There are many reasons to be down on today’s fashion industry: water pollution, toxic chemicals, landfill waste, garment worker exploitation in places like Bangladesh, Cambodia and China – the list could go on. Yet, as we’ve read in our series on sustainable fashion, innovative groups and sustainably-minded apparel brands offer glimmers of hope that this $1 trillion industry is slowly changing course. The recent launch of the Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute’s Fashion Positive offers another reason to stay positive about the future of this industry.

Launched in 2014, Fashion Positive aims to retool the entire global fashion supply chain and help create more sustainable materials, processes and products. The initiative works with fashion brands, designers and suppliers to continuously improve how clothes are made by looking at the following five categories: material health, material use, renewable energy, water stewardship and social fairness.

When Oprah Winfrey likes what you make, you know you’re in good company. Getting a shout-out in O magazine, not to mention being recognized as a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader and one of Fast Company’s 100 Most Creative People, is impressive – but there are far greater reasons to like Natalia Allen’s new collection. Allen’s attention to where the textiles in her designs come from, how the garments are constructed and how each dress is sold has created a new model for sustainable fashion that has made the fashion world take notice.

The simplicity in style of Allen’s new seamless collection should not be confused with simplicity in design: There’s much more to these little black dresses (which come in multiple hues) than meets the eye. Made by robots programmed to create zero waste, each dress in Allen’s collection is the product of science meeting design. Her garments are precision engineered down to the x- and y-axis, and the design and manufacturing process is more akin to making high-tech gadgets than traditional apparel.

What results are seamless, lightweight, modern dresses that fit like a glove – and make you feel good wearing them, in more ways than one. I spoke with Allen to learn more about what drives her purposefully-created clothes and how her approach to sustainability is to do more with less. 

New York City’s apparel manufacturing sector is about to get a makeover: To reignite local fashion manufacturing and spur economic development, the city recently announced it will invest $3.5 million to help launch the fashion incubator Manufacture New York, a co-location center with sustainability in its DNA.

Founded by Bob Bland, a Brooklyn-based fashion designer, entrepreneur and community organizer, Manufacture NY will be the country’s first fully-integrated facility with on-site, on-demand manufacturing – taking the term “Made in the USA” to the next level. Part production hub, part incubator, part learning lab, part R&D lab, the 160,000-square-foot Brooklyn facility will advance sustainably-minded research, design and manufacturing for emerging designers, manufacturers and entrepreneurs in apparel, textiles and wearable tech.

“Fashion is often viewed as innovative and forward looking, but when it comes to actual production in the U.S., it seems the sector has been slow to embrace new ideas or use sustainability as a driver for innovation,” said Patrick Duffy, Manufacture NY’s VP of sustainability and external affairs. “We’re trying to build a major center here and influence domestic manufacturing.”

The spirit of innovation certainly drives Manufacture NY’s unique model.

While big apparel brands ramp up production of a slew of fashions to gear up for the holiday season, Zady, the e-commerce curator of sustainably made womenswear, menswear and accessories, is set to launch its own collection of ethical styles for the holidays — with one slight difference: It will only sell one item.

In the spirit of slow fashion, the New York-based startup plans to release items from its first collection one-at-a-time in the coming months. The initial private label piece, which will become available on their site in the coming weeks, is a knit wool sweater that was entirely designed and manufactured in the United States.

Zady prides itself in offering high-quality clothes and home goods that are made to last and provide an alternative to the world of disposable, fast fashion. Its new Essential Collection is an extension of that endeavor.