The world is ever evolving and it’s important that brands and industries evolve with it. Not only is it imperative to be more sustainable to help protect the planet as climate change becomes an ever-growing problem, but it’s also necessary to align with the values of today’s more eco-conscious consumers.
For many fashion companies, these changes involve lessening water waste or swapping out their packaging materials for more environmentally-friendly materials. However, most of the waste in the fashion industry can be found in the material itself, which is causing many consumers to look to a capsule wardrobe.
Capsule Wardrobes Are Trending
If benefiting your customers and the environment isn’t convincing enough, it may behoove you to know that other brands are already jumping on the capsule wardrobe train. So creating one of your own is ideal if you want to stay on top of trends and keep up with the market and your competitors.
Over the pandemic, consumers started realizing just how much stuff they had and how much of it they didn’t need or use, like their clothes. This started trending especially after everyone watched Marie Kondo’s special on Netflix. Since then, hashtags like #capsulewardrobe have started trending on social media as people seek to be more mindful and sustainable when it comes to their material items. As a result, many brands are now curating capsule wardrobes to appeal to the masses.
For example, Knitwear Lab and AGR just recently collaborated together on a knitwear capsule. Other brands like Asket and Everlane are pulling together curated collections that focus on simplicity. Vetta Capsule is a brand that specifically designs their clothes so they can easily be mixed and matched. These are just a few examples of the many brands that are already working on capsule wardrobe collections.
Fashion Without Breaking the Bank
Consumers today are getting fed up with fast fashion brands that are not only bad for the environment, but that make cheap clothing that hardly lasts through three wash cycles. But on the other end, consumers also don’t want to have to spend all of their money on more pricey brands that create more quality clothing.
So that begs the question, how can consumers keep up with fashion trends without breaking the bank? And the answer, if you haven’t already guessed it, is a capsule wardrobe.
Sure, there are other ways to find trendy items without spending big bucks, like shopping second-hand or at vintage stores. But it’s nice to be able to walk into a store or shop online and order something new that’s all your own. Customers simply want to do this without wasting their money on clothes they don’t actually need or won’t wear.
In addition, a capsule wardrobe can help you save money in the long run by lasting for long periods of time in comparison to cheaper-made fabric that notoriously makes up the fast fashion industry. When you invest in a capsule wardrobe that is designed to last, you’re creating a wardrobe that you can mix and match for years to come. Your kids and grandchildren may even see certain capsule wardrobe items one day.
Overall, consumers today would rather spend a chunk of money on a capsule wardrobe full of timeless pieces they will wear over and over again as opposed to one unique item that they might only end up wearing a couple of times.
Fashion for the Environment
Today’s younger generation of consumers has also set sustainability as a high priority. And as a brand that has a larger impact on the environment, you too should care about how your clothing and supply chain process contributes to carbon emissions. Not only does the fashion industry consume a high percentage of resources, like water, but it also contributes to 10% of carbon emissions and an obscene amount of waste and microplastic pollution.
Creating a capsule wardrobe is a great way to reduce your environmental impact as a fashion brand and show your consumers that you align with their values. Capsule wardrobes enable customers to do more with less, which means creating less fashion waste.
You can even opt to create a capsule wardrobe out of more eco-friendly fabrics to make your collection even more sustainable. Some popular sustainable fabrics already being used by other brands today include bamboo, organic cotton, and hemp. Bamboo is a very fast-growing plant that needs little water to thrive and organic cotton is grown without the use of environmentally harmful pesticides and chemicals.
Textile vendors are also starting to bring recycled fabric lines to the market. Crypton, for example, is a company that uses 50% to 70% recycled cotton for their fabrics. Kindred by Regal Fabrics has a line made of 50% natural fibers and 100% recycled materials. Ultrasuede currently uses 14% plant-based polyester fiber but hopes to achieve 100% plant-based composition in the next ten years.
In Summary
As sustainable fabrics become more popular and accessible, there is no excuse not to create clothing that is more environmentally friendly. Creating a capsule wardrobe is also an easy thing to do. So by creating your own sustainable capsule wardrobe collection, your customers, the planet, and your bottom line will thank you.
