Nov 22, 2021
How Can Web to Print Software Pave Path for Fashion’s Sustainability Model?
Fast fashion has been under the radar of many environmental activists for years. The rapid and cheap production of manufacturing fashion products has taken a toll on the planet. The increased pollution, wastage of water and materials are many times difficult and impossible to recycle. The grave questions around the treatment of labourers in the fashion workers also raise serious allegations against the fast fashion trends. But don’t worry, with have your back as our web to print solutions enable fashion houses to incorporate digital and customization features in their business model, helping them correct their past mistakes and become more sustainable. The tool allows brands to install digital solutions that enable their buyers to print names, images, or any design on their apparel, footwear, hats, bags, or any other accessory.
Web to Print Software Helps Fashion Brands to Capitalize on Potential Sustainability Roles
It is well documented that the apparel industry accounts for 6.7 per cent of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, with more than 50 per cent attributed to these three phases: 15 per cent to fibre production, 28 per cent to yarn preparation, and 36 per cent to dyeing, printing, and finishing. These staggering figures indicate that industrial processes, such as textile printing, raw materials produce a lot of energy and lead to a huge waste of products. However, as the fashion industry is revolutionizing, it is in a far better position to reflect upon its past mistakes and use. The latest technology is helping it to grapple with the challenges it faces and ensuring progress in the market while balancing nature. Despite fashion playing catch-up on sustainability and setting up climate goals, it is still far from compelling customers to wear eco-friendly clothes that promote ethical fashion. Many industry leaders believe that fashion and luxury brands need to promote sustainability as a cultural value and should position it as a more desirable lifestyle and shouldn’t be labelled as something attributional to individual products. The UN Fashion Charter has also renewed and updated the COP26 and added communication commitment for the first time. For certain brands, the implicit messages fashion disseminates are just as important as its explicit messaging.
According to studies, the global fast fashion industry is forecast will be worth 43 billion US dollars in 2029, and its surging demand can add more pressure on labour. Consequently, many leading brands come up with new processes to change or enhance their production models to make their processes and businesses sustainable. Innovative technology has been considered one of the disrupting factors in the fashion sector for many years, but people have started to view it as significant in recent times. Digital fabrication is all set to play an enormous role in shifting towards better production processes, materials and inks in future. Technologies, including 3d printing, has the ability to create something bespoke and does it sustainably. It can also recycle materials that are more environmentally friendly. This is undoubtedly where the industry must continue to head towards if brands are to improve the production and distribution of goods. Leading brands, such as Uniqlo and Shima Seiki from Japan, use digital fabrication technology to print entire garments seamlessly. Another fashion brand, WIkifactory, also came up with easy to fabricate and green material that allows minimal cut-offs, sustainable eco-leathers developed from wearable technology accessories and waste oranges. As fabrics are designed openly, brands and designers don’t have to wait for copyrights or patents, which also gives them ample time to market their products and accelerate sales.
Sustainability is not just rising in popularity amongst startups, and budding designers, many leading brands, such as Adidas, Puma, ON, Vejaa, and Carjuma, are coming up with amazing new material technologies for breathable but synthetic and sustainable leathers. For instance, Adidas’ new Stan Smith Mylo trainers made from mushroom leather raise awareness around plant-based leathers. Additionally, many brands are fighting against the use of fur, which will better impact the planet. Meanwhile, Stella McCartney’s sportswear ranges are ground-breaking for using recycled marine plastics. In the bridal industry, worth 14.7 billion to the UK economy, thousands of tons of fabric and plastic waste are generated each year. In New York alone, 40,000 tonnes of material waste from the bridal wear industry ends up in landfills. Therefore, top management from various fashion companies is willing to align themselves with climate change, and some are even pushing the sector to set up and become a role model for sustainability. They are willing to create something eco-friendly for people to imitate their brand value rather than wait for it to be adopted by customers or become camouflaged into the background.
According to the recommendations released by the UN Environment Program, fashion and luxury brands need to spotlight new role models and notions of success, demonstrate solutions that help people to live more sustainably, and celebrate ecological, cultural, and social values. It is true that many brands and retailers have ramped up efforts on sustainability goals, such as reducing emissions and water consumption. Moreover, moving to sustainability offers many lucrative opportunities to tackle global challenges from an angle that most sectors do not have access to. Also, many advertisings professional networks launched Good Life 2030, encouraging the ad industry to help drive consumption rates down — a reversal of its traditional role, encouraging consumption, which according to the initiative, is responsible for driving the average consumer’s carbon footprint (in the UK, where the initiative is based) up by 28 per cent. Therefore, we shall see in the coming years that more brands will roll out sustainability plans en masse. These strategies don’t need to be formal, and they should be able to engage their customers directly in a meaningful way. The web to print online designer, a customization solution, allows fashion and luxury brands to implement digital solutions and allow their buyers to print anything on their t-shirts, shirts, pants, handbags, bags, shirts, jerseys, and caps among many other products. It is an extremely user-friendly tool as it enables them to print any design on their fashion products seamlessly. Besides, it allows them to preview the product they have customized through 3d technology before placing the order so that buyers don’t regret it after they receive their parcel. Also, it helps brands control and track their production and empower them to do their bit for nature.
Web to Print Software Enables Fashion Houses to Venture into Circular Economy
It is true that fashion houses have worked hard to blend sustainable product attributes into the background because, many times, customers purchase products that look sustainable but are actually not. They shy away from buying products that are actually eco-friendly and move away from a mainstream runway style. Some brands, such as Reformation, Girlfriend Collective, and Patagonia, have found success in marketing their sustainability policies; many others, catching onto the growing demand, make marketing claims that may or may not be substantiated. Nonetheless, the authentic and effective messaging only reaches customers looking for it and what brands need to do is, bring sustainability to a larger audience. They must encourage them to seek products they purchase that are actually eco-friendly and must also embrace those products in their daily lives. As mentioned earlier, Stella McCartney has continued to strive the conversation with buyers and other prominent stakeholders. Recently, during COP26, she hosted a Future of Fashion installation to showcase some of the next-generation materials she has been designing with and advocating for. McCartney has also participated in the Great Fashion for Climate Action campaign along with the British Fashion Council and other brands, such as Burberry and Phoebe English. The campaign was intended to use fashion innovation and encourage everyone to see things differently. Many experts believe that COP26 is gaining momentum in the fashion industry as more designers and companies are starting their initiatives to support and work towards these new strategies.
Fashion is our societies’ most powerful cultural curator; it defines how people should express themselves, what colours to wear, and many other trends. But as digital technology is taking up the fashion sector space and helping buyers dress up and customize their accessories or apparel, the fashion industry is ready to lean in and scale solutions. Though the sector was a little reluctant to uptake solutions, as they say, all’s well that ends well. As brands are gradually taking up novel technologies, they are better equipped to tackle the rising concerns in the industry. For instance, Ganni has launched its partnership with clothing alterations and repair app Sojo. Sojo will offer tailoring and alterations to the Ganni community, prolonging the life of Ganni clothing. While the service is only available in London at the moment, the collaboration is expected to expand to the rest of the UK post-pilot launch. Customers are able to book free alterations through the service on the Ganni website, which works on a pick-up and delivery basis by bike. The partnership is a result of Ganni’s Responsibility Gameplan, comprising 44 goals across people, planet, product and prosperity to reach by 2023 that will help the brand become a more responsible version of itself.
In celebration, Ganni and Sojo are co-hosting a pop-up customization and repair station at Ganni on King’s Road on the 19 and 20 of November. There, customers will be able to receive alterations and customizations for free. Likewise, the Good Life 2030 campaign is an effort by advertising industry professionals and also included professionals help who had updated Fashion Charter, and it aims to shift people’s perception of what a good life looks like. It is a move towards a greater sense of connectedness and away from a reliance on material abundance and growth. A certain section of societies views sustainability as a compromise, and that is a primary reason they are unable to connect with it. They view it as a compromise and living with less. The experts in the fashion industry need to redefine what sustainability means to people and how society can find it attractive and compelling. Therefore, designers, including Rycroft, began to engage with her customers regarding the apparel supply chains and cultural influence. She believes that the industry directly impacts forests globally; through viscose and other raw materials, it also has the potential to serve as a positive role model. On a similar ground, Circular Chic was launched to leverage the potential to educate buyers and bring them on board about the need to use eco-friendly products. The fashion brand has campaigned to stop sourcing wood pulp used to make cellulosic fibres, including viscose and rayon, from ancient and endangered forests. The constant rise of voices in the industry over time pushed it in the right direction. However, it is not enough, and we must stop the most urgent hotspots for deforestation. Fashion brands and retailers need to move away from natural resource extraction more broadly and use more of the resources already in circulation. In the case of raw materials for apparel, that means fibres made from old textiles or other renewable waste streams. And while such technologies exist, they have yet to scale.
Conclusion-
Towards the end, all we can say is that we have to work towards building an environment where implementing ethics in your business model is no longer optional. The stories emerging about the poor working conditions and need to use more sustainable practices that attract more customers. Fashion brands and retailers will need to collaborate with fashion-tech companies to venture into the new and explored circular economy. The web to print solutions by iDesigniBuy is a leading name in the fashion-tech industry that works alongside fashion brands and retailers that are willing to lure in more buyers and retain their existing customers.
