When it comes to the mammoth task of making fashion sustainable, focus tends to fall on what’s new and what’s next. Newness, after all, is what brings in investment and what grabs attention.
However, the future of fashion may not come to us from the lab at all. It may be happening somewhere much less obvious: on the farm.
From apples and bananas to hemp and wetland plants – farmed crops have become the forefront of positive change in the fashion industry.
With a new cohort of next-generation material outfits looking directly to nature for their inspiration and their innovation, Eco Age spoke with leading voices in the space to find out why.
“The future of biomaterials will likely be a mix of solutions: those rooted in what nature offers, and others grown in labs—nature-imitating innovations designed to scale,” says QWSTION and Bananatex founder Hannes Schoenegger.
A leader in next-gen materials, Schoenegger’s operation is exactly what it sounds like: the creator of a textile made from banana, designed to replace harmful materials in fashion – particularly the ever-ubiquitous and hugely destructive polyester, which makes up 52% of all fibres used to make clothes.
Having worked with the likes of Balenciaga, Stella McCartney and H&M, the Switzerland-based innovator has made huge strides in bringing alternative materials to the mainstream. And, while it’s impossible to discount the years of research, development and engineering that have gone into creating Bananatex, every piece of the material begins its life on the farm.
“We use the side stems of a banana species called musa textilis, which thrives in agroforestry systems and in some cases, even grows wild.”
Schoenegger adds, “We believe the only way forward is through truly holistic, 360-degree solutions that take all relevant factors into account: from how the fibres grow, to harvesting, processing, and the impact on water, energy, and CO₂ — as well as the social impact on every person involved throughout the supply chain.”
It’s a point of view which, in many ways, runs contrary to the worst excesses of not only the fashion industry but also the next-gen materials space: the impulse to silo, to hoard knowledge and to focus on intellectual property above community.
Benefitting local farmers in the Philippines, whose waste – having previously been a valueless product – becomes part of the Bananatex supply chain, the finished material is a product of give and take with nature and with the company’s partners on the ground.
And, crucially, they’re far from alone in this way of thinking.
“A fundamental advantage of a grown versus created material is the opportunity for grown materials to be renewable and regenerative,” explains Julian Ellis-Brown, Co-founder and CEO of Ponda, whose BioPuff insulation material contributes not only to the broad mission of reducing petroplastic fibres in fashion but also the regenerating the UK’s wetlands.
“Created materials require feedstocks,” he adds, “which might even be damaging in their creation, whereas taking a product back to its origins (the earth) enables us to make an impact where it’s needed.”
“BioPuff is made from Typha, a semi-aqueous plant that is harvested annually. Typha needs to be grown in a wetland environment, which means it creates a demand for rewetting land. This has numerous benefits as wetlands are a cornerstone to regenerating our planet; they are the world’s best land-based carbon store, a key biodiversity ecosystem, and help build resilience against the effects of climate change.”
This focus on working in tandem with nature, rather than against it, sets Schoenegger and Ellis-Brown apart from many of their peers and against the status quo of a global fashion industry that produced 75 million tonnes of polyester in 2023 and which accounts for 10% of all carbon emissions.
Yet, this way of thinking has historically come under fire by people who have chronically misunderstood the process.
When a 2022 report revealed that – in converting wheat to biofuel – Europe burns the equivalent of 15 million loaves of bread every single day, people were understandably outraged. In a world where over 2 billion people experience food insecurity, the idea that fuel was being prioritised over food struck a raw nerve – even if it didn’t quite account for wider context.
When it comes to farmed fashion materials, however, this accusation applies even less.
“The future of biomaterials is waste,” says Sarah Angold, founder and CEO of acacia29, a UK-based innovator working with banana fibre from farms in India. “We should be using land to grow food to meet the needs of a growing population and using the byproducts from food systems to make textiles for clothes.
“We buy waste from low-income farmers, raising 200,000 out of poverty by 2030.”
Mikael Eydt, Co-Founder and CEO of Beyond Leather – a next-gen innovator from Denmark whose signature Leap material is crafted from brewing industry waste adds: “We’re not taking apples off anyone’s plate. We use the pulp left behind after juice and cider production, the part that would otherwise be discarded.”
“We are not competing with food production. It shows that sustainability doesn’t have to be a trade-off.”
Eydt has strong thoughts on the reality of waste: “It shouldn’t exist in the first place,” he declares, “It’s a design flaw. But we can fix that flaw by turning it into a high value material.”
Angold agrees: “By calling it waste, we give ourselves permission to waste it. Waste is simply an unused resource, and that’s what we should call it. It’s a systems failure”
Still, some innovators are taking an even harder line on their natural approach.
“I am a complete believer in the power of hemp to transform ecosystems, rebuild healthy soils, and restore biodiversity,” said Vanessa Barker. Founder and CEO of Papillon Bleu.
Barker’s company focuses on the fast-growing and super-low intervention plant as a potential solution to plastic-based fibres and even to cotton, which can require significant water to grow at scale.
In creating fewer steps between plant and product, Barker is working toward reducing not only the fashion industry’s impact but also its opacity. “The advantage of growing a material versus creating one is that it gives us proof of provenance – the ability to trace the entire journey of a fabric back to seed.”
When all is said and done, however, change remains in the hands of the people who – in their eyes – stand to gain the least from any dramatic shift. The fashion industry’s reliance on polyester and other plastic-based materials is deeply ingrained in its business model.
Perhaps, though, convincing them might be easier with the proof already in hand. Change isn’t some far-off possibility; it’s being cultivated and farmed even as we speak.
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