The beginning stages of fashion production, from initial design to production of raw materials, pose a consistent threat to achieving circularity. To tackle this issue and highlight actionable solutions, CFS hosted a round table with leading sustainability players in the fashion industry. 

The discussion, moderated by Alexia Planas Lee, Head of Impact Design at CFS, featured Chief Textile Innovator at knitting machinery leaders Santoni’s Materials Experience Center (Santoni’s MEC), Eva de Laat; SVP Business Development, Mattias Nordin and Digitizing & Education Manager, Kristofer Mannerström at Swedish textile innovation brand Coloreel; and Designer at Tokyo James, Iniye Tokyo James.

Here are four key practices your company can adopt at the manufacturing and design stages to further circularity:

Aim to use 100% recycled materials, deadstock and generate zero waste

“The fabric industry, the coloring of thread reels and fabric, is responsible for 20% of water pollution in the world. Normally to dye thread, you boil it in water, creating a huge amount of waste. We don’t have that. Since our technology uses a printer, we transfer the color, in the exact amount needed for the embroidery, directly onto the thread. And coloring provides a way for us to use 100% recycled white thread. Of course you can find others who can offer a small range of recycled thread, but even then, they can’t offer all colors. Our customers like to be able to say that their embroideries are produced using all recycled thread. “

– Kristofer Mannerström, Digitizing & Education Manager at Coloreel 

“We’ve focused a lot on recycled material, deadstock materials, but we also love the idea of reusing garments. That’s one of the areas that we think we can bring value to the market. It has to be efficient to do just one or two or five garments, so you don’t have to do everything in 10,000 and potentially throw away 5,000. You could do only five and use all.”

– Mattias Nordin, SVP Business Development at Coloreel 

“Nestled between Africa and the UK, we focus on sustainable practices in leather. We find alternative means to using leather. In the production process of making garments and other goods in leather, we also use a lot of deadstock. We have partnerships with different charities, like Oxfam that supply the African continent with materials and deadstock. So we can ask for specific materials and items for each collection we’re designing. We’re also moving away from real leather towards new vegan leather technologies coming out.”

– Iniye Tokyo James, Designer at Tokyo James

Remain cost-neutral while slashing production time

“With traditional technology, let’s say a customer wants to provide 40 colors for a particular embroidery, but may only have 15 needles to embroider with. This requires them to change the thread reels several times for each individual garment. Changing them out takes more time than the actual production. So when they see that they can use our technique to get all colors with only one needle, that’s all they need to do one investment. They’re already home with the cost.”

– Kristofer Mannerström, Digitizing & Education Manager at Coloreel

“Our technology is compatible with old machines as you essentially fit it on top of your existing embroidery machine. It’s a low hurdle in terms of installation. It’s beautifully simple.”

– Mattias Nordin, SVP Business Development at Coloreel

Invest in personalization, leading to longevity of use

“We cater to many different types of customers. There are some that really want to say they’re being the most sustainable — they want to print on only what’s needed for the garment. We also have a growing demand for personalization, one-offs. One garment at a time or very few, small batches. They want to produce them very quickly and they want to cut the transport. They want to do it directly in the shops. They want all of the colors for their embroideries right there on the spot. That’s a totally different customer, but the same benefits, just in different ways. “

– Kristofer Mannerström, Digitizing & Education Manager at Coloreel

“Working with the biggest luxury retailers in the world, we’re trying to speak with them and get them to understand how important personalization is when it comes to working with their designers within their stores. For instance, a brand like myself, instead of having them use 70% regular and 30% deadstock materials, we’d love to have them embrace more deadstock options. Each garment probably won't be the same, as every one will be uniquely made. The more retailers that are educated about this and pass on that information to the consumer, explaining the value of things like customization, the better off we will be.

The end consumer always ultimately dictates the whole process of the chain of production. So really educating them on the fact that there are maybe only 20 of this particular item in the world, that’s all right. It makes it even more special, unique that they, the consumer, own this very limited-edition item. They may have to pay more for it, but not everyone else has this item that they have. I try to work with retailers who work with those systems within their outlets.”

– Iniye Tokyo James, Designer at Tokyo James 

“The environmental value of good-looking personalization is undervalued. First of all, you don’t buy it on a whim, because you can’t return it. And this is a major advantage. And if it’s good-looking you will use it a lot. Those two factors are very important. “

– Mattias Nordin, SVP Business Development at Coloreel 

“It really comes back to how a garment or product is made, at the beginning stages. If it’s not made with longevity in mind, this reduces its overall sustainable value. Imagine a product that is uniquely personalized on the aesthetic, on the sustainable production, its functional needs, and a production structure that allows the consumer or designer to have the personal edge requirements innovatively incorporated into garments — really the opposite of the take and make industry. 

And at Santoni we believe that’s the way forward, when it comes to producing knitwear in a circular manner. We’re able to use and combine different structures within one fabric tube and this can be utilized with the needs of the consumer in mind. We’re focusing on these aspects and features and how we can translate them back into the yarn and machine. 

How can we build a garment out of a technology that’s really advanced, very much in a kind of 3D approach. We really build it from the most basic, from the DNA upwards. Utilizing the technique, we create one fabric that is of value for the end user, but also has a lot of value from the aesthetic point of view, a breathable point of view; it’s functional. A small example: we know that the sports industry is very focused on spandex. We built a jersey that is 100% nylon, making it 100% recyclable. If you can imagine, with the $384 billion for this industry, that is mostly built on this and combining different kinds of yarn together, what an opportunity you have to bring personalized yarn garments to the market.” 

– Eva de Laat, Chief Textile Innovation at Santoni’s MEC

Prioritize transparency and sharing information

“I’d also like to align with the idea of creating awareness of every stage of the creation process: the importance of the connection between the supply chain — not just from the consumer side, but also the raw-material production side. Partnership between each of the stages is important. How can we create and build a true ecosystem, to really build a circular partnership? That’s a question we really have to answer today. From a design stage, how to build a better product that lasts, emphasizing the human-centric development approach, building things from yarn and the machine upwards. From a manufacturing perspective, it of course applies to how we can integrate digital tools and services that give all of the freedom that a designer and a maker needs as well.

But at the same time creating a lean and vivid transparency, with a longevity mindset. How to really understand and learn from what’s happening in all of the steps of the supply chain. How to share this and how to create awareness, but also how to build and develop it so we can really make smarter technology, production and textiles. Those are the key milestones. We’re launching in the next few months a material library that really becomes a platform of sharing knowledge, giving inspiration and bringing people together to talk and collaborate. This is the only way we can bring things forward, by working very closely with different partners and really trying to shift and make a change to the design and manufacturing process steps upwards.” 

– Eva de Laat, Chief Textile Innovation at Santoni’s MEC

“What excites us and me personally, is being able to show the consumer the whole process: where the fabric started from to the end point of where it was produced. We’ve been thinking of how we can put such information on the garment itself so that it doesn’t disrupt the aesthetic. We’ve explored the scannable barcode system that works with your phone. The information would be automatically transmitted, detailing the lifecycle of the garment to the point of where it is actually being given to the end consumer.

Currently, these chips are embedded in the tag. We want to put it directly onto the garment so that over time washing and wear won’t diminish its effectiveness. The consumer cares about that accountability and that traceability. It’s our responsibility as designers and producers to make those ethical decisions for them. There are so many players that need to come together to give that information across. And it’s something that we’re slowly implementing on our website, on the packaging as well.” 

– Iniye Tokyo James, Designer at Tokyo James

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