Green fashion: when a fabric can be considered eco-friendly

Easier said than done, harder to prove. Nowadays in the fashion industry everyone is talking about "Fabrics ecological, eco-sustainable, innovative and non-polluting. But how do you really recognize a fabric ecologicalWhat are its characteristics compared to a fabric normal? Which are the best? And which are the "Fabrics which pollute the most?

What it really means Eco-friendly fabricIs it enough to buy clothes made from natural fibers? No, many more factors need to be considered, involving both the production process and the workers' working conditions. In fact, even natural fibers like cotton can come from intensive cultivation where, for example, highly toxic pesticides are used extensively. We should therefore ensure that they come from organic farming.

An important certification that we can find on the labels of purchased products, which ensures their sustainable origin, is the FSC, divided into 3 main categories, 100% raw material derived from certified forests, mixed/mix of raw materials derived from certified forests, and finally FSC Recycled. Therefore, finding the FSC label on textile products is a guarantee of a product of sustainable origin.

Here are some tips to recognize a Eco-friendly fabric:

read the label carefully, even for natural fabrics like cotton, to verify that they are actually sustainable;
Pay attention to both ecological and ethical aspects; labor must not be exploited. GOTS (Global Organic Textile Standard) certification guarantees both.
Pay attention to certifications in general: the Oeko-Tex label, for example, guarantees the absence of substances toxic to the skin. FSC, as we've mentioned, guarantees a sustainable product from start to finish.

Natural fiber fabrics aren't necessarily sustainable because, as we've said, it depends on the type of crop they come from. Generally, linen is considered a sustainable fabric because its cultivation doesn't require much water, reducing waste, and it can be grown on poor soils. Furthermore, the waste can be used to make other products.

The situation is different for wool and cotton: the former is often subjected to chemical treatments, unless it bears the certification Responsible Wool Standard, while cotton can come from anything but sustainable crops, unless it is certified organic.

Then we find hemp, rubber, jute, bamboo, cashmere, but even all these fabrics, while generally considered more sustainable, must meet certain parameters to be truly green. And in this sense, certifications help:

OCS, Organic Content Standard
GRS, Global Recycle Standard
Fsc, Forest stewardship council
Gots, Global organic textile standard

Do synthetic garments pollute more? It depends, but what is certain is that, as the WWF suggests, when they are washed "They represent one of the main sources of water contamination with regards to so-called microfibres, that is, those very small plastic filaments that are released and enter the environment.” In fact, 40% of microfibres are not retained by wastewater treatment plants and end up in the sea.

The advice is therefore to prefer natural fabrics but sustainably produced, certified organic.

Textile innovation is essential to making the fashion industry more sustainable. Thanks to it, fabrics can be produced using less water, less energy, and fewer toxic substances, all to the benefit of the environment. But what are the fabrics of the future?

First of all, those produced from recycled materials, from plastic to waste fabrics, or even fishing nets, as the Italian company Aquafil, creator of Econyl fabric, already does. And then there are fabrics made from by-products that would otherwise be burned or thrown away. And then there are fabrics made from orange peels, from mushrooms, from the weaving of optical fibers, glass fibers, ceramic fibers and much more.

When a fabric can be called ecological

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