Exploring the potential of forests in fashion

1 June 2016 Innovation

The world of forest certification never stands still, and we are always looking to involve new sectors and enable the certification of new products. In the past we have seen projects develop the certification of rubber wood, cork and wild food; we continued this trend in 2016 by entering into the world of fashion!

Forests, while usually associated with the production of wood and paper products, also provide materials and fibers that make up many of the common consumer products that we use today, including in the fashion industry.

Forests provide so many essential ingredients: from high heels and handbags made from cork, wooden frames for eyeglasses, to the rayon and viscose items in our wardrobes.

However, we need to ensure that the forest based materials used to make our clothes originate from sustainably managed forests, and furthermore, that these garments are made in a sustainable and ethical manner.

PEFC-certified fashion

The 2016 PEFC Collaboration Fund supported PEFC Italy as they teamed up with the Institute for Italian Design (IID) to bring the sustainable ethos of PEFC into the fashion world.

PEFC Italy worked with teachers and fashion students from IID to create a collection of clothes and accessories made entirely from wood and wood-based products, incorporating the use of production scrap and practices that support the use of eco-materials.

The creation of this collection had two important outcomes: helping develop a sustainable design method and providing the perfect opportunity to promote the use of PEFC-certified, sustainably produced, forest-based materials within the fashion community.

PEFC Italy and IID promoted the clothing range throughout the project, with the highlight coming at the end of the academic year with a public fashion show in Perugia. Beautiful and innovative clothes and accessories, all made out of materials from PEFC-certified forests, were showcased in front of a packed out audience.

The final goal of this project is to place the PEFC label on the clothes, creating the very first PEFC fashion brand!