“Made in Forests” - a short story about sustainable fashion with Michelle Yeoh

Do you know where the clothes in your wardrobe come from?

Not just if they are from the high street or if your are packed with designer labels, but what they're made of.

Do they come from materials that are harming the planet?

Are our clothes just a mirror reflection of what is happening to our environment?

Hi, I'm Michelle Yeoh.

I like to look good, not only for the red carpet but in everyday life.

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.

But, the environment pays the price.

I'm going to find out what sustainable fashion could look like without compromising the beauty of our clothes.

The United Nations promotes a better future for people and the planet through a global effort known as "The Sustainable Development Goals".

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.

The enviromental impact of the fashion industry is actually immense and a large part of that is the production of textiles.

Manufacturing of clothes is very water intensive and releases high levels of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

The fashion industry generates around 10% of global carbon emissions.

That's more than all internacional flights and maritmal shipping combined.

It is also one of the world's biggest users of water and produces around 20% of global wastewater.

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.

That's as much water as a human being drinks over the course of 10 years.

When we wash syntethic fibers, the other most commonly used materials, they release microplastics into our rivers which end up polluting the oceans.

With clothing more affordable and more availabe than ever before, is it time to move on from throw away fashion?

Today with fast and cheap production, 85% of textiles end up in landfills or are incinerated.

So, what's the alternative?

Forests can provide part of the solution.

Using the latest technology to produce wood based fibers for our clothes.

Of course this has to go hand in hand with sustainable forest management.

If we are to use forests' products we need to make sure the forests remain healthy and continue to grow.

So fashion out of forests is possible and sustainable.

Let's see how it looks like.

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.

We have 4 young italian designers. All of them, wathever they do is with sustainable fabrics.

I'm choosing a design for a dress and a jacket to make from natural wood based fibers.

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.

Welcome to Cittadellarte!

Its founder is the world renowned artist Michelangelo Pistoletto.

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.

Designer Tiziano Guardini represents precisely this greater awereness of ethics and production that a young generation of creative artists bring to the fashion industry.

I've picked his design.

I love the simplicity but at the same time when you go in you see the details. But explain to me the whole process.

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.

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.

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.

Smart fashion from sustainable sources is already widely available. And not only from high end designers. It is also affordable.

As we insist for our clothes to be produced sustainably, more and more brands are quickly joining this new trend.

I'm in Paris, one of the fashion capitals of the world, where I will be wearing my new outfit for the first time.

Wearing this dress as a privilege I realized I would have never thought that it came from the forest.

A beautiful outfit is even more satisfing knowing that it's been made for natural materials. Materials that are not harming the planet.

From the forest to the city.

I made my choice. What choice are you making?