Is Overproduction Still Destroying Sustainability in Fashion?

Yesterday, I stumbled upon a very old picture of myself at my very first fashion show in Vienna on February 17, 2010. It was a bitterly cold winter day, and Vienna was covered in ice and snow. Back then, I had a tiny budget and very little experience. I was always surprised why sustainability in fashion was not as prominent as it was in the food or cosmetics industries. A journalist even asked me why I wanted to make money while doing something good.
Fast forward to 2025. While researching trouser production, I realized how difficult it is to manufacture a trouser collection in Austria. Production prices are too high, and fewer customers are willing to pay more than €200 for a regular chino.
During my email exchanges with a European production company, I was told that producing fewer than 200 pairs of trousers is considered sampling, making the cost per trouser more than double. This is a common challenge. Similarly, many fabric suppliers have high minimum order quantities (MOQs), making it nearly impossible for small labels to produce market-relevant products.
Let’s do the math: I have a relatively large shop for an independent label with space for six clothing rails. One rail accommodates 12 garments if displayed nicely for customers. That means I would need 16.6 clothing rails or 2.7 shops just to showcase a single product!
I strongly believe that overproduction is one of the key issues affecting sustainability in fashion. The industry must quickly develop solutions to tackle this challenge. What are your thoughts on overproduction? Are you facing similar issues?

Shakkei Performance at the Design Store “Travel Diary”

On the occasion of the 15th anniversary of the sustainable fashion label Shakkei, we took our guests on a trip on April 12th, 2024.

When it comes to anniversaries, creative people often tend to look back and create a retrospective of past designs
organize… But not at Shakkei!

We would like to give an optimistic preview of the new season. With lots of rich colors that are pleasing to the eye, we invited guests into the mind of a designer. The end of the journey is not always the destination, but also the way there.

If you missed the event or want to watch it again, you can watch the video here:

AI and new technologies in fashion – a fast-paced trend or the only realistic future?

No matter where you look, no matter what magazine you open, no matter what blog post you read, or whether you just scroll through social media for the sheer pleasure of it – there seems to be only one topic on everybody’s mind: artificial intelligence.

Many labels are currently experimenting with AI applications such as Midjourney or Dall-E. These image-generating applications seem to be the new must-have of the season, especially for fashion designers. Especially in the area of design creation, quick and completely unexpected design results that you may not have thought of before, suddenly emerge.

As a curious and forward-thinking designer, I have of course decided to dabble in this topic. What seems particularly important to me, in addition to the pure production of new ideas, is the fact that AI can also generate photos that could potentially replace photo shootings with new collections for the label. Photo shoots are often a big challenge, not only in terms of personnel but also financially. Models have to be cast and booked, a photographer has to be commissioned, hair and make-up specialists have to be found, and sometimes it also makes sense to bring in a stylist. All in all, a whole handful of professionals, who should not only all have time on the same day, but also have to be paid.

So I bravely tried out an AI. I dragged images photographed on a mannequin into the tool to generate models on a catwalk. The results sometimes still seem a bit wooden, for the lack of a better term, but I’m sure we’ll be able to achieve very exciting and much more realistic images in the future. 

So will strenuous and expensive photo shoots soon be a thing of the past?

AI can be a good way to achieve a professional appearance with low cost. I see a lot of potential for young and small labels that don’t have large budgets. These tools won’t replace the organic nature of a real photo any time soon. In addition, you leave a lot of creative freedom to a program in which you can only intervene to a limited extent.

At this point I must also make it clear that the photos posted here, were subsequently edited using graphics programs to improve the result.

What is your opinion? Will AI become the new standard in fashion and soon completely replace classic photo shoots?