Ethical clothing, alternative fashion, and alt-leathers for 2022

Happy New Year! Welcome to 2022, a bright, new and shiny year full of promise. This time around we’re looking at some of the latest and most fun alternative fashion ideas and trends, from exciting new fabrics to fresh fashion technology.

The ethical clothing market will boom in 2022

Ethical fashion involves designing and making clothes while caring for the people and communities involved, minimising the impact on the natural environment, focusing on the social and environmental aspects of clothes production, and improving the working conditions of employees. 2020 saw the global ethical fashion market reach a value of almost $6,349.9 million. It has been steadily growing by around 6% a year since 2015, and forecast to grow to $10,109.9 million in 2025, shooting up by 9.7% a year. By 2030 it should have hit a whopping $15,584.2 million. The reason? It’s a sustainability thing. As more of us decide to change the way we shop to protect the natural environment, the more popular ethical, Fair Trade and sustainable clothing becomes.

The USA’s new Fashion Sustainability and Social Accountability Bill

The fashion industry is responsible for a worrying 4 - 8.6% of worldwide greenhouse gas emissions. Now New York State has passed a new Bill to force the fashion sector to be transparent about ‘at least 50 percent of the goods sold from raw materials to shipping regarding their environmental impact’. The Bill has the support of influential fashion and sustainability non-profit companies, including Stella McCartney. Forget leather – Use pineapple leaf fibres! Eat a pineapple, then spend an hour picking the fibres out of your teeth! No wonder unusually fibrous pineapple leaves sits at the heart of a brand new type of alternative leather, perfect for vegans and costing a quarter of the price of animal leather. The texture is soft, strong and flexible, and the fabric is easy to take care of as well as durable. It’s called Pinatex and its Spanish founder has spent a decade developing the material, first experimenting with banana and guave leaves.

The Mirror says Britain is going alternative

It’s great news. Apparently Brits are keen to find Vegan and plant-based alternatives for milk, skincare, wine, and leather accessories. It looks like 34% of us would prefer to buy a leather alternative to the real thing. No wonder Doc Martens is doing Vegan boots. French Connection is selling a Vegan leather shirt dress. H&M is hot on imitation leather leggings. And faux leather jackets and skirts are all over the shops.

Clever cotton that behaves like a synthetic fibre

Luke Haverhals’ company is called Natural Fiber Welding (NFW), and he’s fascinated by the idea of non-plastic fabrics. Take yoga pants, which are usually made from synthetic fibres, basically plastic and therefore not good for the environment. NFW has found an alternative to synthetic fabrics with cotton at its heart. The new ‘performance cotton textile’ is called Clarus, made by treating cotton so its organic content is partly broken down, leaving it stronger and denser and giving it properties very like synthetic fabrics.

Shipping delays trap USA-bound fashion

The world is suffering from covid-led shipping delays, with ships unable to enter ports and transfer their cargoes. Apparently delays at China’s massive Ningbo Container Port mean $125 million worth of fashion designated for the USA is stuck, waiting to be exported to its final destination.

Ghana’s environment is suffering thanks to used clothing

Sometimes the best of intentions go badly wrong. Ghana is sent 15 million items of used clothing by the wealthy west every week. Sadly 40% of it is thrown away because it’s such poor quality. It ends up in landfill, rivers and lakes, where it pollutes entire ecosystems.

Loads of lovely alternative fashion to colour your world

Explore our online store for beautiful alternative clothing and alt fashion with vivid colour at its heart. Mix and match, layer up, get creative, and enjoy unusual clothes that’ll help you stand out from the everyday crowd. Our boho classics are crafted with love and care. Many of our clothes are made from richly coloured and textured recycled and upcycled fabrics. Make your world more lovely and be kinder to the environment with our stunning alternative clothing!