omnipresent, is sequin an environmental disaster?

Formerly reserved for the luxury industry, these pieces are now mass produced by the fast fashion industry. In just a few years, they have established themselves in our wardrobes, which raises questions about their environmental impact.

On the eve of Christmas Eve, sparkling outfits invaded the windows of ready-to-wear stores. Over the past five years, sequin has become so popular that it has conquered mainstream brands, after having long been the prerogative of the luxury industry.

These small plastic discs come in all shapes and colors and now cover all types of clothing: from blazers to evening dresses, including fanny packs and pants.

Post-confinement marked a “real turning point”, according to the stylists of several French brands.

“In the women's wardrobe, sequins have become essential since 2020, which is probably due to the desire to shine, to celebrate and to bring a little life into one's wardrobe after gloomy periods”, explains Natacha Jacquier- Laforge, creative director of Etam.

A study carried out for the Klarna* payment platform reports that in 2022, more than one in four French women (27%) opted for a total glitter or sequin look for the end-of-year celebrations.

Formerly perceived as very sophisticated and reserved for special or night-time occasions, these outfits have become more popular with social networks. The looks and aesthetics of artists like Taylor Swift or series like Euphoria, festivals or ceremonies such as Coachella or the Met Gala have also contributed to this popularity.

“There is a very Instagrammable side: it’s fun, it takes the light well,” underlines Natacha Jacquier-Laforge.

At Promod, Etam, Kiabi and even Monoprix, we talk about a “favorite purchase”. “We play on the desire to shine,” develops Stéphanie Michelotti. “It’s the little touch of pep that the woman who doesn’t dare wear this kind of thing the rest of the year will allow herself.” Style director at Monoprix, she has increasingly integrated “this underlying trend” into her winter collections in recent years.

An “essential” ready-to-wear material

“The demand for these products is strong so they are becoming omnipresent: brands take advantage of impulse purchases,” analyzes Éloïse Moigno, founder of SloWeAre, a reference label in eco-responsible fashion that guides and raises awareness among brands and consumers about environmental issues.

“Before, only luxury used it because they were the only ones who could afford it,” explains Natacha Jacquier-Laforge, creative director of Etam. “The situation has changed today, in particular thanks to Asian suppliers, particularly from China and India, who allow us to reduce costs and have lighter materials.”

But this mass production is not without its environmental problems. These small 2 to 6 mm flakes, often made from non-biodegradable plastics, contribute to microplastic pollution when washed, broken or thrown away. However, they are not affected by the new European regulations on micro-plastics which came into force in 2023, unlike glitter used in cosmetic products.

Non-recyclable plastic

An oddity that surprises Kako Naït Ali, an engineer with a doctorate in materials chemistry, specializing in the degradation of plastics. “This new restriction concerns micro-beads smaller than 5mm, which have been identified as a significant source of carbon emissions,” she explains. “What raises the question is why sequins, comparable in terms of size and composition, are excluded from this regulation.”

Indeed, according to this expert, the vast majority of sequins are made from PVC or polyester – non-recyclable plastic. “Polluting materials at several stages of their life cycle”: because PVC itself contains plasticizers, molecules and additives which can quite easily be found in the environment.

“We know that the sequins sold and made by the fast-fashion industry are not very durable,” continues British journalist Shooka Bidarian, a specialist in the environmental impact of the fashion industry.

Result, according to her: they break into small pieces which will contribute to soil or water pollution, because “their decomposition process risks being extremely slow, depending on where they end up: 20, 50, 100 years…or more.”

The price of “cheaply replaceable”

And despite their small size, experts warn of the damage they can cause. “Indeed, we can say that it is not so serious because it is a very small material which will be deposited occasionally in the environment. But it is precisely this accumulation of plastic which poses a problem, especially since we are talking about mass-marketed products,” explains Kako Naït Ali.

The problem is all the more serious as the garment is fragile. “The way the sequins are sewn together means that they come off very quickly, particularly when it comes to retail brands. fast fashion where the quality is lower”, notes Éloïse Moigno, of the eco-responsible label SloWeAre. “You pull or tear off a thread and you lose a whole bunch of them which come loose.”

Washing this type of clothing in the washing machine means taking the risk of seeing the sequins disappear in the washing water. As European washing machines are not yet equipped with filters (the new machines will be from 2025), this plastic waste is systematically found in wastewater treatment plants.

“These are clothes made to be washed by hand… or not washed at all,” she laments. “They are inexpensive enough to be worn once or twice and then left behind…”

“The most cynical thing is this: there is no need for them to be solid, since they can be replaced at a lower cost,” she comments.

In winter 2019, a study carried out by the NGO Oxfam in the United Kingdom estimated that the British planned to buy 33 million pieces of sequinned clothing and accessories for the end-of-year celebrations. However, according to the same, these outfits are only worn 5 times on average before being put aside by their owners. And among those, 5% even admitted to having the habit of throwing them away once after wearing them.

What future for the small PVC disc?

Many of the ready-to-wear brands interviewed say they are “well aware” of this problem, especially since environmentally friendly alternatives are currently almost non-existent. Brands quickly find themselves limited when it comes to finding “green” suppliers, with the “recyclable” option not being possible at a reasonable cost.

Kiabi still opted for a few pieces made from recycled sequins, from other plastics such as plastic bottles for example.

“We looked for alternatives from our suppliers but today we are very limited,” assures Lindsay Wattrelos, style leader at Kiabi.

Kiabi, like Promod and others, therefore ensure that they have chosen to “voluntarily reduce the number of sequin pieces”, with a view to limiting their environmental impact. Complicated, however, to completely do without it today. Moreover, fast fashion giants such as Zara or Mango, who use it massively every end of the year, preferred not to respond to our requests on this subject.

The innovations proposed by the luxury industry remain on the margins. With her dress made of biosequins presented in 2023, British designer Stella McCartney gave a glimpse of a greener future for sequin. But in fact, this dress made from vegetable cellulose and without dyes has never been marketed. And the experiment, costly, has not to date been taken up by others.