DEADSTOCK is Alive & Chic

Luxury Designers’ Approach to Sustainable Fashion

Written by Diego Hadis

‘Sustainability’ is, without question, the biggest buzzword in fashion at the moment. But with the threat of ‘greenwashing’ - using eco and sustainable terminology without doing the work to ensure verifiable benefit to the planet - on the rise, consumers are having to become more savvy about interrogating their purchases.

Upcycling clothes that already exist is one way to ensure sustainability, because it promotes the idea of circular fashion. To ‘upcycle’ is to take something already made and then improve upon it, or turn it into a fresh item, meaning that you’re not seeking out new, raw materials to start from scratch. It means older clothes remain in circulation rather than heading to a landfill.

There are, of course, plenty of ways to upcycle clothes yourself at home. But as the pressure to adopt sustainable practises increases, plenty of brands are also finding ways to introduce upcycling into their production process.

Arise in the use of deadstock and already existing fabrics has recently been embraced by many an upcoming designer. This means, using materials that would otherwise go to waste, pattern cut-offs, deadstock garments and limited runs of fabrics crying out for a second lease of life. So while it doesn’t necessarily eliminate the fabrication of new clothes, it does mean that designers are creating collections whilst considering the life-cycle of pieces.

So, what actually is deadstock? In short, deadstock refers to leftover stock of a product, be it whole garments that haven’t sold or leftover fabrics. Simple! This differs from sourcing vintage fabrics or secondhand pieces, because ‘deadstock’ means that they haven’t previously been worn or even sold. Instead, you’re looking at a brand new fabric or garment that never quite made it into stores, or did, but wasn’t snapped up by a shopper to fulfil its fashion destiny.

Why should it be used more? It’s estimated that over 100 billion, yes billion, garments are produced annually, and sadly not all of these will be worn over and over again. Hold onto your second-hand hats here people but, according to Clothes Aid, the UK sends a staggering 300,000 tonnes of wearable clothing to landfill every year. Which is enough to put you off your sexy new summer wardrobe.

Here is where Circular Fashion comes into play; reducing fashion industry waste and therefore the number of chemicals, water and greenhouse gasses produced when manufacturing fabrics. To give you a further idea of the magnitude of the problem, the fashion industry currently contributes around 10% of carbon emissions around the globe. This puts it on a par with agriculture.

Using deadstock textiles alone doesn’t automatically make a brand sustainable, as the process of creating clothes is not waste-free, but it does help reduce the amount of material ending up in landfill.

Who is actually using deadstock fabrics? The process is on the rise and upcoming designers are at the forefront of the practice. Emerging designer HRH, who debuted their Autumn Winter 2021 collection at London Fashion Week with Fashion East back in February, aims to use sustainable materials as often as possible. They use recycled plastic bottles for the fabric of their crossbody bags, for example. forefront of the practice. Emerging designer HRH, who debuted their Autumn Winter 2021 collection at London Fashion Week with Fashion East back in February, aims to use sustainable materials as often as possible. They use recycled plastic bottles for the fabric of their crossbody bags, for example.

For Spring Summer 2021, Valentino collaborated with Levi’s in re-editioning vintage styles made solely from upcycled 1970s jeans, each pair reinforced and rereleased with all new patches.

And they’re not the only ones; Miu Miu recently announced a collaboration with Levi’s, too. This capsule collection sees carefully selected, pre-loved jeans given a new lease of life. Each pair of 501s and tucker jackets are then embellished and decorated, by hand may we add, to give the perfect Miu Miu stamp.

Brooklyn based company ‘Fabscrap’ is just one organization taking advantage of this wasteful industry, collecting scrap fabrics from brands and designers and either recycling or redistributing and selling onto other artists, designers and creators. One of the most exciting new labels, Ahluwalia, works solely with deadstock fabrics.

‘At Ahluwalia, we work with as much preexisting material as possible, we work like this because there is already so much that exists on the planet,’ designer Priya Ahluwalia tells us.

‘We can support the environment by adding value to things that would otherwise be sent to landfill. We also used recycled and organic fabrics. We are not perfect but we are trying our best.’

With so many emerging designers pushing the agenda, it was only a matter of time before the major fashion houses started to take note. The Mulberry X Ahluwalia collaboration launched just a few weeks ago. The vibrant capsule collection of scarves and re-imagined Portobello totes use only repurposed leathers, meaning each piece is available only in super limited quantities.

Well-worn denim has a charm that you just can’t get with something box fresh. There is also no real reason to invest in a 100 per cent new pair of jeans when some of the most popular cuts were invented over 100 years ago. Case in point, the imitable Levi 501 jeans, created in 1873. That’s right, nearly 150 years ago.

Having launched menswear only for her past collections, Priya has also turned her hand to womenswear, launching a capsule collection with everyone's favourite label, Ganni.

'The process of choosing the surplus materials was really led by what Ganni actually had available and how much there was of each style and fabric. Then it was very instinctive, I started to pull the materials I resonated the most with. The key inspirations for the collection was the UK Garage scene, partying with my friends and the female form,' Ahluwalia tells ELLE on the process of getting the collaboration started.

Luxury fashion houses are, at long last, taking sustainable fashion seriously. There is still an enormous way to go, but we're heading in the right direction. As the availability of deadstock fabrics is limited, it means collections are a lot smaller and designers are releasing more capsule collections or made to order pieces. Queen of the nap dress Cecilie Bhansen launched the 'Encore' capsule last year, which uses leftover couture fabrics to create limited runs of dresses. And, for the sixth Encore capsule, available now, the garments will also be made-to-order, available for a limited time only until the last meters of fabric are used. It feels like an ode to the feelings of Cecilie’s first collections and cherishes the brand's history.

Denim aside, upcycling yarn is also becoming more popular. For the Autumn Winter 2021 collection, Australian brand Zimmermann has reused existing thread for all pieces of knitwear in the collection, while Gabriela Hearst, who showed her first collection for Chloé for Autumn Winter 2021, used upcycled cashmere in her knits and eliminated all synthetic fibres. Alongside the show, the fashion house outlined a series of sustainable objectives that they intend to reach by 2025.

While the use of deadstock fabrics is by no means a catch-all solution to the industry's grim issue of throwaway fashion, it is a step in the right direction. And with recent studies showing that over 50% of British consumers say they would be willing to pay more for sustainable fashion, surely it wont be long before retailers want a slice of the action?