Fashion show sparks intriguing new holiday-season trend: ‘The fashion industry has huge power to encourage solutions’

Overconsumption has been a pervasive problem in the fashion industry, with excessive waste generation and unethical labor practices the results of meeting fast-fashion demands.

Finally, brands are listening to consumers and scaling back in favor of designing upcycled looks that repurpose existing items.

As the U.N. Environment Programme reported, models at a Nairobi, Kenya, fashion show wore garments by emerging designers focused on avoiding new production.

The models donned reimagined outfits created from curtains, tablecloths, and old jeans, showing the world how beautiful recycled fashion can be. The promotion of fashion reuse was part of Eco Fashion Week Africa in the capital city.

It was well-timed ahead of Black Friday and part of a global movement to rethink the textile industry and marketing campaigns that encourage people to buy more than they need.

“Right now, the planet is paying the price for humanity’s unsustainable patterns of consumption and production,” Elisa Tonda of UNEP said. “In its transition towards circularity, the fashion industry has huge power to encourage solutions for lower environmental impact that keep clothing longer in use, supporting reuse, upcycling, repairs, and rental, so as to redirect aspiration to more sustainable lifestyles.”

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Major fashion events are setting the stage for the next generation of the industry, which embraces sustainability standards and meets targets for reducing global pollution. Meanwhile, the “underconsumption core” trend encourages people to buy less and higher-quality fashion while putting pressure on brands to meet consumers where they are.

Fortunately, many eco-friendly brands care about helping you look your best without spending a fortune or destroying the planet.

You can support the trend by repurposing and repairing items you already have in your closet rather than throwing them into the trash. Other ideas are renting or buying secondhand clothes and asking your favorite brands to sell circular, affordable fashion.

Which of these factors would most effectively motivate you to recycle old clothes and electronics?

Giving me money back

Letting me trade for new stuff

Making it as easy as possible

Keeping my stuff out of landfills

Click your choice to see results and speak your mind

UNEP also has a textile initiative to transition the fashion industry toward more sustainable and circular textile goals.

There has been widespread enthusiasm for upcycled fashion and circular clothing solutions to limit waste and end overconsumption.

In response to the UNEP’s post to X, one social media user commented, “Sustainability is a key solution to upgrade our environment.”

“Reducing overconsumption is a must,” someone else wrote. “I’m committed to buying only what I need and embracing upcycled fashion.”

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