high tech to reduce its jeans supply chain environmental impacts. In 2017, the group created the PVH Denim Center, a hub that aims to set new sustainability fashion industry standards.
“Denim is a staple in our wardrobe, so we are dedicated to finding innovative ways to create these products,” Nicolas Prophte, vice president of sourcing, production and innovation denim at Tommy Hilfiger, told Mongabay. “The Denim Center works in unison with our key suppliers, like mills and laundries. Staying closely engaged with our supply chain, while being open [about] how we craft our denim products, is crucial to a more sustainable industry.”
Workers load cotton bolls on a truck in India. Organic cotton only accounts for about 1{cfdf3f5372635aeb15fd3e2aecc7cb5d7150695e02bd72e0a44f1581164ad809} of world production. Image by Adam Cohn via Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0).
Not everyone has been excited about these innovations. Writing on the brand’s website, Prophte acknowledges that some of the industrial laundries PVH contracts with were initially resistant to changing techniques and equipment to reduce pollution. “Our role has been to show them that we have a clear vision and some very precise targets, so that they come with us on this journey” toward sustainability.
According to the company, the Denim Center consumes just 10 liters (2.6 gallons) of water to finish a pair of jeans, while conventional methods use 70 liters (18.5 gallons). Tommy Hilfiger also buys from regenerative cotton farms, which Prophte says “take a holistic approach to landscape, aiming to restore soil health and ecosystems.” Their jeans, however, still incorporate synthetic yarns, though these yarns are made from recycled plastic bottles.
Typically, companies don’t take steps toward sustainability without consumer pressure or endangerment to profits. In 2012, Greenpeace linked jeans maker Levi Strauss with water pollution in Mexico in its “Toxic Threads” report. Levi’s then pledged to reduce hazardous chemical use in its apparel dyeing and treatments, and aimed for the elimination of hazardous chemicals by 2020, which it says it achieved with the Zero Discharge of Hazardous Chemicals Group (ZDHC) across most of its supply chain. Levi’s also says it has worked to reduce water consumption in its finishing process. Levi Strauss & Company did not respond to Mongabay’s request for an interview.
A young farmer sprays pesticides on a cotton field in Pakistan. Brazil is one of the heaviest users of pesticides in the world. Workers who are exposed to pesticides can experience acute toxicity, resulting in respiratory problems, skin and eye irritation, seizures and even death. In the long term, low-dose pesticide exposure has been linked to Parkinson’s disease, asthma, mental illness and cancer. Image by IFPRI via Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0).
In Brazil, Santista JeansWear manufactures denim cloth using local conventional cotton grown with pesticides because the global organic supply is still too small, explained Santista’s Newton Coelho. But the firm sources “from producers, cooperatives and trading companies, all with ABR [Responsible Brazilian Cotton] and BCI [Better Cotton Initiative] certifications. About 90{cfdf3f5372635aeb15fd3e2aecc7cb5d7150695e02bd72e0a44f1581164ad809} of the crops are not irrigated, but depend on rainfall,” which leaves groundwater untouched, says Coelho.
The ABR program was created by Abrapa, the Brazilian Association of Cotton Producers, whose certification attests to product sustainability: protection of waterbodies, preservation of biomes, soil, water and air. According to Abrapa, more than 80{cfdf3f5372635aeb15fd3e2aecc7cb5d7150695e02bd72e0a44f1581164ad809} of national producers have the ABR certification.
Abrapa brought BCI licensing to the country, and its website says it promotes “alternative pest control techniques … to reduce reliance on conventional pesticides,” and encourages water stewardship, supports soil health and working conditions, and enhances biodiversity, among other guidelines. Mongabay’s request for comment by Abrapa went unanswered.
Problematically, Brazil remains a world leader in pesticide consumption, with cotton production dominated by large-scale growers who alternate their agribusiness cotton crop with soy and corn production. (About 65{cfdf3f5372635aeb15fd3e2aecc7cb5d7150695e02bd72e0a44f1581164ad809} of cotton is planted as a second crop.)
For a partial list of companies working toward denim and blue jeans sustainability, look here, here, and here.
Practical and versatile, jeans are one of the most popular garments in the modern wardrobe, with over 2.2 billion items sold globally every year. According to the Denim Jeans – Global Market Trajectory & Analytics report, demand for this product will keep growing: “Aggressive promotions of styled denim garments are further driving growth in the jeans segment.” Image by lan deng via Unsplash (Public domain).
Consumer environmental impacts
Once purchased and worn, a pair of jeans regularly goes into the washing machine. Depending on personal laundry practices, the amount of water and energy used can be huge, according to a study produced by chemical engineer Philippa Notten at the request of the U.N. Environment Programme. Household clothes washing is the single biggest water consumer across the global apparel supply chain, representing 35{cfdf3f5372635aeb15fd3e2aecc7cb5d7150695e02bd72e0a44f1581164ad809} of total consumption, with bleaching, dyeing and finishing in textile factories totaling 24{cfdf3f5372635aeb15fd3e2aecc7cb5d7150695e02bd72e0a44f1581164ad809}, and cultivation 21{cfdf3f5372635aeb15fd3e2aecc7cb5d7150695e02bd72e0a44f1581164ad809}.
“A garment is made once, bleached/dyed/finished once, but washed possibly hundreds of times. If it lasts three years and is washed weekly, for example, that would be 156 home washes,” said Notten, a principal consultant at The Green House, a South Africa-based sustainability consulting firm.
Changing “the way consumers wash and dry their clothes is essential for reducing environmental impact. Jeans washed cold and line-dried will have a fairly small user share of carbon footprint, while washed hot, and dried in a tumble dryer, can be the highest share of the carbon footprint,” added Notten.
Consumers point out that the fashion industry shares in the responsibility for waste at the end of the supply chain. In a survey of 2,000 women shoppers, 46{cfdf3f5372635aeb15fd3e2aecc7cb5d7150695e02bd72e0a44f1581164ad809} said denim is the most difficult fashion item to buy, with an average of six pairs of jeans rejected on each shopping trip, primarily because they’re ill-fitting or have poor fabric quality.
Despite those complaints, the global jeans market keeps expanding, with growth expected to climb from $57.3 billion in 2020 to a projected $76.1 billion for 2026.
Denim under a microscope. The fabric is woven in parallel ridges of blue and white threads, made of cotton and fossil fuel-derived synthetic fibers. Besides denim, blue jeans include a zipper, buttons, rivets (all made of metal) and a label, made of cloth, leather or plastic. Image by Alexander Klepnev via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0).
Amid those rosy projections, some jeans makers are seeing the enviro-writing on the wall: “We are entering into an era where constant growth is not working to create global well-being for today, or for generations to come. We need to design the future we want to achieve, and this requires partnerships and a fundamental transformation of businesses,” said Ebru Debbag, global executive director of Soorty.
“There are new models being discussed, such as Doughnut Economics,” an alternative production model focused on achieving a balance between people’s needs and the planet’s needs. “It is ever more crucial to … measure and report impact [and] be able to drive change at scale. Degrowth, or another form of growth, needs to be designed. It will not happen on its own, even if we hold debates around it or publish opinions.”
Notten, of The Green House, agrees. “I think it is the uncomfortable truth, in all sustainable consumption, not just textiles, that ultimately we need to consume less. In fashion especially, that would mean moving away from fast fashion into higher-value products that could be repaired or repurposed, that is, products with longer service lifetimes, and with wealth shared across the value chain.”
Banner image: Ubiquitous jeans make a fashion statement while doing significant environmental harm. Image by Jcjeansandclothes via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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A cotton farm in Uzbekistan. Cotton is grown in about 70 countries and it makes up about 31{cfdf3f5372635aeb15fd3e2aecc7cb5d7150695e02bd72e0a44f1581164ad809} of all raw material used in the global textile market. Image by Chris Shervey via Flickr (CC BY 2.0).
Style that permeated pop society and politics in the 1960s is on exhibit at the College of Ga Specific Collections Libraries in an exhibit that includes the dresses, prints and patterns of Frankie Welch.
The exhibition, “Frankie Welch’s Americana: Style, Scarves, and Politics,” documents the life perform of Welch, a native of Rome, Ga, from her days as a house economics trainer to taking care of her preferred Virginia boutique and coming up with dresses for 1st woman Betty Ford. The colorful display screen characteristics an eclectic array of prints Welch built for political strategies and for companies like McDonald’s, nonprofits and colleges, like UGA.
“Frankie Welch occupies a one of a kind situation in the record of American manner,” reported Ashley Callahan, an impartial ornamental arts scholar who curated the exhibition. “She was a retailer and apparel advisor to popular women—including a number of 1st ladies—in the nation’s money, as perfectly as a designer of custom made, minimal-version scarves that seamlessly blended fashion and enterprise. She outlined her own entrepreneurial occupation, and her distinctive brand name of Americana style found an enthusiastic viewers from the 1960s via the 1990s.”
The exhibition characteristics the legendary style of Frankie Welch, pictured above, a Ga native who owned a Virginia boutique, building scarves and attire used in political strategies and situations and worn by girls through the region in the 1960s and 70s. (Submitted image)
The exhibition attributes a quantity of noteworthy textiles, from Welch’s common Cherokee Alphabet models to the Learn The us scarves showcased in the only trend exhibit ever held in the White Household and the 50 Point out Bouquets style worn by Ford and other folks. Several of these fashions had been donated by Welch’s household to be preserved by the Hargrett Uncommon Reserve and Manuscript Library, one of three distinctive collections models housed in the setting up.
The resources, which include goods on loan from Welch’s daughters and the Rome Historical Society, are also featured prominently in Callahan’s book Frankie Welch’s Americana, which is scheduled for a publishing release date up coming thirty day periodby the University of Ga Press.
This spring, the Hargrett Library will host a series of functions engaging UGA students, students and the neighborhood in celebration of the exhibition, built attainable with funding and support from the Lucy Hargrett Draper Heart and Archives for the Research of Girls in Record and Legislation.
In March, Madelyn Shaw, retired curator of textiles for the National Museum of American Heritage, element of the Smithsonian Establishment, will be part of Callahan in a dialogue about style in the context of political actions. Shaw’s lecture, titled “Camelot to Counterculture: Clothing & Society in the 1960s,” is scheduled for 6 p.m. Thursday, March 3, in the Exclusive Collections Making auditorium. The function is co-sponsored by the UGA Press and the College or university of Household and Shopper Sciences.
In addition to gallery tours scheduled for 2 p.m. on Feb. 1, March 1 and April 5, the group is invited to a Household Working day occasion showcasing children’s things to do from 1 to 4 p.m. March 26. In addition, the UGA Style Layout College student Affiliation will existing a spring style exhibit encouraged by Welch’s styles at the Particular Collections Making on April 14.
“Frankie Welch’s Americana: Vogue, Scarves, and Politics” will remain on exhibit in the Hargrett Library gallery through July 8.
The galleries at the Particular Collections Libraries, situated on the University of Georgia campus in Athens, are open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays, with extended night hrs till 7 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays this spring. For far more details or to program a tour, visit libs.uga.edu/scl.
French trend designer Thierry Mugler, whose flamboyant creations remodeled haute couture, has died at the age of 73, according to a information posted to his formal Instagram account.
“We are devastated to announce the passing of Mr. Manfred Thierry Mugler on Sunday January 23rd 2022,” the submit read through, employing his full identify. “May perhaps his soul Rest In Peace.”
The designer’s model, Mugler, also confirmed the information through an Instagram publish, describing its founder as “a visionary whose creativeness as a couturier, perfumer and impression-maker empowered folks all-around the planet to be bolder and desire more substantial each individual working day.”
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Cardi B resembled a pearl rising from an oyster as she arrived at the 2019 Grammys in a vintage gown from Mugler’s Slide 1995 collection. Credit history: David Crotty/Patrick McMullan/Getty Images
Born in Strasbourg, France, in 1948, Mugler worked as a freelance designer in Paris before launching his eponymous label in 1974. By the 1980s he experienced proven himself as a significant figure in global trend, with his structural, broad-shouldered styles epitomizing — and helping condition — the decade’s extravagant model.
Immediately after relocating into the rarefied environment of haute couture, Mugler’s runway displays and seasonal collections grew to become even far more theatrical. Reimagining trend as a spectacle (normally with the assistance of the era’s very best recognised supermodels, which includes Kate Moss and Naomi Campbell), his aesthetic was as motivated by science fiction as it was 1940s glamour, frequently merging vintage development with exaggerated, even surreal, silhouettes.
From metallic robot bodysuits (one of which was worn by Girl Gaga in her audio video clip for “Paparazzi” in 2009) to underwater-themed styles encouraged by fish and mermaids, his function generally retained a feeling of elegance amid the drama. The renowned ground-duration black dress he developed for Demi Moore’s character in the 1993 movie “Indecent Proposal” proved, if evidence were desired, that he didn’t need to have daring styles and colors to craft a thing legendary.
The black gown that Mugler made for Demi Moore, for the 1993 movie “Indecent Proposal,” turned one of the decade’s most iconic dresses. Credit score: Paramount/Kobal/Shutterstock
Outside the house trend, Mugler was a published photographer who directed adverts and brief films, such as a star-studded songs movie for George Michael’s hit 1992 “Too Funky.” Also a notable perfumer, Mugler released his vastly well-known scent “Angel” that same calendar year, encouraging to forge a now-recognized hyperlink concerning luxury style and fragrance.
But irrespective of the perfume’s accomplishment, Mugler’s all set-to-use creations had turn into considerably less commercially viable by the early 2000s, and the designer left the trend marketplace to pursue other imaginative tasks. His larger-than-everyday living strategy lent by itself to the phase, and he built costumes for Beyoncé’s 2009 “I Am… Globe Tour” and the Cirque du Soleil production “Zumanity,” among others.
In his later on many years, Mugler turned an avid bodybuilder and started employing his very first identify, Manfred, relatively than the middle title he had lengthy been known by.
Product and actor Beverly Johnson donning Thierry Mugler in Paris in 1990. Credit score: ARNAL/Gamma-Rapho/Getty Photos
The impact of his layouts endured, however — and his 1990s collections relished a outstanding revival in the latest a long time, with celebrities consistently turning to his 7,000-merchandise archive for classic statements. From Cardi B attending the Grammys in an oyster-impressed 1995 Mugler layout to the daring reduce-out gown worn by Kim Kardashian to the Annual Hollywood Splendor Awards in 2019, Mugler’s model has proven completely suited to present day more than-the-best red carpets.
The designer then came out of higher style retirement to generate a figure-hugging gown for Kardashian to dress in at 2019’s Satisfied Gala.
Getting turned down several retrospectives at major museums, the designer that year also agreed to get the job done with the Montreal Museum of Wonderful Arts on the exhibition “Thierry Mugler, Couturissime,” is currently on present at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris.
Tributes started pouring in from the fashion earth on Sunday evening, with Canadian supermodel Linda Evangelista submitting an image of her carrying a extraordinary sparkling look from Mugler’s Drop-Wintertime 1995 assortment.
American designer Christian Siriano meanwhile tweeted. “An additional Icon misplaced these days. Rest properly in final beauty #thierrymugler. You opened many a lot of doorways.”
15 years ago, Who What Wear was born out of a goal to make fashion and style accessible for all. It certainly has been a wild ride, starting from a little site in 2006 to the brand you currently read (and shop from) today. We’ve launched two brands (Who What Wear x Target and Who What Wear Collection) and are finding new ways every day to connect with our readers on a deeper level. Not only has a lot changed for us, but the sartorial world isn’t the same it was in 2006. We thought we’d take a trip down memory lane and remind you of all the fashion moments we’ve reported on since we started. Be prepared to be filled with nostalgia and have the desire to dig into your old stuff or have a laugh at some of the things you thought was très cool. Trust us, we felt the same way. From hot pink Motorola Razrs to sultry cut-outs, we’ve rounded up our fashion favorites from 2006 to 2021. By no means this is not a comprehensive list of everything in the past 15 years—but it’s a pretty good summary.
We don’t want to keep you waiting from stepping into our little time machine, so you can just go ahead and keep scrolling.
As a side note: to celebrate our big 15th birthday we’re offering a 15{cfdf3f5372635aeb15fd3e2aecc7cb5d7150695e02bd72e0a44f1581164ad809} discount on WWWC as well as a gift with purchase. You can choose from the scarf spotted on the fashion set, Merit’s cult-favorite lip oil, or Versed’s Dew Point moisturizer. We hope you will join us in celebrating our birthday and share the news of our birthday promo.
No single handbag managed to have quite the grip on popular culture in the mid-2000s as Balenciaga’s Moto Bag did. The slouchy convertible satchel featured its signature edgy hardware that served as its only identifiers, without a single logo in sight. Though the brand recently released a modern iteration, the original still continues to be a hot ticket item on the resale market.
Fun fact: In 2006, Who What Wear’s co-founders Hillary Kerr and Katherine Power published their very first trend report entitled “Little Leather Jackets”. Although the story itself is now buried in the internet’s endless backlog, the trend lives on through the plethora of celebs like Rachel Bilson who ignited the look.
Nothing said 2006 quite like a denim cutoff mini skirt. Rihanna wore them in Hollywood. I wore them through the halls of my middle school. It was truly a trend everyone was in on.
From Laguna Beach to The Hills, Lauren Conrad had us all glued to our TV screens to soak in her every (very stylish) move, with friends and co-stars Audrina Patridge and Whitney Port by her side. Chandelier earrings, tube tops, and plenty of stacked bangles became her style signatures.
Givenchy may have introduced the Nightingale bag in 2006, but the oversized leather carryall managed to remain a fixture on the arms of street style stars and celebs alike in the years following its launch. Notable fans of the satchel bag include everyone from Kendall Jenner to Keira Knightly.
The first episode of Gossip Girl aired on the CW this year and promptly assumed its position as the cultural bellwether of the era. Nothing from the show’s wardrobe was more influential than Blair Waldorf’s collection of preppy headbands, we’d argue.
After the duo’s steamy on-screen romance in Mr. and Mrs. Smith, Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt made things official IRL. The pair subsequently walked many red carpets together and their understatedly cool style as a couple was simply unmatched.
Why, yes, this is in fact Kate Middleton carrying a Longchamp Le Pilage Bag to her college graduation. This image may have been snapped in 2005, but it’s safe to say the bag was a true cult piece in the mid-2000s in general. As a testament to its longevity, the classic bag is still popular to this day.
Chloe’s Susanna Boots, a pair of leather ankle boots adorned with a swirl of studs and metal buckles, was originally released in 2008. As anyone with a Pinterest account during this era would know, seemingly every celeb, model, blogger, and fashion person had these boots in their closets—and we have the street style to show for it.
When I say that this Balmain military-style jacket defined fashion this year, I don’t think it would be an exaggeration. Beloved by Beyoncé, Rihanna, and plenty more A-listers, the designer piece ignited the trend of structured and embroidered outerwear that would reign supreme for seasons to come.
Proenza Schouler’s PS1 messenger bag was the ultimate cool-girl carryall in 2009 that’s both polished and lived-in. The slouchy satchel shape features a top-handle and crossbody option that stars like Nicky Hilton, Kate Bosworth, and Emma Roberts were fans of.
Of all the iconic accessories to emerge from Phoebe Philo’s stint at Celine, none had quite the impact that the Luggage Bag did. 2010 was the year bags went from slouchy to structured and Celine’s It bag marked this pivotal shift.
We could sit here and debate the trendiness of skinny jeans all day long, but there’s no denying that the slim-fit denim reigned supreme during this era, and celebs were especially keen on styling them with patent pumps and flowy blouses.
From the pages of Tumblr to the streets of NYC and Paris, Jeffrey Campbell’s Lita Boots really took hold in 2012. The platform lace-up boots were everyone’s must-have and to our surprise celebs even forewent their designer options for this more affordable pick.
It’s impossible to scroll through a street-style gallery without spotting a Chanel bag, but the fashion set was particularly obsessed with the structured Boy bag this year.
Flannel shirts (along with messy topknot hairstyles—hi, Miley!) absolutely dominated 2012. Flannels had a big moment thanks in part to Rails whose super-soft Hunter shirts celebs were particularly keen on at the time and, quite frankly, still are.
Who could forget the 2013 Met Gala at which “Kimye” first walked the red carpet as a couple, at the time expecting their first North West.
Mansur Gavriel has since created a roster of lust-worthy bags, but this was the year when their first creation, a sleek leather bucket bag, really took off and put the minimalistic accessories brand on the map.
The term “normcore” started swirling in fashion circles this year to describe a bubbling aesthetic that can only be categorized as anti-fashion. Ordinary basics like plain T-shirts, “dad” sneakers, and non-fitted jeans conveyed a carefully cultivated style.
Chloé has had many of their bags become their “it bags” but we remember when the Drew bag was the only accessory street-style stars had to have.
When Dylan Lex released her collection of silver statement jewelry, her statement necklaces were quick to trend. Spotted on the likes of Beyonce and Rihanna, everyone tried to get their hands on a pair or use their DIY skills to create their own.
Don’t you remember saving a variety of ombre hairstyles to your Pinterest board? Because we sure do. Jenner’s locks were all a part of the edgy aesthetic she lead during this era. (Remember MSFTS?)
Ah, the world of Tumblr and Alexa Chung’s minimal yet chic style taking the world by storm. Her book was released this year and we remember re-reading each page and bookmarking her looks to copy immediately. Overalls, striped tops, and easy denim were her expertise.
Before the rise of athleisure, workout wear was made just for the gym. Comfort became a top priority of the fashion set and mixing elevated pieces with track pants or sneakers quickly became the norm.
Loafers were always seen as a polished piece in the wardrobe, but when Gucci added a fur lining it brought a trendy element to the shoe style. Dare we say this was the beginning of fur linings being used popularly as an eccentric touch to footwear?
When Alessandro Michele took the reigns of Gucci in 2015 and quickly became a staple for mixing elements of the brand’s heritage with modern touches. The bag comes in classic print or with lively embellishments and artwork.
Off-White was founded in 2012, but the industrial belt has become Virgil Abloh’s most iconic design. Inspired by workwear, it added a utilitarian touch to the street style scene.
According to Google’s 2016 report, bomber jackets were the #1 trend of the year. The outerwear item was worn by a variety of style icons from Kanye West and Devid Beckham to Gigi Hadid and Kendall Jenner. Although the piece has military roots, it became about style just as much as utility.
Although they may not be together, Bella Hadid and The Weeknd are still the uber-cool celebrity couple people’s minds. When they took to the Met Gala red carpet together, people were in awe. (We still are.)
Tiny bags have come and gone out of style, but you can thank Jacqeumus for truly putting the style on the map in the past few years.
Balenciaga Triple S and Fila Disruptors truly had a chokehold on fashionable people everywhere. Although controversial and considered “ugly”, their popularity showed otherwise.
Do you remember walking past the Supreme store and seeing a line that stretched for blocks and being shocked? Us too. From lighters to bricks, people were stalking the brand’s site to get their hands on anything that had the simple logo.
Although the high-ponytail was a favorite hairstyle among style many for its easy styling, we have to admit, it did come with some added headaches.
John Galliano may have debuted the saddle bag on the runway for his 2000 collection but the style made a return in 2018 as if nothing had changed in 18 years. After many design reiterations, the bag is still a staple.
While Ganni may be recognizable by every fashion insider now, that wasn’t always the case. The brand took to Copenhagen runways and blew everyone away and it’s only gone up from there.
We’d be lying if we said we didn’t wake up early in the morning to watch the live stream of Prince Harry and Meghan’s Wedding. From their engagement to the birth of Archie and Lilibet, we’ve loved every bit of their royal romance.
When Daniel Lee took the hold of Bottega Veneta, he skyrocketed the brand into cult status. Although the bags weren’t branded like most designer handbags, it didn’t change the fact that everyone wanted one and could recognize Lee’s design instantly.
We still remember when everyone was wondering whether Hailey and Justin were secretly married or not. Their wedding pictures were a dream, and we’re always taking notes from their street style looks together.
We’ve been obsessed with Zendaya since her Disney days, but when Euphoria and Spiderman: Homecoming came out, we wanted more of her on our screens. Her red carpet style just keeps getting better, as do her projects. (We currently have scheduled a day to watch Dune.)
Telfar Clemens founded his brand in 2005 and became a success when his shopper bag, also known as the “Bushwick Birkin” took popularity. Clemens aims to make luxury accessible, keeping the bag at a relatively low price point and scheduling “bag security” days where dedicated customers can secure their bags.
Quarantine in 2020 meant staying home so thus comfort became the #1 priority in fashion. Sweatpants, slippers, and socks were the only clothing items anyone wanted to wear. (If we’re being honest, that is still a lot of what we wear right now.)
Raise your hand if you also tried to chop your own curtain bangs in quarantine because our hands are up. They may be tricky to style but when they are, they look phenomenal.
Bridgerton may have been released at the near end of 2020, but it was exactly what everyone needed as a little bit of escapism. The romance, costumes, and scandal—what was not to love about it? We’re still dreaming about the Duke—sorry not sorry.
It seems like there’s a trend of designers re-releasing new versions of old cult bags for them to be cult bags yet again. The new Gucci Jackie is more modern and sleek with the leather sheen and fun colors, but if you prefer the vintage version you can easily find one secondhand.
As restrictions were lifted and people became willing to go out again, the fashion trends became a little less about comfort and more about making a vivid statement. Revenge dresses, cut-outs, and loud colors galore.
Olivia Rodrigo has come a long way from the girl who sang “Driver’s License”. She’s since then released her debut album and singlehandedly become the ultimate pop princess for Generation Z.
We’re still coming off the high we got from the Kravis engagement announcement. Can you blame us? Although the couple confused everyone at first, we’re completely on board.
