제 11 호 Trash Turning into Clothes, TRASHION
A Sustainable Alternative to the Fashion Industry
Kicker: LIFE (TRASHION)
Trash Turning into Clothes, TRASHION
A Sustainable Alternative to the Fashion Industry
By Sol-Hyang Park, Reporter
Do you know that the Fashion industry is one of the biggest factors in environmental pollution?Even those who are not interested in fashion know some of the world's famous fashion brands better than other fields. Like this, fashion already came deep into our lives friendly and, moreover, fashion has become a very important cultural style expressing our individuality. Therefore, we easily get to be indifferent about this problem and not to know the gravity of the situation. However, fashion is creating serious environmental problems that we should all be aware of, and fortunately, more and more consumers are now turning into "value consuming" in the Corona-era. Today, let me introduce 'TRASHION,’ one of the sustainable fashion trends.
Background of Sustainable Fashion Trends
The entire process of producing, selling, purchasing, managing, and scrapping in the fashion industry is considered as industrial pollution comparable to the oil industry – the fashion industry is the third most polluting of all industries.
According to the U.N. European Economic Commission, it accounts for 10 percent of the world's carbon emissions.Much water is also used in making clothing. Approximately 20 percent of the world's industrial water is used to make clothing. Pesticides we use to produce cotton account for 20 percent of the world's pesticide use. Greenpeace also analyzed that we need 7,000 liters of water to produce a pair of jeans, and 32.5 kilograms of carbon dioxide are emitted in the process.
What also accelerates the problem is the “Polyester,” the synthetic fiber that we use the most. Cheap and readily available polyester accounts for 60 percent of all fibers produced. However, in the manufacturing process, since it is a ‘man made’ fiber, a great deal of chemicals and fossil fuels are used compared to natural fiber.
Life story of the Polyester
Also, as we wear it and do the laundry, 35% of total microplastic pollution is caused according to a 2017 report by the IUCN (International Conservation Federation for Processing Process). This is equivalent to each person in Europe and Central Asia dumping 54 plastic bags into the sea each week.
Furthermore, it takes at least 500 to 100 years to break down since their basic properties are similar to plastic. Clothes buried in landfills emit gas equivalent to 7.3 million cars on the road in the process of rotting. This gas contains carbon dioxide and methane, which is the cause of global warming. In other words, the whole process of making, washing, and throwing away clothes is a nuisance to the environment.
Even worse, 'Fast Fashion,’ a trend that quickly produces and distributes clothing is in vogue. Fast fashion has grown rapidly in recent decades through SPA brands such as Zara and H&M, which have the design immediately reflecting the latest trends, low price, and fast product rotation. Along with, consumers buying and throwing away more clothes, the cycle of production of throwing away of clothes is accelerating.
As more and more people are aware of the seriousness of these problems, “Sustainability’ has become a fashion trend in recent years, especially “TRASHION(or upcycling).”
What is Trashion?
Trashion is a new term combining "Trash" and "Fashion," which is a fashion using used goods and trash. This is largely in the context of upcycling, the rebirth of substances that need to be discarded as more valuable substances, rather than be thrown away. Trashion appears in various forms. As long as we re-use the garbage to be thrown away, we can apply it to fashion more than we can imagine. - Newspapers, plastic cups, CDs, foils, wrappers, paper boxes, etc. Anything can create new artistic value if we display our sense of fashion.
A representative example of trashion is “FREITAG," a global upcycling bag brand based in Zurich, Switzerland. FREITAG was founded in 1993 by brothers Marcus and Daniel Freitag, and they wanted to develop a waterproof functional bags at first rather than pursuing environmental protection. However, in the process of getting the material, they started with the rebirth of trucks’ waterproof fabrics from factories, car seat belts, and waste bike rubber tubes, and it is currently making $7.77 billion a year in revenue.
FREITAG, located in an industrial complex in Zurich, separates each colorful waterproof fabric from trucks, cleans them, and turns them into products like bags and wallets.FREITAG drew attention as it upcycles waterproof fabrics which once were trash, and also each product has the only design in the world since the fabric has no fixed color or pattern.
Why Expensive? Who’s Buying?
What about the price? You can think it would be cheaper to reuse trash, but it is not. Upcycling is a new design work itself - it recycles discarded materials but also adds new designs to recreate them as valuable items, so its value increases.
FREITAG is also high-priced, around 200,000 won to 8.7 million won. It’s because all products are handmade, and due to the characteristics of the production process, there are not many products. It also reflects the value of the design, process, effort, and time of recreating. In fact, some say that FREITAG is too expensive compared to its quality, but many people evaluate it positively as it exerts efforts to protect the environment. They acknowledge and respect the value. Since its foundation, it has been creating a huge fan base of consumers.
The main consumers of trashion are the MZ generation who are young and prefer to purchase products which have socially significant importance. This is because they think they can express their values by purchasing and possessing eco-friendly brand products. As MZ generation's eco-friendly consumption trend continues, developing products considering the environment is now a must, not an option, in the fashion industry.
Become a New Business Model
Along with this trend, many start-up fashion companies around the world are expanding their businesses by building their own trashion like FREITAG. Furthermore, many existing large fashion companies are also introducing this new business model considering the growth potential of upcycling. You can see many trasion shows all over the world.
In the case of Korea, Kolon, a Korean fashion company, established “Re;CODE” as an upcycling fashion brand to reduce the inventory of clothes being incinerated. It has been expanding trashion with inventory collection (using inventory of clothing from affiliated brands), a industrial collection (using airbag, car seats), and military collection (using old military supplies). Recently, it collaborated with NIKE, continuing to make new attempts.
In addition, ‘CUECLYP’ collects discarded umbrellas and makes various fashion items. Umbrella is often thrown away when the flesh or head is broken, even if the fabric is fine. Cupliff collects these umbrellas ,separates, washes, and uses them as unique fabrics. Moreover, it creates new products by fabrics from discarded air bags, discarded tents at camping sites, and Tybeck which can be recycled 100% as a plastic.
On the official site, you can see various fashion items such as bags, pencil cases, and airpod cases. Ther are also card case kits that can make card cases, so that you can experience upcycling by yourself at a low price. Also, it has been actively collaborating with other companies recently. It produced Hyundai Motor Studio event goods with BTS and Pocari Sweat Blue Label's campaign goods.
‘UI: KIN’ makes bags by processing canvas thrown away by new writers and art students. It gets a lot of attention as it reduces the gap between fashion & art and cycle talent as well as resources. Besides, if you search with interest, there are many brands that make trendy products with an eco-friendly mind.
Trashion was not loved from the beginning. It was recognized as dirty made of trash, used goods, and old. Moreover, there were many different kinds of clothes besides them, so it was too hard to be part of fashion.But trashion is now a beloved trend in the fashion industry. It is not only eco-friendly, but also a solution to fast fashion in the modern era, changing our perception of upcycling. I hope that there will be many efforts to develop trashion more, and everyone won’t take it for granted. In other fields beyond fashion, if we all try with concerns for the environment, the Earth and humans can co-exist.
