Zero Waste Fashion: RHINOSHIELD × Story Wear Collaborates at SS25 Taipei Fashion Week
Tapping into the global fashion scene, Taiwan's top designer brands gathered for the highly anticipated Taipei Fashion Week . In partnership with sustainable ally, Story Wear, RHINOSHIELD embraced the 'Zero Waste Fashion' belief to extend its SS25 design theme, ONE , by co-launching an innovative accessory collection. This collaboration uses fashion vocabularies on the runway to explore various aspects of life, conveying the idea that " we are both unique individuals and interconnected in our destinies. "
Fashion: More Than Just a Trendy, Disposable Item
Every year, over 4.5 billion pairs of jeans and 1 billion phone cases are produced. Most of these items have short lifespans, quickly discarded by fleeting trends, contributing to the pollution that drowns our blue planet.
Sustainable fashion today is no longer just slogans or an earth symbol on products. Similar to the Fur-Free revolution and the Cruelty-Free Beauty movement, major brands are now expected by consumers to take real action. Inaction or superficial efforts are increasingly seen as greenwashing, irresponsible, and out of touch with the times. The key to addressing this issue lies in embracing a 'Circular Economy,' from material development to recycling and remanufacturing.
Fashion: A Cycle of Classic Revival and Continuous Innovation
RHINOSHIELD and Story Wear are dedicated to building a circular ecosystem by transforming outdated items into stylish new creations. RHINOSHIELD uses mono-material in its phone cases, ensuring that after recycling, no material separation or adhesive cleaning is necessary. This approach minimizes waste and contributes to achieving 100% zero-waste recycling. .
Story Wear focuses on utilizing recycled denim and discarded fabrics, giving new life to fashion through local tailors, women rejoining the workforce, and families affected by cerebral palsy.
We believe the meaning of fashion lies in its ability to withstand the test of time, becoming a a keepsake that accompanies you through various life journeys. When it’s time to part with your old favorite items, it can return in a new form, ready to be used by you or be cherished by someone new.
Using Realistic Textures to Replace Adhesives That Hinder Recycling
The RE:Texture™ Haptic printing technology is RHINOSHIELD’s exploration of balancing "Circular Materials" with "Creative Mediums," resulting in UV-performance technology that provides a realistic tactile experience and multi-layered light effects. Unlike typical fabric, carbon fiber, or wood veneer phone cases that are challenging to recycle due to strong adhesives, RHINOSHIELD cases only require surface coating removal for direct recycling.
In the accessory collection co-created with Story Wear, the designs feature denim and indigo patterns, styles inspired by Dadaocheng’s sustainable department stores, and experimental pieces showcasing RE:Texture™ Haptic printing—such as the patchwork hibiscus. The hibiscus motif, created using Story Wear’s signature geometric patchwork technique, reveals a textured pattern with four arrowheads converging at the center. This symbolizes the idea that when people unite in their beliefs, life is revitalized, blossoming anew as it once did.
Cross-Field Collaboration to Enhance Sustainable Influence
To share this philosophy across various fields, Story Wear’s launch event invited atypical models for a crossover fashion show, featuring actors, social media creators, and drag queens. This showcased that fashion should not be confined to a single rigid imagination but should embrace diverse forms of life. Directed for the first time by Wang Hsiao-Ti, the show integrated theatrical elements and collaborated with the Xuan Yi New Knowledge Caring Association. Together, they brought to life the behind-the-scenes story of zero-waste fashion, crafted by families impacted by cerebral palsy.
Choosing Fashion Means Choosing a Sustainable Lifestyle
From technology to art, from smart devices to handcrafted goods, sustainability is becoming a cross-disciplinary priority and a global trend, redefining fashion. No longer led by a select few, fashion is now a movement integrated into our everyday lives, starting with the daily choices we make in what we wear. Both RHINOSHIELD and Story Wear offer in-store recycling services and products from circular regeneration, making it easier for those who want to embrace eco-friendly practices to turn intention into action, further reshaping fashion and our future.