While many aspects of the textile industry have notoriously harmful effects on people and the planet, we’re seeing a variety of solutions emerge that could shape the future of fashion. Two of the latest examples are Kloters’ RepAir t-shirts and Malai’s vegan leather-style accessories.
More than 2 billion t-shirts are sold each year, and Italian fashion startup Kloters thinks it’s time these wardrobe staples start helping rather than harming our environment.
Three men founded the company to design and produce garments to “last longer, not just for the sake of quality by itself, but because [they] are aware of the impact of producing, distributing and disposing clothing on the environment.” Their ongoing search for materials that reduce the environmental impacts of clothing’s production has led to the company’s new RepAir t-shirts.
RepAir is a genderless cotton t-shirt produced entirely in Italy that cleans the air using a patented material called The Breath, a mesh fabric that traps and reduces pollutants in the air that comes in contact with it. Developed by an Italian company of the same name, The Breath is described as “an energy-free system which needs no electrical nor fossil energy source to purify the air.” It is composed of three layers: two printable, water-resistant and anti-bacterial fabric layers, and a dioxin-absorbent fiber enhanced by nano-molecules enclosed between them. The Breath works by trapping pollutants and systematically lowering the bacterial load of the air.
By using a The Breath insert in an anti-bacterial mesh pocket on the RepAir t-shirt, Kloters claims that every RepAir t-shirt can remove the annual air pollution created by two cars, based on laboratory test results.
The shirts will come in a “timeless” design in black and white versions. They are expected to become available on Kickstarter by the end of this month and in stores and on the Klosters website in June.
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