WEBVTT 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Do you know where the clothes in your wardrobe come from? 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Not just if they are from the high street or if your are packed with designer labels, but what they're made of. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Do they come from materials that are harming the planet? 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Are our clothes just a mirror reflection of what is happening to our environment? 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Hi, I'm Michelle Yeoh. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I like to look good, not only for the red carpet but in everyday life. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 The connection between our clothes and their impact on the environment doesn't immediately come to mind if a jacket , a skirt or a dress looks good and if we can afford it we buy it. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 But, the environment pays the price. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I'm going to find out what sustainable fashion could look like without compromising the beauty of our clothes. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 The United Nations promotes a better future for people and the planet through a global effort known as "The Sustainable Development Goals". 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 So I've come to the UN's office in Geneva to learn more about of what come are calling an enviromental emergency in the garment industry. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 The enviromental impact of the fashion industry is actually immense and a large part of that is the production of textiles. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Manufacturing of clothes is very water intensive and releases high levels of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 The fashion industry generates around 10% of global carbon emissions. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 That's more than all internacional flights and maritmal shipping combined. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 It is also one of the world's biggest users of water and produces around 20% of global wastewater. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 It takes up to ten thousand liters of water to produce just 1 kilo of cotton. Enough to make a single pair of denim jeans. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 That's as much water as a human being drinks over the course of 10 years. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 When we wash syntethic fibers, the other most commonly used materials, they release microplastics into our rivers which end up polluting the oceans. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 With clothing more affordable and more availabe than ever before, is it time to move on from throw away fashion? 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Today with fast and cheap production, 85% of textiles end up in landfills or are incinerated. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 So, what's the alternative? 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Forests can provide part of the solution. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Using the latest technology to produce wood based fibers for our clothes. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Of course this has to go hand in hand with sustainable forest management. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 If we are to use forests' products we need to make sure the forests remain healthy and continue to grow. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 So fashion out of forests is possible and sustainable. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Let's see how it looks like. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 We are traveling to Biela(???) in Italy. So I can see for myself if clothing that has little impact on the enviroment can look as good or even better than the ones we are all used to. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 We have 4 young italian designers. All of them, wathever they do is with sustainable fabrics. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I'm choosing a design for a dress and a jacket to make from natural wood based fibers. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 My dress and jacket will be made to order here in Cittadellarte, a place where artists come together to explore connections between their work and broader social issues. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Welcome to Cittadellarte! 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Its founder is the world renowned artist Michelangelo Pistoletto. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Fashion is very important because it's bringing the aesthetic into the society. But for me, it's not enough. We have also to bring the ethic. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Designer Tiziano Guardini represents precisely this greater awereness of ethics and production that a young generation of creative artists bring to the fashion industry. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I've picked his design. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I love the simplicity but at the same time when you go in you see the details. But explain to me the whole process. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I use only eco sustainable materials because for me is important to think about our future. In the second step I search fabrics that can explain my idea. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Tiziano Guardini works with wood based fibers that use on average 60 times less water compared to cotton and produces 50 times fewer carbon emissions than synthetic fibers. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Wood chips from certified susteinable forests are processed into ?? reduced to a viscous solution that produces fibers. And ultimately these are turned into threads, with create soft and silk materials with a light footprint on the environment. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Smart fashion from sustainable sources is already widely available. And not only from high end designers. It is also affordable. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 As we insist for our clothes to be produced sustainably, more and more brands are quickly joining this new trend. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I'm in Paris, one of the fashion capitals of the world, where I will be wearing my new outfit for the first time. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Wearing this dress as a privilege I realized I would have never thought that it came from the forest. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 A beautiful outfit is even more satisfing knowing that it's been made for natural materials. Materials that are not harming the planet. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 From the forest to the city. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I made my choice. What choice are you making?