Elizabeth Bennett investigates the pros and cons of using ‘deadstock’ fabric within the fashion industry, and whether this really is a sensible planet-friendly solution to fashion’s waste problem.
From Rixo and Reformation to House of Holland and Louis Vuitton, deadstock has entered the mainstream fashion vernacular of late. With increasing interest in sustainability, collections created from waste fabric are appearing more and more. However, much like all things ‘eco’, understanding its meaning and planet-friendly benefits is a little murkier.
“There are differing views on what ‘deadstock’ means but in the purest sense I would class it as limited quantities of material that would have been discarded or destroyed if it wasn’t recovered for use,” Charlotte Turner, head of sustainable fashion & textiles at Eco-Age, explained. “For example, dye tests, sample fabrics and end of roll remnants or left-over fabrics that are rejected for reuse because they were over-bought for a particular collection or have past season prints or branding,” she elaborated.
From a waste perspective, using deadstock fabric makes logical sense. At present, $120 billion worth of unused textiles are thrown into landfills, burned, or laid to rest in warehouses every single year. Transforming this so-called waste into new wearable pieces avoids this. “When you think about the amount of resources – or environmental capital – that goes into making those materials, it’s a colossal waste,” Turner commented.