cycled materials. Sustainability is at the heart of every step of Uniqlo’s design and production process, according to Atsushi Tanaka, Uniqlo’s director for global merchandising. “Uniqlo’s LifeWear [range] is ultimate everyday clothing designed to make everyone’s life better,” he said during the launch yesterday. “LifeWear designs are timeless and not only for one season. They can be worn longer and are sustainable.” The best five designs picked will be showcased in the Sustainability Corner of the Uniqlo Plaza Singapura store from April to June and will be featured on Uniqlo’s social media pages. On the path towards sustainability The competition is just one of Uniqlo’s most recent sustainability efforts. At the end of last year, the fast fashion brand officially launched the Blue Cycle Jeans project at its Los Angeles-based innovation centre.   “The jeans-making process uses a lot of water and we wanted to reduce that,” said Eiko Sherba, manager for social communication at Uniqlo’s parent company, Fast Retailing. “Now we are looking for ways to clean the water, to purify and reuse wastewater generated by this process.” The Blue Cycle uses an ozone gas machine and a nanobubble washing process that saves water; laser distressing that eliminates sandpapering that reduces manual labour; and long-lasting, powderless eco-stones, which replace the use of pumice and reduces the number of washes required for the jeans. The Blue Cycle process was applied to all jeans produced at Uniqlo in 2020. Meanwhile, the brand’s recycled down campaign, Re.Uniqlo will continue through to March this year. The initiative encourages customers to bring their preloved and old Uniqlo Down jackets to any Uniqlo store in exchange for a voucher. “The purpose of this Recycled Down Campaign is to recycle old materials to create new products,” Sherba said. “For now, we only use the down. In the future, we want to also recycle the jacket shell. We are trying to do that but we haven’t found any solution yet.” The collected down will be used in Uniqlo’s 2021 Fall/Winter collection to create 100 per cent recycled down products and reduce the use of new down materials. The Re.Uniqlo campaign also collects other secondhand Uniqlo clothes for reuse and delivers them to people in need worldwide in the form of emergency clothing aid for refugee camps and disaster areas. “We always try to innovate everyday. Season by season we try to improve,” Tanaka said. “We never waste our products and always improve on what we offer our customers so they will love the clothing we produce for a very long time. This is something we really want our customers to know.” Look before you leap It’s no secret that in recent years, consumers are more interested in shopping sustainably, but associate professor Jana Bowden warns brands from simply jumping on the bandwagon. “For retailers wanting to tap this consumer sentiment, that means retailing with purpose and engaging in strategic communications which focus on brand authenticity and values. Fast fashion retailers in particular have capitalised on this, asking consumers to return their clothing back to the brand they purchased from so that it can be donated to charities,” she said, referring to brands such as H&M, which collected 78, 000 tonnes of clothing at its stores globally between 2013-2019 and rewarded consumers with discounts.   “However, some labels have been criticised as engaging in ‘glorified recycling programs’ which are ineffective and focused more so on box ticking and branding, than demonstrating a genuine interest in societal advancement and CSR.”