Abstract: Sustainable design is a positive response to current environmental issues and has become a popular design approach. The paper studies the sustainable design in apparel design through the literature research method and the case analysis method. In the sustainable design strategy of apparel, the materialbased sustainable design aims to reduce the quantity of material usage and optimize the quality of material,which reflects the ecological concept of environmental protection intuitively; the sustainable design based on specific ideas transmission uses emotional design methods to convey the sustainable concept to consumers; and the sustainable design based on life cycle considerations focuses on functionality and ecology, and its goal is to extend the service life of apparel.

Key words: apparel design; sustainable design; material basis; idea transmission; life cycle