Cécile Poignant has an experienced eye, trained to detect the weak signals of new trends, to capture changes in our society and the evolution of contemporary lifestyles to better understand and predict the future. Met this fall, at an Impact roundtable, the event of Who’s Next trade fair dedicated to eco-responsible fashion, the trend forecaster summarizes tomorrow in one word : "sustainability".
By Ludmilla Intravaia
Le Boudoir Numérique : Last fall, you participated in a roundtable at the event Impact on sustainable fashion. In your opinion, is the public sensitive to the issue of eco-responsibility in the textile industry ?
Cécile Poignant, trend forecaster : When I am asked if I can sum up the future in one word, I answer : sustainability. We have no choice, we have no planet B. We are now starting to experience climate changes that have become concrete, and no longer theoretical. We have already experienced heat waves, problems due to lack of water. This need for sustainability in everything we produce, buy and use is becoming more and more important for the public and if we look at the younger generations, whether millennials or generation Z, sustainability is at the heart of their reflections.
Could youth be the spearhead of sustainability ?
Among young people, some no longer want to buy from the big fast fashion brands, favor second-hand items and prefer the search for experiences over the acquisition of manufactured goods. The current fashion system will be overtaken by those young people who no longer wants it. Admittedly, that does not mean that it will be done all over the world, in the same way, at the same time, at the same rate. In countries like China or India, the need for social status still comes through consumption, for example but in the West and in Europe, the values linked to possession are changing, while consumption is shifting towards other poles than those of clothing. Young people demand real lasting commitment from brands, real transparency. Obviously, this is a radical change of paradigm and economic models, but brands like Veja, Everlane or Patagonia which have set up their business model on sustainability are successful.
Will older companies be able to adapt to sustainability ?
What is always complicated is to imagine that things that seem so installed can change. We have a panorama of fashion today that seems to be set in stone, unchanging, as if it had always been there. The reality is that fast fashion is only around 30 years old. Before, it didn't exist. Why should this model of harmful overproduction and overconsumption continue, when it is only a few decades old ? Historically, our societies have undergone significant changes, with models that have become obsolete being replaced by others. I do not know if all companies will be able to adapt but the fact remains that to produce clothes in a more sustainable way, it will be necessary to question the way in which we proceeded until now.
Does technology have a role to play in this matter ?
Technology can be useful in optimizing the manufacturing of garments and the quantities produced, while promoting traceability. It can help to improve sewing patterns, to have the least possible textile scraps and to produce better on demand, to avoid a harmful overstocking. With systems like the blockchain, it becomes possible to check where the raw materials were harvested, where the threads were woven, in short to trace the journey of the garment. 3D printing will make it possible to manufacture personalized products, in local units of reduced size, at a short distance from the places where we will need these items. New materials are being developed, as an alternative, for example to polluting polyester, to leather of animal origin, by the use of industrial waste (more info in this Boudoir Numérique paper here, AN) or to replace dyes, by the culture of bacteria for example, in the field of biofabrication (more info in this Boudoir Numérique paper here, AN). So, yes, technology can bring a lot of solutions but it’s not enough.
Cécile Poignant, October 8, 2019, in La Défense
What do you mean by that ?
This is not enough, first of all because one also needs to be driven by an ethical conscience and by the will to follow a path of sustainability in order to be able to use technology wisely. Without that, we will just invent new things, like materials, as we did with polyester, for example, to realize, a few years later, how harmful it is for the environment. A technological initiative may seem stimulating at first, but if it is not accompanied by a reflection on the product end-of-life and its recycling, it loses its interest. This is why we must focus on understanding the complexity of the overall process, from the beginning to the end of the textile chain and do eco-design. And that is missing terribly in fashion. Some retrograde people will tell you that taking eco-design and sustainability into account curbs creativity. But this is a false debate because we never have as many ideas as when faced with constraints. Instead of using technology as the only possible way forward, we should return to more inventiveness, focusing on human ingenuity and practicing frugal innovation.
What is frugal innovation ?
The idea of frugal innovation is to do better with less. Innovation is not necessarily about upgrading to the latest version of the iPhone and always trying to do more. It doesn’t mean that one shouldn’t use technology but that one have to maximize it, use it to best advantage, taking into account people's real needs. This tendency to own fewer things, this return to a certain minimalism, is illustrated, for example, in the success of the tyding up method of the Japanese Marie Kondo or in the concept of capsule wardrobe, composed of few pieces which mix well with each other. The frugal innovation is to remain simple and consistent, not always reinventing the wheel and relearning humility in relation to the contributions of technology. For thirty years, we have drawn on natural resources, without any limit, with the damage we know. We thought we were gods who control everything. In reality, it’is not the case. The fashion system is walking on its head and has lost this notion of common sense, this sense of economy of previous generations who knew that a garment is repairable, that it can be kept for a long time, that it can be passed on to our children or to other people. A garment is not a disposable object. We do not need disposable clothing but well-designed, well-produced and durable clothing.
This desire to take care of clothes, to repair them makes me think of the philosophy of the Makers (more info in this Boudoir Numérique paper here), these handymen 2.0 who revalue manual work and reclaim the gesture of the hand, in a circular optics…
It is certain that when you love a piece of clothing, you want to keep it, either by repairing it yourself or by entrusting it to someone who has the skills to extend its life or give it a second life. There is pride and pleasure in making things by yourself or buying them from someone who is making them by himself. Man has used his hands since time immemorial, whether he is cutting flints, painting rock art or weaving textiles. In our western societies in intense crisis, losing their bearings, where the links between people have been deliberately broken, this revalorization of handwork gives meaning to things. It’s more rewarding than acquiring a dress in an anonymous and cold store, without social and emotional ties, without deep human values.
In this context, can we imagine that one of the solutions for sustainable fashion would be to highlight the traditional know-how of the craftsman ?
Of course. We live in the illusion of the concept of progress, which we have been sold since the sixties, the idea that there would always be a technological advance which would solve all the problems, that tomorrow would always be better than today. Silicon Valley has promised to make the world a better place. This fantasy is coming to an end. The unrestrained progress system does not work. I am not saying that only the past is valid, far from it. I think you have to look at what you have learned from the past and keep using it when it is worth it. For me, innovation is a clever alchemy between tradition and modernity, a well-balanced mixture between traditions which have meaning, which convey values of humanity, empathy and care for oneself, others and the planet, which we deeply need and a modernity which leaves the door open to advances in the future. It’s not one or the other. We were raised in a manichean thought, where the world is simple, white or black. Now we have to accept the fact that the world is not simple but complicated. It should not scare us, this complexity is interesting and stimulating.
How do you see the future of sustainable fashion ?
I am fundamentally optimistic. I strongly believe in the power of youth to bring down this irresponsible and dysfunctional system. I hope that these young people who advocate a 100% sustainable commitment, a degrowth, will be able to express themselves loudly and make a difference with panache and breadth. And I hope that we, the adults, will let them do their job.
* Le Boudoir Numérique met Cécile Poignant, on the occasion of the first edition of Impact, an event dedicated to eco-responsible fashion at the Parisian trade show Who’s Next. The next edition of Impact and Who’s Next will take place from January 17 to 20, 2020, at Porte de Versailles Exhibition Center in Paris. Who’s Next website is here.
* To find out more about Impact, read the interview with Frédéric Maus, CEO of WSN, the company organizing the event, who takes stock of this first edition, in this Boudoir Numérique paper : "Collaborative digital tools can help sustainable fashion".