Get your tech on with sustainable fashion

When environmental science, technology and fashion meet…

The British Antarctic Survey have been working with DressCode to explore how clothing could communicate important environmental messages in style, developing new dialogue and engaging people in this important conversation. The ‘Climate Code’ shirt is the result of a combined passion for the planet, data, tech and clothing.

“Clothing felt like a good opportunity, a shirt is something that many of us choose to wear, and it felt like a great canvas for the climate story.” said Pilvi Muschitiello, Impact Facilitator, BAS Innovation Team. The Climate Code shirt features two main datasets – the warming stripes of the shirt fabric represent the last 70 years of temperature records from the Arctic, with details providing the backdrop of 800,000 years of Antarctic temperature and CO2-data. The innovative design brings together the dynamic story of the past and the worrying trends of the present in a novel visualisation that aims to inspire climate action.

The DressCode approach to fashion has always been to embrace ‘slow, sustainable fashion’. Shirts that will last a long time, with designs that are timeless. For this project we are using Tencel, a sustainable plant based fabric and printing digitally to reduce the amount of water and heat required to print onto the weave.

“We have looked at every aspect of production and thought about where we can reduce our consumption of resources”, says Andy Boothman, founder of DressCode, “…things like turning the heat of the finishing unit down during printing gives us a less ‘polished’ surface on our material, saving energy and creating a unique look and feel that our customers really enjoy wearing”.

Tech for good

The Climate Code shirts feature innovative contactless payment technology - CashCuff. DressCode have pioneered smarter clothing and wearable payments, working with the contactless wearable payments and guaranteeing the provenance of products expert DIGISEQ and using MuchBetter’s simple to use eWallet to deliver a highly secure and discreet payment system that embraces both technology and the environment. MuchBetter is based in Isle of Man, the only global UNESCO Biosphere in the World.

Read more about DressCode on the brandpage: fashionunited.com/companies/dresscode