Pitti Uomo: Italian Fashion and Sustainability

Research allows for new technological experimentation, giving contemporary fashion brands accessibility to creative and alternative materials. Many of the brands featured in this year’s Pitti Uomo turn to recycling among other practices to participate in the eco-oriented fashion trend.

Orange Fiber

Cividini

Orange Fiber produced the first sustainable fabric made from citrus trees. The company, a Pitti Uomo brand name, states that “Salvatore Ferragamo is the first fashion house to make use exclusively of Orange Fiber Fabrics. This much-anticipated collaboration is born of a shared passion for creative innovation, sustainable design, and our beloved heritage of Italian excellence.”

Even the traditional Marinella Ties jumped onto the going green ship with a new limited edition Orange Fiber collection.

The Cividini fashion outlet, among others, also looks to contribute to sustainability. Through returning to the use of handmade and artisan processes, such as tie-dye, they work towards a clean and unpolluted environment.

Blauer USA just came out with their new beachwear line in which 10 models of boy bathing suits were made from recycled plastic water bottles.

Pitti Uomo and the brands that follow its lead have found that sustainable products do not by any means ignore style. Instead, they offer “futuristic details like heat-welded seams, iridescent fabrics, and laser cuts.”

American fashion outlets such as Rag & Bone, DÔEN, Eileen Fisher, and Mara Hoffman all push to incorporate this going green attitude within their products, and more importantly in big-name American brands.

“She paints in circular brushstrokes, recycling and giving new life to old textiles and discarded garments,” reads a comment on Eileen Fisher’s fashion production. “The result? Luxurious and sustainable womenswear.”

“It’s no surprise then, that in 2017, Rag & Bone partnered with Cotton Incorporated's Blue Jeans Go Green to launch a denim recycling program,” is stated in The Good Trade website.  

These smaller American outlets look to involve big name companies within their country to take on eco-sustainability in their fashion lines. For example, American Eagle states “starting in 2018 we made the move to use shopping bags with a higher percentage of recycled content.”

Although this is a positive move, many American fashion outlets are lacking in incorporating going green within their actual clothing lines.

The focus on innovation, technology, and sustainability within design has sparked great interest in Italian fashion outlets. The importance now is that this same desire for sustainability in fashion is shared globally.