Let's start with the bad news - viscose is a stunning, biodegradable, breathable, absorptive natural fabric made using the cellulosic method and made from wood-pulp from forests that don't require mountains of water just to grow. Hey, but that's good news right? Yes and definitely NO.
Unfortunately a great portion of viscose fabric used to make fashion is not sustainable and is causing mass deforestation worldwide, even using endangered forests just to make textiles.
Environmental not-for-profit organization Canopy is dedicated to protecting forests, species and climate. And their role is to inform designers on making ethical and sustainable viscose/rayon purchasing decisions. Leading the way for eco-viscose are three major producers; LENZING™ , Birla Cellulose and filament yarn producer ENKA, representing 28% of the global viscose supply, and who have attained the highest ‘light green shirt’ rankings.
STSC @stscsustainabletextiles is proud to work closely with Lenzing to supply wholesale fabrics from their range ECOVERO™, TENCEL™ , TENCEL™ DENIM and TENCEL™ LUXE
These are made from sustainable forests with FSC® Forest Stewardship Accreditation and PEFC accredited
Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification plus achieve 99.8% recyclable closed loop practices when making the yarn.
The bad news however that this counts for only almost a third of global viscose supply, therefore a great portion of the rest is un-verified and at risk of coming from Ancient and Endangered Forests.
It's why I try to highlight to fashion buyers to first #checkthelabel because when you see a garment made with "viscose", and without a traceable transparent trademark and verification of its sustainability, then its likely to be "deforestation viscose".
I urge all to follow @canopyplanet to see maps and share information. A new and exciting Canopy and @stellamccartney partnership is working to help save the ancient and endangered Leuser ecosystem in Sumatra, Indonesia.
At her March 2019 Paris #fashionweek Stella Mccartney recruited help from some major names including Gwyneth Paltrow, Drew Barrymore and Oprah Winfrey for support as she showed her latest dressed made from sustainable viscose sourced from certified forests.
Other fashion eco-heroes are @esprit who have created a huge range using ECOVERO.
And my other favourite designers leading the way are Armedangels in Europe.
And so the big question is - which Australian designer wants to be among the first worldwide to make the switch and use Lenzing's latest and most eco viscose, ECOVERO™, as I have some available now plus a stunning ECOVERO™ SATIN in 5 colours.
visit www.sustainabletextiles.club and contact Alison Jose to order.