Over the past few seasons, sustainability has remained a major theme at New York Fashion Week with designers across the board increasingly incorporating recyclable, and dead-stock fabrics into their collections.
This year, the theme continued as Collina Strada, among other major brands, served up a collection championing sustainability, a commitment that remained central to the foundation of the company.
The New York-based retailer that said it serves as a “platform for climate awareness, social awareness, change, and self expression,” presented a series of outfits crafted from a thrift store haul in New Jersey. Founder Hillary Taymour transformed “heirloom wedding dresses into modern Collina couture,” that included dresses, wool coats, and other outerwear, the show notes stated.
A big standout at the show, however, were the accessories created in collaboration with Brooklyn-based biomaterials company TômTex.
Made with the company’s proprietary biodegradable vegan materials, the line of accessories featured black leather bags and hand purses—all channeling fun silhouettes such as “scrunchie bag” and “dog muff.”
“Our collaboration with Collina Strada was about proving that sustainability and creativity aren’t opposing forces—they fuel each other,” Uyen Tran, founder of TômTex, told Retail Brew via email. “Hillary Taymour’s fearless approach to design made her the perfect partner to push the boundaries of what next-gen materials can do. We didn’t want to just replace leather; we wanted to create something entirely new, something that expands what’s possible in fashion.”
Taymour agreed, telling Retail Brew via email that sustainability was at the “root of our business.”
“I don’t believe in having a business if I can’t be a better example for the industry,” she said.
Taymour is not alone in advocating for next-gen materials. Some of the biggest fashion retailers such as Dolce & Gabbana, Stella McCartney, and Ganni have all put their weight behind biomaterials such as faux fur and mushroom leather as consumers grow more eco-conscious.
Retail news that keeps industry pros in the know
Retail Brew delivers the latest retail industry news and insights surrounding marketing, DTC, and e-commerce to keep leaders and decision-makers up to date.
“I also know that alternatives [that are] biodegradable are taking off,” PJ Smith, director of fashion policy at Humane World for Animals, previously told Retail Brew. “That’s going to be something that we’re not even going to see—we’re not going to recognize that transition. It’s just like, one day, all our puffers are going to be filled with more sustainable and animal-friendly alternatives.”
For the naysayers, however, scalability has often been the central issue with such fabrics. However, as they increasingly make an appearance on the runways of mainstream fashion brands, some of those fears might be alleviated.
“As technology changes, these materials are going to be prioritized,” Taymour said. “We will start seeing them in larger production formats. It is scalable once the demand is there.”
Tran echoed these sentiments, explaining that the future of next-gen materials lies beyond just creating them.
“It’s about integrating them seamlessly into industries that have relied on traditional materials for decades,” she said. “Scaling isn’t just a production challenge; it’s about creating materials that designers, manufacturers, and consumers genuinely want to adopt. That’s why we’re working closely with not just fashion, but also automotive, furniture, and hospitality—industries that demand both high performance and sustainability at scale.”
As for the future, Collina Strada hopes to continue its partnership with TômTex and to incorporate more such sustainable fabrics into its future collections. Meanwhile, beyond Collina Strada, Tran said TômTex has its sights set on something “much bigger.”
“Just as innovative materials in the past have redefined entire industries, we see TômTex as part of a larger shift toward materials that don’t compromise on ethics, performance, or design,” she said. “Our goal is to continue working with designers who see materials as a space for radical reinvention, not just substitution.”