Sustainable Fashion and Luxury: how to choose the right material?

Sustainability has become a central theme in the current global scenario and its importance is also reinforced by the growing awareness that a change is imperative to guarantee a livable world and a better future for the next generations. The role of corporations in driving the change is significant, in particular this study is focused on the role that luxury industry can have in shifting toward a more sustainable world, since the potential compatibility between luxury and sustainability is currently often ignored or not fully considered in the practical field. This research begins with an overview of the increasing importance of sustainability in our society, highlighting the corporate commitment in the implementation of sustainable practices; then, luxury’s core values are examined discussing about their relationship with sustainability principles. A lack of focus on the effective product sustainability come out from the literature review, fueling the diffusion of the greenwashing associations. Materials have been identified as the first determinant of a product sustainability, however theoretical background reveals the absence of a standardized and applicable tool which integrates all the sustainability dimensions within the material selection process. Therefore, this study proceeds focusing on the criteria that should guide luxury companies in taking informed material choices effectively oriented toward sustainability and the analysis of the existing material libraries has been considered a valuable method to create a bridge between theoretical and practical field. As result of this research, a comprehensive, intuitive and applicable material sheet has been designed for the luxury material library of the future and it has been validated by a group of sustainability experts who claim it to be a valuable and innovative tool that can perfectly fit with the requirements of luxury companies. This new framework will allow both luxury brands and designers in approaching a sustainability-driven material selection starting from their first priority: the respect of their core values and brand identity.