Fashion Industry Trend in 2021: Towards a More Sustainable Approach to Fashion

London Fashion Week is once again upon us, (albeit this time in a digital format), with a whole week dedicated to the latest in sartorial excellence.

In recent years there has been a huge shift towards a more sustainable approach to fashion, and how we choose to consume it. In 2019, LFW launched its positive fashion showcase, which had a heavy focus on celebrating and spotlighting the incredible work that designers are doing within the sustainable fashion space.

Now, in 2021, with sustainable fashion becoming the ‘new norm’, we want to look at some of the waves that are being made in the industry, and at what we can expect to come in the rest of 2021.

As part of the Feb 2021 digital LFW, we can look forward to a Circular Fashion Panel talk: At 5.15pm on Tuesday 23 February, the hub will host a panel on the Circular Fashion Eco-System Partner, with the BFC’s Institute of Positive Fashion partner Vanish.

Following this, Vanish will take us behind the scenes of the creation of The Re-wear Runway, a film that looks at the true impact of clothing waste and our throwaway behaviour. With LFW really shining a spotlight on issues such as circular fashion, we can hope that this will spark further discussions, changes, and behaviours within the fashion industry as a whole.

Whilst we are seeing many positive changes within the fashion industry, we have to remain aware of “greenwashing”.

A recent online survey by the Competition and Markets Authority found that out of 500 company websites, 40 per cent of them that claimed to be eco-friendly had not substantiated their claims. As a community we have to be careful when labelling brands as ‘sustainable’, and to make sure that they are able to back up their claims.

Of course, when it comes to fashion, the most sustainable option is to buy second hand, or to just not buy at all. This angle on sustainable fashion is what clothing rental businesses have been born out of. Hurr is a designer rental clothing brand, where you can rent dresses, shoes, clothes, and handbags, and offers their customers an environmental calculator to show the environmental savings that they could make by renting their wardrobe from Hurr.

This offers a fresh new way to consumer fashion in 2021, and is something that we believe that we are going to see more and more of in the fashion industry.

At BOE, we want to support sustainable fashion. As the provider of the official sustainable tote bags and merchandise for LFW for the past 7 years, we not only work with brands and businesses to help them with their sustainability, but also do so with our own products.

Our reusable designer face coverings are designed to replace single-use plastic face masks, to be worn again and again, whilst also remaining stylish and practical. They are perfect for both people and planet, and support sustainable fashion initiatives. Shop them here. We are also going to be bringing you a very new and exciting project extremely soon, that offers sustainable and affordable designer gifts, produced in an ethical manner, with part of the profits going to charity.