Fashioning The Future

In 1960, the average American dedicated 10% of their income to clothing and purchased less than 25 new items each year. Today, Americans budget roughly 3.5% of their income for clothing, while adding 70 new pieces to their wardrobes each year. This inverse relationship is startling, and it’s made possible by fast fashion, where garment quality and durability are traded for on-trend immediacy and unbelievably cheap prices.

The rise of fast fashion through the early 2000’s is easy to understand, but over the past several years, a new awareness and understanding has taken place, about the harmful, hidden costs of the industry. A cost to our environment and to the workers behind the garments.

Enormous heaps of unsold clothing end up in landfill or in an incinerator, to make space for new  styles as one micro-season gives way to another in the ever-changing rhythms of the fast fashion cycle. Textile waste compounds as consumers discard pieces that were made to be worn just a few times, before falling apart or going out of style. Laborers are overworked and underpaid, often working under dangerous and oppressive conditions. Synthetic fibers and chemicals trickle down into our marine ecology, inflicting untold harm on underwater plant and animal populations. The inexpensive catwalk copycats are full of very heavy costs that don’t show up at the register.

In 2015, the same year that the groundbreaking, fast fashion documentary “The True Cost” was released, the creators of SiiZU were wrestling with their own misgivings about the fashion industry. Baffled by the lack of variety and inaccessible prices of sustainable, ethically-made fashion — they set out to build a brand that would explore low-impact, price-inclusive fashion. 

They started at the source. 

“We knew that our manufacturing partners would be absolutely central to our brand's mission,” shares SiiZU founder Kay Wen. To maintain a throughline of environmental responsibility, the brand held their manufacturing partners to ISO 14001 standards, an internationally recognized operating system for environmental management. By partnering only with manufacturers that met these strict requirements, they’ve been able to limit waste and maximize energy efficiency throughout their operation.

SiiZU was also adamant about using only natural fabrics in their line — 100% natural materials that biodegrade over time, like cashmere, silk, tencel, and viscose. They’ve also explored innovative advancements in eco-conscious, nature based “smart materials” that align with their ethos. The SeaWool used in their winter coats? It’s made from upcycled oyster shells collected from an oyster farm in Taiwan. This innovation gives new, unexpected life to a raw material that is abundant in nature, while recreating the look and feel of real wool.

The Cozy Poncho Wrap in the Winter Box has a similarly innovative origin story. Made from a plant-based viscose, it has a light and smooth feel on the skin, and a luxurious drape, all while keeping its wearer warm — but it requires no polyester to create. By pulping wood and extracting the plant’s natural cellulose, a yarn-like thread is created and weaved to produce an entirely biodegradable alternative to the usual synthetic suspects.

The biggest hurdle SiiZU faces today is in educating consumers about the environmental opportunity and importance of seeking out eco-conscious fabrics. Wen shares, “While sustainable fashion is appearing more in the news, the truth is that many people continue to be unaware of the true costs of fast fashion. Our hope is to see smart materials scaled up to a point where they can be truly embraced by all consumers. With the right investment, we believe they can become the cotton of future generations.”

Fast fashion forces us to assess the underlying, unseen costs of bargain clothing, and it’s not always easy to know where to start. Fortunately, the founders of SiiZU are working pull back the veil on the fashion industry while providing sustainable alternatives and blazing a trail for future entrepreneurs to model their missions after.

Kay reflects, “Our ultimate hope is that consumers will not simply settle for sustainable fashion, but that they will also come to expect sustainability as the standard for every brand they shop.”