What is Sustainable Fashion and Ethical Clothing

 What is sustainable fashion and ethical clothing ?

 

 Sustainable fashion is a movement and process of fostering change to fashion products and the fashion system towards greater ecological integrity and social justice. Sustainable fashion concerns more than just addressing fashion textiles or products. It comprises addressing the whole system of fashion. This means dealing with interdependent social, cultural, ecological, and financial systems.

Sustainable fashion also deals with considering fashion from the perspective of many stakeholders users and producers, all living species, contemporary and future dwellers on earth. Sustainable fashion, therefore, is the responsibility of citizens, the public sector, and the private sector. A key example of the need for systems thinking in fashion is that the benefits of product-level initiatives, such as replacing one fiber type for a less environmentally harmful option. An adjacent term to sustainable fashion is eco-fashion.

 

Ethical fashion is fashion that aims to reduce the negative impact on people, animals, and the planet. Producing an item of clothing involves design, labour, and materials. Ethical fashion is kind to the planet and people every step of the way.

 



Importance of sustainable fashion 

1. Sustainable fashion saves natural resources 

A study from 2015 shows that 97% of what goes into making clothes are new resources, with only 3% of it being recycled materials. This adds up to an annual resource input of 98 million tons – including oil to produce synthetic fibres, fertilisers to grow cotton and an endless list of chemicals needed to dye & finish fabric.

Recycled fibers have proven to be a much more sustainable option, as they reduce pressure on virgin resources and tackle the growing problem of waste management.

2. Sustainable fashion reduces our carbon footprint 

The global fashion industry emits a hefty amount of greenhouse gases per year, thus contributing massively and actively to global warming. One of the reasons is that the vast majority of our beloved clothes are petroleum-based and made from fossil fuels, including polyester, acrylic & nylon. These materials require significantly more energy in the production phase than natural or recycled fibers.

Sustainable brands on the other side often use materials from natural or recycled fabrics that require significantly less to no chemical treatment, little water, less energy and no fertilizers or pesticides to grow. Most organic fabrics such as linen, hemp, organic cotton & TENCE are even biodegradable. These environmentally-sound fabrics go easy on the planet and are amazing sustainable alternatives.

3. Sustainable fashion saves animal lives 

This may not be news for we, but the fashion industry loves to kill for fashion. A common misconception is that leather for instance, is a by-product of the meat industry. However, this is not always the case. It’s estimated that the leather industry alone is slaughtering and killing over 430 million animals per year.

Sustainable fashion brands have started to increasingly embrace the use of cruelty-free alternatives, and there’s one for nearly every piece of fashion materials - polyester made with trash from the oceans bags created from recycled seatbelts, plant-based compostable sneakers, silk created from yeast, and bio-fabricated vegan wool. But one of the most demanded leather alternatives these days comes from pineapples. The fabric is produced using the leaves of pineapples in the harvesting process, giving by-product waste a new purpose.

4. Sustainable fashion requires less water

water is a major resource for the fashion industry. It is used in the dyeing and finishing process for nearly all of our clothes. 

By contrast, organic cotton reduces water consumption by 91% as opposed to conventional cotton. However, only 1% of global cotton production to date is organic. This is mainly due to the much higher cost of non-GMO seeds, which often require additional investments into materials & machinery, which farmers only use for their organically grown crop.

Other sustainable fabrics that require little to no water during the production phase include linen, hemp, REFIBR & recycled fibers like recycled cotton.

5. Sustainable fashion is healthier for people and plant 

Fast fashion items often undergo a long and intense chemical process before ending up on our hangers. Around 8,000 different synthetic chemicals are used to dye, bleach and wet process garments. Those chemicals often cause diseases or even deaths among farmers and inflict serious birth defects on their children.

Some of these chemicals pose a real danger to our health as well, as our skin absorbs anything we put on it, including the chemicals in our clothes.

6. Sustainable fashion doesn’t support child labour

7. sustainable fashion teaches us how to love our clothes again

 

 

Importance of ethical fashion 

 

 
Ethical fashion is important because the alternative that the majority of the world’s population turns to is completely unsustainable. Not only will its long term effects be absolutely detrimental to the health of the planet and the people.

Environment

According to The True Cost, the world’s population is consuming 400% more clothing than it was at the start of the millenium, cotton production is responsible for 18% of the world’s pesticide use and 25% of its insecticide use, and the amount of resources used to raise cattle for leather production is dramatically impacting the health of our planet. The production of fast fashion contaminates all forms of water bodies, and “is responsible for producing 20% of global wastewater”; and 97% of fast fashion garments are produced overseas, with emphasis on poor countries (thank you for this info, 7Billion for 7Seas). These are just a few of the reasons why ethical fashion is important.

Garment workers

On the 24th of April 2013, the Dhaka garment factory collapse, otherwise known as the Rana Plaza tragedy, occurred in Bangladesh. The structure that contained clothing factories and other businesses collapsed, killing 1,134 people. More than half of these people were women, and this number also includes children who were being cared for whilst their mothers were working in the factory. Cracks were discovered in the building the day before the collapse, but the owner of the building ignored warnings to discontinue using it, forcing garment workers to resume business as normal.

This tragic event should never have taken place, and serves as a cruel reminder as to just how important ethical production is. Fast fashion is responsible for the abuse and exploitation of not only the planet’s natural resources, but also the people who make our clothing. Garment workers, 80% of whom are women, are subjected to every form of abuse, as well as unsafe and unfair working conditions, and the Rana Plaza tragedy is just one of the many examples of why ethics in fashion matters.

You

We all know that the skin is our largest organ. We’re so careful with, and spend hundreds on, the products we put onto our skin, though there is something that does not make sense. What we seem to be forgetting is that the clothes we’ve purchased from our favourite fast fashion boutiques were soaked with chemicals at every stage of their production, and have ended up on our bodies. That’s just some food for thought.

From both a social and environmental viewpoint, ethical fashion is the only fashion model that should exist on this planet. We should bother with ethical fashion because we’re human. We should bother with ethical fashion, because we want to continue existing on this beautiful planet. The rate at which we’re using resources isn’t sustainable for mother earth. We should bother with ethical fashion.