DeFacto Looks To Build The First Sustainable Fast Fashion Company

The rise of fast fashion could be traced back to the 1990s when Zara proclaimed it would take a fashion piece from concept to on the rack in stores within just 15 days. 

This turned the fashion industry, which typically focused on the four seasons, into 52 different micro seasons, according to a report from the University of Denver. It is also partly responsible for the 400% increase in clothing consumption over the past 20 years. 

Mix in social media and fashion trends have been accelerating faster than ever.

And the impact on the environment is not inconsequential, with 10% of all greenhouse gases produced by textile manufacturing, per Open Access Government. 

The idea of single-use wearable fashion items opposes the sustainability narrative that has been pushed for in recent years.

In September, fast fashion brand DeFacto was invited to speak at the United Nations General Assembly Private Sector.  

This event was by invitation only, allowing DeFacto, a company that operates 500 stores in 93 countries, to share its initiatives aligned with the U.N.'s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). 

DeFacto's Online CEO, Önder Şenol, was one of just 90 individuals invited to speak at the Private Sector Forum and sat down with us to describe his key takeaways from the meeting that focused on five core topics, Gender Equality, Climate, Finance, and Investment, Water Resilience, and the Living Wage.

"Companies and governments gather here in New York every year, sharing their actions towards Sustainable Development Goals. It is an opportunity to talk about the future of our planet. We are exchanging ideas, learning from others, and sharing our actions as to what we are doing in Turkey and worldwide as a global brand," Şenol told us. 

Şenol, the head of DeFacto's e-commerce platform, noted a sense of urgency at this year's meeting.  

"The message I got from the meeting was—we are late, and we need to take actions to move faster," Şenol said. 

The brand's transparency about its sustainability efforts played a role in becoming one of the exclusive invitees to the event, pledging its support to the United Nations Global Compact in 2014, addressing global challenges by 2030. 

"This commitment reflects not only our role in addressing global challenges like climate change and human rights but also our focused efforts locally and globally to achieve the SDGs by 2030," Şenol said.

The number of times a garment is worn has declined by around 36% in the past 15 years, and the average U.S. consumer throws away 81.5 lbs of clothes every year, per Earth.Org.

"Fast fashion brands, they're pretty wasteful. It's really set up to make people go back often. They change what's on the floor all the time, and you're buying more clothes. People are buying more clothes than ever now, really,' Şenol said. 

DeFacto hails from Türkiye, the second largest textile-producing country in the world, and aims to lead by example within the fashion industry by setting measurable and transparent goals in sustainability, targeting 90% of its ready-to-wear collections to meet sustainability standards and a 55% reduction in its carbon footprint.  

By comparison, the apparel industry's global emissions are expected to increase by 50% by 2030, according to Earth.Org,

"We are trying to be an example of a role model in our industry and also in our region," he added. 

Şenol highlighted that water and energy use have become issues plaguing the industry. 

It takes approximately 793 gallons of water to produce just one cotton t-shirt, according to The Conscious Challenge. 

One of the innovative technologies DeFacto uses to build a more sustainable company is its implementation of Wiser wash technology, a method developed by a Turkish company, Wiser Tech.  

"We are producing denim with less water. Before Wiser wash, we used to use 16 liters of water to produce denim, and now we have decreased to just one glass," Şenol explained. 

Sustainability has become an issue that fashion brands cannot ignore, especially with the cost of raw materials continuing to spike, Şenol says. 

The demand for raw materials needed to sustain current trends is expected to triple by 2050, according to Clear Treasury. 

To combat this issue, brands are racing to develop new sources of materials. For example, DeFacto has showcased its Apple Leather collection, a pioneering application of vegan leather in the fashion industry. DeFacto says that by 2024, sustainable materials will comprise 35% of its total production. 

As for its presence in the United States, the company has been selling online through Amazon.com, Inc. AMZN and Walmart Inc WMT but plans to open a warehouse in the U.S., and while the American market makes up just 1% of DeFacto's online sales, the company believes these numbers will accelerate rapidly once it opens its warehouse in the U.S. in the coming year. 

Disclosure: I have no business relationship with any companies mentioned in this article. I also do not own any shares in the companies mentioned.