With temperatures rising for most of the year, trends and fashion they adapt to change climate, a palpable reality: two seasons instead of four, less demand for garments winter and greater presence of garments lighter in products like cotton.
“As we can see in many places, winter is no longer so cold or summer is becoming more and more extreme, and this pushes the industry to adapt, both in design and production“, explains to EFE Clara Tomé, ambassador of the European Pact for climateactivist and expert in environmental law.
He summer of the northern hemisphere in 2024 would become, according to the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) satellite monitoring network, the most warm worldwide since records have been made, one of the aspects of the change climate that will modify, in addition to the lifestyle, the way of producing and consuming fashion in the future.
Increasingly higher temperatures thus blur the seasons traditional spring–summer and autumn-winter, with increasingly shorter half-season periods that only give way to months of cold and others of extreme heat.
With higher temperatures, the demand for some subjects premiums, modifying costs. “The climate crisis can also affect the production of subjects premiums like cottonhighly vulnerable to droughts and extreme temperatures, affecting its cost and availability,” explains the expert.
“In terms of design, with abrupt climate changes, it is likely that the garments light and above all versatile become more requested, and the garments for climates cold foods could have less demand in some places,” explains Tomé about the part linked to the aesthetics of the fashion.
Fashion functional
The aesthetic result could give way to “a fashion further functional and timeless,” adds Tomé, for whom the consumption of garments will be more focused “on durability and adapting to the variety of conditions.”
From the side of the companies“changing the packaging for a biodegradable or paper one is no longer enough, nor is making a collection of 15 garments polyester recycling; that sustainability today is not enough,” he points out about the need “for a change systemic and structural,” he adds.
A change raised from the systems of productionwhich starts “from the choice of materials, since most of our clothes comes from fossil fuels in the form of the famous polyester, until the last phases of recyclingsince currently only 1% of all clothes that is produced,” he explains.
Risk of fashion fast
Avoid buy in chains of fashion fast is some of the advice he suggests. “Although not all, as consumers we have a great responsibility, because in some way every time we buy we are casting a vote towards the practices and values
Tomé also focuses on being aware in the purchasing process and points out solutions such as “buy secondhand, normalize repeat clothes and rummaging through the closets of friends, parents, or grandparents,” a practice that also fosters “a creativity and personality that has been lost by blindly following microtrends.”
