Fashiondex Sustainable Fashion Forum: Reformation by Michelle Williams

On October 4^th Fashiondex and LA Textile hosted a Sustainable Fashion Forum in Los Angeles, to discuss sustainable fashion processes and practices. The first to present was Reformations’ VP of Operations & Sustainability Kathleen Talbot alongside their Director of Sustainability, Carrie Frieman.

Carrie opened their presentation with Reformations mission: to lead and inspire a sustainable way to be fashionable. She stated that Reformation are committed to minimizing their environmental impact and achieving fair, safe and healthy working conditions throughout their supply chain.

As a vertically integrated business, Reformation can produce limited releases on a weekly basis as opposed to the standard 6-18-month design and planning cycle of other fashion companies. Acting in this way allows them to avoid a lot of pre-consumer waste, finished good waste and maximize raw material utilization. So, unlike the Zara’s and H&M’s of the world, Reformation designers often design with the materials on hand and not the other way around.

Carrie went on to describe how 2/3 of the environmental impact elicited by the fashion industry occurs at the raw material stage. To help remedy this, Reformation have created a fiber standard chart that categorizes fibers based on environmental and social impact. These standards reference tools such as the HIGG and considers impacts such as water input, energy input and land use. Ranked from their “all-star” fibres to their “never use” fibers, Reformations goal is to eventually 75% all-stars fibers in their garments. These “all-stars” are rapidly renewable, considered to have the smallest environmental impact and possess the potential for circularity.

Not only do Reformation consider circularity at the raw material and manufacturing stages, but also at the end of the garment lifecycle. Along with signing the Global Agenda Circularity Commitment, they have also pledged to recirculate or repurpose 75,000 garments this year alone. Just last week, they also became the first brand to partner with ThredUP, the largest resale e-commerce market place, another effort to reduce their finished good waste.

Probably the most exciting aspect of their business model, (though it is hard to identify just one), is their Ref Scale. Kathleen describes Ref Scale as a lifecycle tool which measures impacts such as pounds of co2, pounds of material waste and gallons of waste in every SKU on a weekly basis. Using this tool, Reformation estimate that they are performing 45% better than conventional fashion companies regarding carbon emissions, 80% in water usage and 50% in material waste. Because this system is mainly automated, it comes at very little cost to the business, demonstrating how easy it can be to be transparent in business operations.

Not only do they measure their carbon emissions, they also offset 100% of them every year, through water restoration credits and reforestation programs.

The facts, figures and practices that Kathleen and Carrie presented throughout their talk, were complemented by consistent honesty and integrity. It would have been very easy to stand up and boast about all of Reformations tools and achievements, of which there are plenty. Instead they acknowledged that, while they they don’t have all the answers, they are focused on continuous improvement. Throughout the presentation, they weren’t shy in addressing their weaknesses (and I use this word loosely). Whether it be in their use of synthetics like spandex or their recycling program which was less successful than they had hoped.

“Better is good, but not as good as it can be,” Kathleen says of their efforts. This quote, to me, really sums up how Reformation are redefining what it means to be a sustainable fashion brand. As environmental impacts derived from the fashion industry accelerate, it simply isn’t enough to stop at using sustainable fibres or paying living wages, though these are great steps. By recognizing that sustainability is a process and not a destination, Reformation has truly become a positive force for driving change.

Attendees of the forum could take away a wealth of knowledge from Reformations presentation, namely that fast fashion and sustainability can exist in the same sentence. Most importantly though, as a small fashion company themselves, they are proof that there is no excuse to turn a blind eye to the impacts of fashion on the environment and the population. Whether it be encouraging their product developers to use more sustainable choices or ways to offset their carbon emissions, every company could take a leaf out of Reformations book.

image credit: thereformation.com