Why is Everyone Suddenly Talking ‘Sustainability’ in Fashion?
“The Fashion Industry was ‘working’ because nothing ever disrupted the business before”
Photo by Anna Sullivan on Unsplash.
Our system is broken. It has been for many years. So why, only now, are designers, editors and directors of major fashion brands talking about sustainability and system change?
Over the last few weeks, social media platforms have been boosting with a range of content coming from the most honoured fashion personalities in the industry. Edward Enninful OBE, editor-in-chief of British Vogue, hosted an hour-long conversation on Instagram’s IGTV with Grace Coddington casually debating the state of the fashion and magazine industry of ‘post-corona’ life. Cara Delevingne followed the trend and spoke ‘sustainability’ with Greenpeace, and Imran Ahmed, founder and editor of Business of Fashion (BoF), outlined the implications the pandemic has caused to re-envision our future. Everyone, from models to editors of pioneering magazines, is concerned with the environmental and humanitarian impact the industry has on the planet, but why are they only openly talking about it now?
The unethical conditions of workers in countries like India and Bangladesh, to just name a few, are no secret of the industry. Rana Plaza first came to the attention of media after a garment factory collapsed at the rate of just 90 seconds, killing over 1,100 people inside - most of whom were young women manufacturers. The “mass industrial genocide” forced brands to act immediately. Presumably, Primark and Matalan were amongst the retailers who manufactured garments in the building, yet the full list is unknown to this day.
Seven years after the collapse and re-evaluation of ethical and safety standards of workers in developing countries, the same battles still forge the debates of transparency and human rights issues. Manufacturers in factories still work for the lowest wage in the world (starting at equivalent to £25/month), with children as young as six years old forced to work instead of going to school. Poverty is still a huge concern in what is called the ‘most glamorous’ industry, yet the reality is far from it.
Due to the global shutdown, manufacturing workers have been left on the side of the curb with no income to support themselves or their families. Over 90% of garment workers have no possibility to negotiate their wages or working conditions and in the eyes of their governments, they’re technically unemployed and do not qualify for any government ‘furlough’ schemes. Nearly 60 million garment workers in India have been left without work resulting in the hardest collision of the health system and pandemic crisis.
Imran Ahmed in BoF Live talk with Casey Legler, a French-American writer and model, outlined his vision of the future of fashion through enforcing sustainability, reducing carbon footprint and “giving back to the people,” by offering the workers adequate pay for their labour and establishing worker’s rights. He outlined that the companies should be held responsible for their factory workers during a global crisis, like this one. Casey Legler expressed her hopes that the pandemic “will put a magnifying glass on the fashion industry’s issues and rewire”.
Fashion Revolution estimated that the global lockdown resulted in over $3.8 billion cancelled store orders, with tons of material laying in factory-houses from the Spring/Summer collections that were presented in Fashion Week in February 2020. The Business of Fashion editor, Imran Ahmed, scrutinised the fashion industry for the waste and pollution they cause to the environment on a regular basis. Luxury and high-street brands are suspected to burn their collections and excess textile materials that have not made it into retailers and shops around the world, resulting in 1.2 billion tons of CO2 emissions on a yearly basis. The fashion industry is already known as one of the major environmental pollutants in the world, from crops and water to air and soil, but with the excess garment stock, Imran Ahmed believes there will be three times more waste produced globally.
The disruption levels on the fashion industry have reached an all-time high, from factory closures to retailers and design production, the whole supply chain has been shattered. Grace Coddington, a legendary model and US Vogue’s creative director, in a conversation with Edward Enninful on IGTV stated: “I’m not a religious person, but I feel like God is telling us to slow down”. The endless collections and fashion weeks that have been pioneering the world of fashion glamour for nearly a century will come to an end as we know it. With the current technological advances, major fashion houses such as Marc Jacobs have spoken out about the excessive-ness of so many fashion shows in Vogue Global Conversations webinar, and suggested to only have two fashion shows a year - “The amount of stuff we make and the quantity we make and the amount of time it’s shown – it’s just so excessive”.
Casey emphasises that the current system “was ‘working’ because nothing ever disrupted the business” and with the present disorder and uncertainty, the industry as a whole, is forced to reassess the traditional craftsmanship and embrace technological innovation.
Earlier this month, the British Fashion Council’s chief executive, Caroline Rush released a statement saying that London Fashion Week in June will merge womenswear and menswear shows and will be accessed online-only as the lockdown endures. Caroline told the Guardian “by creating a cultural fashion week platform, we are adapting digital innovation to best fit our needs today and enacting something to build on as a global showcase for the future”.
The disintermediation will provide a chance for a new beginning for the fashion industry with a higher potential for sustainable and ethical working conditions and production. The possibilities are available, now more than ever with technological advances. However, the question we should be asking is whether the fashion industry, which is so stubborn to change out of its traditional ways, will be willing to adapt to the new normal?
