Topics: Sustainability

Meaning and Definition

‘More sustainable fashion can be defined as clothing, shoes and accessories that are manufactured, marketed and used in the most sustainable manner possible, taking into account both environmental and socio-economic aspects.’ (Green Strategy, June 2014)

Sustainable fashion is a particular way of producing clothing and accessories. The manufacturing of sustainable fashion takes into consideration the environmental issues in which the planet is facing today. This includes fabric production such as organic cotton and manufacturing operations done in zero-waste environments. In the past three decades, fast fashion (which promises trendy clothes at low prices) has taken over the fashion industry and as a result, the planet is now facing a major textile waste problem. Sustainable fashion now attempts to tackle these issues.

Scholarly Points of View

‘The textile and clothing life cycles consume more energy and water than do the product life cycles of any other industry other than construction or agriculture. Cleaning, drying and ironing of clothes by their consumer is especially costly in this respect. Currently, garments and their component parts are well travelled commodities with brief lives, often discarded long before they are worn out.’ (Black, 2012)

The fashion industry is one the most polluting industries in the world, not only by the way the clothing is manufactured but also by the maintenance of the clothing. The over sighting of these threats by the fashion industry, simply does not suit the actual life cycle of the clothing. There is too much pressure from the fast fashion industry to supply new and trendy clothing every day and consequently, not only are the suppliers and garment workers suffering, but also the environment and planet.

‘A T-shirt uses 5,000 pints of water in its production from crop to shop…Economists recognise that the shortage of water is going to be one of the key flash points for future conflicts. Finding ways to reduce our dependence of water in the production of garments is a real and urgent challenge’ (Black, 2012)

In the past three decades, the fashion industry has been using an over whelming amount of water through their production of clothing. This has resulted in a widespread environmental issue that the planet has to face now. Climate experts have been warning the fashion industry to find a way to resolve this problem since the planet cannot take any more of the loss of water that it takes to make one single garment.

‘In the UK particularly, the media are increasingly interested in and concerned about ethical practices and green issues surrounding the international manufacture and sale of fashion products. Although the UK media campaigns vigorously against these practices from time to time, the reality is that many UK consumers do not really care very much about the provenance of the fashion they are buying. Consumers are described as ‘armchair green’- slightly worries about the issue, but not really motivated to do anything about it.’ (Jackson and Shaw, 2009)

The present sustainability issue that is affecting the planet is widely covered by all kinds of media. Thus, it is safe to assume that the average consumer is aware of the problematic situation that the fashion industry has created. However, even though consumers are completely aware of the issues surrounding the fashion industry, they don’t seem to want to make a change. This is makes it more difficult to find a relevant solution. The fast fashion companies are more interested in profits, inexpensive (mostly synthetic and non-biodegradable) fabrics and cheap labour making them unmotivated themselves to want to change.

Real Life Example

Organic Basics

Organic Basics (see figure 1) is a Danish unisex underwear and active wear company that was founded in 2015 with the ‘mission to create sustainable and better made basics’ (Hampson, 2018). The founders started the brand because they were tired of constantly throwing away their underwear after only just a few months of wearing them.

Figure 1, Danish brand Organic Basics

The brand was created on the ‘philosophy of making sustainable clothing’ (Rasmussen in Hampson, 2018). All of their collections are made in ethical and environmentally friendly conditions. For example, they use either organic cotton or recycled materials to make their garments.

A few years ago, Organic Basics has introduced a line of active and underwear that actually kills bacteria whiles wearing it. The line is called ‘Silver Tech’ (see figure 2) and it encourages consumers to wash their clothes less. Organic Basics realized that one key issue surrounding the environment, is the overwhelming usage of water when consumers clean and dry their clothes. As a way to try and tackle this issue, they have released this line.

Figure 2, Silvertech Basics

To further encourage sustainability within their customers, Organic Basics also recommend washing their garments in a ‘Guppyfriend Washing Bag’ (see figures 3 and 4). The bag ‘protects synthetic garments in the wash and helps stop microfibers from entering our oceans and rivers during the washing process’ (Organic Basics). This shows that Organic basics is a fully sustainable brand. Not only do they think about sustainability in a production manner, but also in terms of their costumers’ lifestyles.

Figure 3, The Guppyfriend bag

Figure 4, Washing instructions provided by Organic Basics

Personal Evaluations

The way the majority of fashion is produced and manufactured today, is simply not sustainable. There are environmental hazards that were not taken into consideration when the fast fashion epidemic was first introduced into the world. Today, almost three decades into the fast fashion epidemic, the planet is witnessing the visible consequences that have occurred due to the manufacturing operations such as landfills filled with non-biodegradable clothes (see figure 5).

Figure 5, Landfill filled with plastic waste and clothes

It is up to the present and future clothing brands to make a positive change towards sustainability within fashion. When consumers recycle their old clothes at a stores collection box they are not truly making a change as ‘only about 0.1% of recycled fibre collected by charities and take back programs is recycled into new textile fibre’ (Leblanc, 2018), the reason is that the technology to recycle old clothes to make new textiles is still not advanced enough for it to be carried at. Moreover, the clothes that are not viable for recycling, are sold to third world countries. However, ‘What is not known to the donors, is that their clothes are not just handed over to the needy, but they are sold in local markets’ (Katende-Magezi, 2017). Additionally, the textile industries in those countries for are declining thanks to the vast volume of second-hand clothing they are receiving from western countries. These are the results of an un-sustainable industry. However, due to these complications, there are more innovations today towards recycling plastic to clothing. For example, Swedish bag company Fjallraven, created the ‘Re-Kanken’ bag which is made from recycled plastic bottles (see figure 6).

Figure 6, Fkallraven Re-Kaken

Although the fashion industry has caused a great deal of landfill which is not sustainable, brands are thinking of now new ways to approach manufacturing which does not harm the planet as much.