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From fast fashion to haute couture, the textiles industry has a dark secret: mountains of unsold clothes, destroyed before they see the light of day.
Brand-new hand-me-downs
If they aren’t to be sold, why not give them away to those who need them? Agence du Don en Nature collects unsold goods and distributes them via an online platform to those in need. Women’s shelters, children’s charities, and other social projects can order clothing in mint-condition, giving it a new lease on life.
Still, across the industry, for every one garment donated, five are incinerated.
Same cloth, new clothes
At Fashion Green Hub, the fabric of unsold clothes is transformed into new products, these garments for sale. So far, they have upcycled 100,000 products and saved two tonnes of textiles.
Changing the means of production
To stop the problem at the source, though, a wholesale rethink is needed. Instead of producing a collection en masse at the start of the season, why not produce on demand? That’s what startup Tekyn is offering, a means of “turning off the tap” on products that don’t sell, and increasing production of those that do. Tekyn produce weekly in quantities dictated by sales from the week before.
