Stella McCartney Creates Eco-Friendly Sequins For A Green And Sparkly Future

The perfect addition to an outfit to give it that extra oomph is tacking on loads of sequins and letting it shimmer in the light. Unfortunately, what might be a cocktail dress’ best friend is also an enemy of nature.
 

Stella McCartney and material innovation company Radiant Matter are looking to solve this problem with their new creation: ‘BioSequins’. The sparkly pieces were crafted from plant-based cellulose, making them biodegradable and non-toxic with no metals, minerals, or other synthetic matter and dyes.

Plastic in the fast-fashion industry has long stood as a problem that is getting harder and harder to rectify. However, Oxfam recently published a study showing that women in Britain purchased over a festive season over 33 million sequinned outfits. Of that, 1.7 million are tossed into landfills with just five wears.
 
This exorbitantly high number contributes to a sobering 35% of microplastics found in the oceans.

As a way to showcase the new material, the brand has turned the BioSequins into a one-piece nude-colored jumpsuit as seen on model, activist, and friend of the brand Cara Delevigne.
 
McCartney’s solution is not yet a commercial one. But it does show that there are actionable steps that the industry can take to dampen the use of sequins.
 
 
 
[via Hypebae and Fashion Network, images via Stella McCartney]