Paris Fashion Week Showed What’s Possible, Now It’s Time to Make It The Norm

Pavithra Ramani, Strategic Lead, CanopyStyle

Paris Fashion Week has always been where the world looks for what’s next. This season, one of the brightest signals came from Stella McCartney, whose new collection featured Fevvers, a plant-based alternative to feathers. The innovation proved that cutting-edge design and environmental responsibility can coexist, and that the materials defining the next era of fashion are already here. The question now is how quickly the rest of the industry will follow to ensure these breakthrough materials scale.

Stella McCartney SS26 from Paris Fashion Week.

These kinds of milestones are encouraging. They show that fashion can align style with sustainability. But innovation needs to move beyond a few standout collections to become standard practice across the industry. Today, most runways still rely heavily on fibres that contribute to deforestation, forest degradation, and climate emissions, starting with the extraction of raw materials like viscose from trees and polyester from fossil fuels, and extending through the manufacturing processes that turn them into fabric. Each year, more than 3.4 billion trees are cut down to make paper packaging and MMCF fabrics like modal and rayon alone. That’s a system that can and must change.

Photo by Paul Hilton.

Next Gen solutions — fibres made from recycled textiles, agricultural residues, or microbial fermentation for MMCF fabrics and paper packaging — offer a clear path forward. They support circularity, reduce environmental impact, reduce waste, and future proof a company’s supply chains by diversifying their fibre basket. Rather than relying on finite or higher-risk inputs, brands that invest in circular, Next Gen materials are positioning themselves for long-term stability and competitiveness.

Scaling these materials will require collaboration across the supply chain, including brands, spinners, fibre producers, and innovators. Designers can spotlight them on the runway. Producers can adapt infrastructure to meet growing demand. Investors can deploy capital to accelerate innovation to commercial scale. And brands can signal market certainty through procurement commitments and purchase. Each of these actions reinforces the others — creating a continuous cycle that drives costs down, innovation up, and risk out.

Photo by Paul Hilton.

The business case is strong. A circular, low-carbon material base is not just an environmental solution; it’s insulation against future volatility and price hikes. By investing in Next Gen solutions and integrating it within MMCF supply chains, brands reduce their exposure to risks related to deforestation, regulatory hurdles, while maintaining access to key global markets.  They also strengthen their ability to meet ESG targets and maintain access to markets increasingly shaped by sustainability legislation.

Stella McCartney SS26 from Paris Fashion Week.

Stella McCartney’s Paris runway offered a glimpse of what’s possible when design leads with innovation. The next step is scale — and shared action to make sustainable materials the new normal. Fashion’s future will be defined by the fibres it chooses today: resilient, circular, and forest-friendly.