It ain't fashion, if it ain't sustainable
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TOP STORY
Rethinking Circularity / Garments Apart / PART III

10 April 2026

 8 minutes

Recyclable Materials Mean Nothing if the Product Cannot Be Disassembled

Circularity cannot be retrofitted onto a finished product; it must be resolved as a structural constraint before construction ever begins.

Performance outerwear is among the most technically complex categories in apparel—and among the hardest to recycle. Multi-material construction, bonded membranes, and inseparable trims have long made end-of-life recovery a structural impossibility rather than a logistical inconvenience. A new research and development project is testing whether design for disassembly can change that calculus from the ground up.

  • Subir Ghosh
 Feature
Latest: Updates
Other Top Stories
Rethinking Circularity / Garments Apart / II Feature
The argument for circular outerwear does not begin at the end of a garment's life. It begins with what the garment is made from, and why those choices matter.

Circular Design Is Not Compromising Performance; It Is Redefining What Performance Means

  • Subir Ghosh

8 April 2026
State of Sourcing / China Angle Report
A decade of deliberate diversification has redistributed apparel assembly across multiple countries, without meaningfully reducing dependence on Chinese upstream supply chains.

The Sourcing Story: Industry Rewrote Its Geography Without Rewriting Its Dependence

  • Richa Bansal

7 April 2026
 
ITMA 2027
SMART 2026
CIRCULARITY / RECYCLING / SECONDS / WASTE
Where performance apparel meets its limits, the real question is not what a garment is made from, but how it was conceived to end.

Four Partners, One Jacket, and a New Logic for End-of-Life

The gap between recyclable components and a recoverable product has long defined the limits of sustainable apparel. The Peak Performance R&D Helium Loop Anorak, built in collaboration with four specialist partners, was designed to close that gap—by treating end-of-life disassembly not as an afterthought but as the primary constraint governing every construction and material decision.

Subir Ghosh
 
FLASHPOINT: CLIMATE
Climate Action / Ethiopia Project
Ethiopia's garment sector is entering a new phase, where climate resilience, cleaner production and worker advancement are becoming central to industrial strategy.

Climate Resilience and Workplace Safety Drive New ILO-Japan Programme for Ethiopian Garment Factories

  • Staff Writer
 Update

1 April 2026

Climate resilience, productivity and workplace safety are being advanced across Ethiopia's leather, textile and garment sector through a new ILO-Japan joint initiative. The one-year programme targets 40 factories across five cities, integrating Japanese expertise, digitalised safety tools and a women's leadership development programme to drive sustainable and inclusive industrial growth.

Climate Action / Toolkit
The System Map visualises the textiles industry as an interconnected ecosystem shaped by flows of capital, incentives, innovation, regulation and demand, highlighting where decisions shift system-wide outcomes.

H&M Foundation Launches Open-Access Workshop Toolkit to Help Fashion Stakeholders Halve Emissions Every Decade

  • Staff Writer
 Update

30 March 2026

H&M Foundation has launched an open-access workshop toolkit enabling brands, suppliers, policymakers and investors to apply its System Map across the textiles industry. Developed with Accenture, the toolkit identifies leverage points to halve greenhouse gas emissions every decade until 2050, while supporting a just transition that avoids shifting costs onto the most vulnerable.

 
ITMA 2027
COLUMNS
 
EXCLUSIVES
 
FOCUS: COTTON
Farmers who contribute least to climate change often bear its heaviest consequences—a contradiction that data-driven standards are beginning to formally document and address.

Tanzanian Organic Cotton Carries One of the Lowest Climate Footprints in Global Production, LCA Finds

Organic cotton grown by smallholders in Tanzania under the Cotton made in Africa Organic standard has recorded one of the lowest environmental footprints in global cotton production, new research has confirmed. The findings, drawn from a comprehensive lifecycle analysis, showed that the absence of synthetic pesticides, artificial fertilisers, and irrigation kept emissions well below industry norms.

Staff Writer
 
Saudi Fashion Tex 2026
SPOTLIGHT ARTICLES: MOST READ
 
SPOTLIGHT EDITIONS: SELECT 4
Cotton for Good 2024 7 Oct 2024
One Crop, One Fibre, Many Stories
 
 

Highlights: Sea Change

"Quote Unquote"

Mattias Wallander
Mattias Wallander
Chief Executive Officer
USAgain
The real hurdle isn't the map, but the fragmented municipal governance: complex, varying permit costs and restrictive zoning are barriers to expansion. If local governments can align on model ordinances and move away from restrictive industrial-only zoning, the 13% yearover- year growth seen in France may be possible in California.
MORE: California’s Textile EPR Ambition Hinges on Infrastructure and Local Regulation

"Quote Unquote"

Dr Arup Rakshit
Dr Arup Rakshit
Director
Man Made Textiles Research Association
In the early years, MANTRA focused mainly on testing and R&D support for the textile industry in Surat. It provided services to weaving units, dyeing units, and processing houses. Over time, the scope expanded. Technical textiles emerged as a new focus area, and MANTRA started taking up projects in geotextiles, medical textiles, and other specialised areas.
MORE: To Remain Competitive Globally, Surat Must Embrace Sustainability
 
FOCUS: LEATHER
The fair's expansion into newly constructed exhibition halls at Chennai Trade Centre failed to address fundamental organisational issues, with similar product categories scattered across disparate locations forcing extended navigation.

IILF 2026 Exposes Gap Between Boardroom Sustainability and Tannery Floor Reality

Chennai's IILF 2026 exposed contradictions shaping India's leather industry: innovative chemical systems alongside organisational failures, Trump tariffs suppressing demand yet prices holding firm, and sustainability frameworks that never reach tannery workers. The 'Leather Carnival' demonstrated both the sector's professionalisation and its struggle to reconcile traditional identity with market realities.

Vasan Suri
Lineapelle 2025 demonstrated that the industry is ready to communicate in a different way. The collaboration between UNIC, Lineapelle, La Conceria, Is It Leather?, and voices like Volkan’s marks the beginning of a more open, consumer-connected era. But collaboration must extend to influencers, educators, and storytellers, people who can speak the language of the next generation of consumers.

The Power of Storytelling, Community and Leather’s Next Chapter

  • Blake Garavaglia
 Commentary

14 October 2025
 
 
ATTENTION: DENIM
 
COMPANY NEWS / PRESS RELEASES
 
 
Young India Fashion Survey 2025