In 2014, I attended the Copenhagen Fashion Summit – the world’s largest fashion event about sustainability. At the time, I was a fashion journalist who prided myself on covering anything that was new and exciting – emerging designers, fresh perspectives on style, trends. But something was wrong with the way we consumed and communicated fashion.
Epiphany came in the form of Vanessa Friedman of the New York Times. She strode on to the stage carrying a pile of jeans and threw them on to the floor, demonstrating their disposability, before proceeding to share her perspective on the fashion status quo – high street retailers dropping collections weekly and fashion designers creating six to eight collections a year. “It’s all unsustainable,” Friedman declared. “The answer lies not in sustainable fashion, which as a phrase makes no sense, but by building a sustainable wardrobe that works and has value for the person who has built it. I bring the same four dresses, two jackets and two pants with me everywhere.”
Friedman was ahead of her time in acknowledging a carefully edited capsule wardrobe as a route to living more sustainably. These days, we don’t have a choice but to change our approach to dressing – with the climate crisis high on the international agenda, an edited-down wardrobe is one way to reduce our impact on the planet.
This isn’t hyperbole. According to data analytics and brand consulting company Kantar, the global market for new clothes is expected to increase by 3.9% each year by 2025. But it is predicted that demand for cotton will outstrip supply.
So what can be done? The savviest sustainable thinkers today are focused on how to live a less disposable life, with better quality, longer lasting, practical items that don’t require regular replenishment. Jessica Sansom is one of the protagonists hoping to shift our thinking with the latest project she’s working on. She is the sustainability director at Huel, the vegan food brand that offers nutritionally complete meals to people who want to eat healthily without spending time on meal preparation, and eliminate food waste. The brand’s latest project, though, is clothing.
Launched this month, Huelwear doesn’t subscribe to seasons, trends or discounts, and focuses on leading consumers away from fast fashion. The fact that Huel is making serious moves into the fashion industry might surprise some, but for Sansom, it’s fitting that those who care about food ethics also care about fashion ethics.
“We’re applying Huel’s principles to clothing,” says Sansom. “Our clothes are Intertek vegan certified. The physical durability of our garments is also crucial. We focused on what people own and wear on a regular basis and built high-quality pieces using organic, traceable and recycled fabrics.”
Just as Friedman relies on four dresses, two jackets and two pants to see her through, Huelwear’s high-quality staples could be the beginnings of your capsule wardrobe. And those who have made the transition to a simpler dressing approach are already reaping the rewards.
Chris Connors is a sound meditation practitioner who runs his wellbeing app OPO between London and Ibiza. His wardrobe works for both locations. “Back in my days training at a monastery, robes were all we wore,” says Connors. “And these days, I’m good if I’m wearing relatively similar things all the time.”
His key pieces are three black trousers, one for fitness, one for every day and a silk pair for smarter occasions. For tops, he wears organic white cotton T-shirts, a black hoodie and a black blanket knit cardigan. He buys one pair of socks a year, and replaces his sneakers when they wear out.
While Connors finds his edited-down wardrobe liberating, Petro Stofberg has made a business out of it. Co-founder of the popular website and Instagram account Wardrobe Icons, Stofberg educates her users on the building blocks of a sustainable wardrobe by recommending only quality, long-lasting pieces. “My go-tos are a white T-shirt, stripe knit, trench coat, and jeans,” says Stofberg, who notes the bestselling item on her website year after year is a striped T-shirt.
Huelwear’s collection is similarly rationalised: 18 pieces for men, women and kids in three colours – black, white and grey – picked because they work in every wardrobe and are immune to trends. But its biggest promise is a five-year guarantee. While most garment producers wash-test a garment only five times, Huelwear is washed up to 50 times. If the piece falls apart before its five years is up, they’ll repair or replace it for free.
“We certainly don’t have all the answers yet, but we want people to buy less clothing because they’re really happy with what they’ve got from us,” says Sansom. “We hope by sharing our research people can understand the effort we have put into creating, say, our T-shirt, and if they loved that T-shirt and wore it for years and changed their behaviour in the process, what a result that would be.”
Shop Huelwear’s sustainable clothing collection here
