FASHION FORWARD

A rising swell of sustainable apparel practices makes getting dressed fun again

- JESSICA HULLINGER

In Chile's Atacama Desert, mountain of more than 59,000 tons of clothing can now be seen from space. This so-called garment graveyard comprises fast-fashion discards inherited from the U.S., Europe and Asia. In 2024 activists, designers and NGOs organized Atacama Fashion Weekwith a fashion show atop the garment graveyardto draw attention to this growing problem.

IN NEW YORK STATE'S HUDSON VALLEY, Lilly Marsh weaves scarves, shawls, and other apparel out of fibers sourced from the Northeast. The items are beautiful and informed by historical techniques—for her Ph.D., Marsh studied contemporary North American hand knitting—but her interest in producing woven goods goes far beyond the final product. In 2017 Marsh co-founded the Hudson Valley Textile Project (HVTP), a natural-textile supply chain that aims to break free from the global fashion industry.

One big problem the HVTP set out to solve involves wool. After sheep are shorn at farms, the wool is greasy and needs to be cleaned, or scoured, before it can be worked with. For years the scouring facility closest to New York was in North Carolina, and it had a 1,000-pound minimum for processing—an amount most small farms can't reach on a yearly basis. Using money from grants and private donations, the HVTP opened Clean Fleece, a local scouring facility that washes small batches of wool and other animal fibers. “It’s enabled a ton of farmers who want to work on a small or midsize scale to get that done,” Marsh says. “That’s made a big difference in our industry.” Now farms across the region are selling socks, hats and mittens on a consistent basis—and at prices that are comparable to those of similar products from major brands.