Can Fashion Live Without Plastic? It’s Complicated

At the Boss runway show in Milan last month, models stomped through a futuristic office clad in deconstructed pinstripes, power-shouldered mob coats and waist-cinching pencil skirts.

But while the collection was a vision of next-generation “corpcore,” perhaps the most modern element was a trio of limited-edition jackets made using a new fibre designed to replace polyester and other oil-based materials.

The products — two trench coats and…