Sustainability – The Buzz Word at London Fashion Week

The London Fashion Week is on at the moment and the big story is sustainability. According to Forbes, “It’s good news that most fashion brands, large and small, are looking at how to incorporate sustainable or “Eco-friendly” practices into their businesses.”

Figures suggest the fashion industry makes up to 10% of the world’s carbon emissions and puts strain on the planet’s water resources and materials. About 85% of all clothing is said to end up in landfill every year. This is why it is so important to choose clothes and accessories manufactured from sustainable materials wherever possible.

It is just possible that the days of buying loads of clothes, many of which get worn once or never and then throwing them away, are over. And we should never forget that those who work so hard often in terrible conditions so that we can buy endless quantities of inexpensive clothing are the ones who are suffering now. In the future we may all be suffering if our habits do not change.

And, of course, it is just as important that we adopt the same attitude towards accessories as with clothes. Shoes, boots, bags, hats, umbrellas, gloves, no matter what item you think of, there is usually an environmentally friendly alternative to the traditional environmentally unfriendly or harmful material.

Shoes, bags and gloves have traditionally been made from leather and as we all now know animals especially cows from which most of our leather comes, are the biggest emitters of harmful damaging gases. It is a happy co-incidence that as we are beginning to eat less meat and more of us are becoming vegetarian we are likely to be using less leather.

Science is advancing so quickly these days and more and more innovative new materials are being developed. All sorts of new fabrics are being made from soya, nettles, banana leaves, hemp as well as the traditional cotton and linen, all of which are so much better for the well-being of the planet that any synthetic materials.

At BO-BORSA, we sell bags as well as light luggage and small items such as iPad covers and handbags and we understand how important it is that we sell only products made from sustainable materials. Our current ranges are made from entirely recyclable Tyvek®, a wonder material which is lightweight and very strong and also a very much lighter alternative to leather or plastic.

Very soon we will begin introducing new ranges of bags and accessories always made from sustainable and environmentally friendly materials.

We are especially excited that our first amazing new range, BO-BORSA LEAF will be bags, purses and wallets made from leaves from the teak tree. They will be available soon in a range of designs and about ten different colours. They are strong, waterproof, hard wearing and very smart, stylish and unusual.

We cant wait to launch them! Please keep an eye on our website.