Fashion is coming up with the idea that there is such a thing as too much clothing. Photo: Prostock-Studio/Getty Images/iStockphoto
Sometimes it's incredibly difficult to be optimistic about the fashion industry, with its €1 bikinis and €0 boots. Fashion is the second largest industrial polluter in the world, accounting for 10% of CO2 emissions. Microscopic fibers from synthetic clothing are now found in waterways and food chains, while the piles of unwanted clothing dumped in countries like Ghana are so large they are visible from space. Despite all this, the cycle of newness and shopping continues.
When an email arrived in my inbox from Fashion Revolution, the social nonprofit founded in the wake of the 2013 Rana Plaza factory disaster, I was curious. The group has become the world's largest fashion activist movement. In the decade since the campaign began, it has sparked an international movement with its Who Made My Clothes? campaign and launched the Fashion Transparency Index to measure how open and responsible major fashion brands are about their human rights and environmental practices. But despite all its efforts, greenwashing remains widespread in the wider industry - especially in April, around Earth Day. How much has actually changed?
I asked experts what we can be positive about.
Aditi Mayerclimate activist
"As important as conscious consumerism is, real change in fashion will be underpinned by the trifecta of supporting labor movements, consumer awareness and corporate responsibility. An example of this is support for the Fabric Act, which would support workplace protections and production incentives to cement the US as a global leader in responsible apparel manufacturing. We've also seen the rise of support for the Fashion Act, recently championed by celebrities like Leonardo DiCaprio and Angelina Jolie, which would hold companies accountable and level the playing field for those already trying to do the right thing, such as the mandate that companies know their supply chains and make them public."
Hannah Rochellfounder of the sustainable style website slowette.com "It's really encouraging that there are now so many brilliant, responsible options for British-made clothing. From made-to-order models like Emiko and Roake Studio, to small producers - I love Batch London and Paynter - and Patrick Grant's Community Clothing, whose raison d'être is to restore local skills and prosperity to UK cities through basic quality ."
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Tiffanie Darke, founder of the newsletter It is not sustainable "I am enthusiastic about new legislation. France, as always, is leading the way with money-back schemes for those who repair clothes and spicy proposals to tax fast fashion brands. I'm also excited about more conscious consumerism: there has been a groundswell of insights in recent years that fashion shouldn't be an all-you-can-eat buffet, that consumption has consequences, and that there is such a thing as too much. The Rule of Five campaign [which Darke pioneered]together with no-buy and 30-wear challenges, they are attracting an increasingly large audience."
Tamsin Blanchardjournalist
"While there is still so much work to be done on worker wages and conditions, as well as on tackling overproduction, I am excited about the work in regenerative textile production. Brands like Ōshadi in India are leading the way with new supply chains that work in harmony with nature. Their latest Seed-to-Sew collection is made from cotton grown in rotation with other crops to promote biodiversity and draw carbon into the soil. The fact that there are brands that are successfully changing the way our clothes are grown and made gives me hope."
Venice La Mannafair fashion campaigner
"Solutions for fashion justice come from the communities most affected by Big Fashion's greed. That's why I'm so excited about the Or Foundation's Speak Volumes campaign. It is led by the second-hand community in the Kantamanto market in Accra, Ghana, who are working tirelessly to tackle overproduction. Speak Volumes demands accountability across the sector for annual production numbers and calls on all fashion brands to make their production volumes public. In November, brands such as Lucy & Yak, Finisterre and Stripe & Stare all announced their annual production volumes. This is a victory for responsibility, as we aim to develop data-driven policies that limit the amount of clothing Big Fashion produces."
Emma Slade Edmondson, sustainability advisor
"I'm excited about how enthusiastic and inspired young people are about conscious fashion and doing things differently than my own generation. When I started in this industry, I was constantly asked (in a mocking way) why I focused on "sustainable fashion." Now younger people ask me why there are fashion brands and organizations that do that are not do things more consciously."
Clare Press, author from Wear Next: shaping the future
"Fashion media have become aware of sustainability. We have a whole new generation of writers, editors, stylists and image makers who are determined to hold the industry accountable and put their values into practice. It's a huge shift. There's no turning back - yes, we're dealing with ultra-fast fashion and waste colonialism, and we haven't solved our supply chain problems, but the level of current consciousness is unrecognizable from a decade ago. The discourse has matured. It makes me hopeful."
Patrick McDowellfashion designer
"It's amazing to see the rise of made-to-order fashion. It's the most important way we can create a more sustainable industry - by making what we know customers will buy. Once a company shifts focus to this way of working, it concentrates on quality and craftsmanship over the quantity of units sold. It's better for the planet and better for those who wear the pieces."
Tansy E Hoskinsauthor and journalist
"An important step forward in the fashion industry is the recent establishment of the Dindigul Agreement to end gender-based violence and harassment in India. This agreement is the work of the Dalit women-led Tamil Nadu Textile and Common Labor Union and came about after the murder of garment worker Jeyasre Kathiravel. With its intersectional focus on ending gender and caste violence, the agreement is a first for Asia and one of the few legally binding (not voluntary or corporate-managed) legislative instruments in the entire fashion industry. It is a successful, working model for eradicating the endemic gender-based violence taking place in fashion supply chains."
