“A miracle has to happen to save the survival of fashion as we know it,” trend forecaster Lidewij Edelkoort wrote to me in an email this week.
I asked for ideas on what a more responsible fashion industry would look like. The responses I received reflect a kind of grim but dogged determination to seek change at the end of a year in which the industry as a whole has (once again) made no meaningful progress towards its stated ambitions to curb environmental impact and improve working conditions.
Instead, a far-reaching greenwashing campaign led by regulators in Europe has exposed just how shaky big brands’ commitments really are, even as their supply chains begin to feel the effects of extreme weather linked to global warming.
If this seems like a dismal note to end the year, think of it this way: The fact that fashion companies are being challenged and held to account for flimsy sustainability claims is itself progress.
“It sounds like a negative, but I think it’s a positive,” said Ken Pucker, a tenured professor at Tufts Fletcher School and a former Timberland chief operating officer. “We need to have an honest conversation; We live on a finite planet… [and] we no longer need synthetic jerseys that we wear for 20 minutes.”
Radical solutions to this tension between the fashion industry’s pursuit of profit-driven growth and environmentally and socially responsible operations are gaining recognition, with the anti-capitalist concept of ‘degrowth’ emerging as a buzzword this year, but there are few signs that brands are really pushing. To change.
“As an industry, we are still trying to figure this out within the existing business paradigm and that is why it is failing,” said Vidhura Ralapanawe, director of sustainability and innovation at Hong Kong-based manufacturer Epic Group. While brands are promoting sustainability initiatives, they are still largely pushing costs and risks onto their suppliers.
Fundamentally, the incentives that drive the industry must change. That will likely need to be driven by regulation or market action to price natural resource protection in the cost of goods and their production, incentivizing better environmental stewardship and financially penalizing polluters.
“The biggest thing for me with our industry is this ever-elusive idea of redefining value,” said Claire Bergkamp. “We need to make that system work better for us as humanity…we need to think beyond shareholder value.”
The change could also come from consumers, whose priorities and motives are changing along with growing cultural awareness of the impact of fashion. “This whole hyped-up era has become completely absurd,” said Alec Leach, former fashion editor and author of the book “The World Is On Fire, But We Still Buy Shoes.” “Consumers are really starting to realize how excessive fashion is right now.”
The current model is not only bad for the planet and the people who make our clothes, it is unraveling the creative fabric of the industry, Edelkoort argues.
“If I were a designer, I would try to reinvent my profession with a focus on fiber and fabric, to give a new feel to how a garment feels and behaves…making and creating with respect for all sentient beings, plants, animals, humans and the environment. planet,” she said.
“But most of all, I would reinvent the emotion of fashion as the human expression it has always been.”
For more BoF sustainability coverage, register now for our Weekly Sustainability Report by Sarah Kent.
Source: news.google.com