Why Sustainable and Ethical Fashion (for femininitymagazine.com)

“Buy Less. Choose Well. Make it Last” – Vivienne Westwood

How normal is it for jeans to cost $9.99? How normal is it for a cotton turtleneck to be $5? The answer is; it’s not. It’s also not normal for Dior’s “We should all be Feminists” tee to sell at £490, which completely defies its entire message. The irony of this situation is that it’s applicable to Forever21’s entirely similar tee, sold at $10, that also defies its message since the only reason the price is so low is the fact that the person who made it, possibly a child, who knows, was under inhumane conditions at a sweatshop factory and didn’t get paid enough or at all. The fashion industry is filled with these extremes and while it’s definitely easier for us to just buy the $9.99 jeans, would it be as easy to do so when we knew how they were made?

In 2013, Zara, owned by Inditex, came under fire for accusations of exploitation of labour in Brazil, including child labour. In 2017, customers in Zara’s stores found notes attached to their tags that read “I made this item you are going to buy, but I didn’t get paid for it.” In between those years, they were accused several times of copying smaller designers and being able to win lawsuits made against them has never been easier when their earnings are in the billions. Only a few months ago, H&M, a brand that has a specific line of clothing dubbed “Conscious” and prides itself in being sustainable for the most part, were accused of incinerating about 60 tons of new, unworn apparel, that could have been recycled, since 2013. Alongside them however, are almost every single brand that has a store in your local shopping centre and that’s when it gets hard to ignore brands like Mango or Forever21 that centre their marketing tactics on copying what’s trending very fast and selling it for $9 less than the store next to them. And while H&M may be under fire, it’s also worthwhile to mention that it’s more transparent than other brands that choose to hide under false pretences such as most of the brands under the Inditex company.

Vivienne Westwood’s point still stands; it’s becoming increasingly important to start making more conscious choices with what and how much we buy, something that went completely over our heads this past week with Black Friday. People might be making less money but brands are putting everything 25% off for only a few days and “who knows when I’ll have the chance to find that in such a good price ever again?” Spending your hard earned money on offers from big chains that exploit their workers? Not cool. Spending your money on smaller brands with good and ethical values that pay their workers and are friendlier to the environment? Very cool.

Environmental awareness, worker’s rights and basic human rights, animal cruelty, capitalist ideals that threaten your local or smaller designers are only a few of the reasons why people who have the privilege to look into sustainable and ethical fashion, should do so. While sustainable fashion is definitely becoming a trend, the fast fashion brands are still, arguably, more appealing to all of us which is why they’re so successful. However, there are a number of brands that are or are making big steps into becoming more sustainable and more ethical in their ways:

·      Reformation

·      Patagonia

·      rag & bone

·      Levi’s

·      Stella McCartney

·      Gucci (for their recent announcement that they won’t be using fur anymore)

·      Filippa K

·      Organic Basics

·      H&M’s Conscious Line

·      ASOS Recycled Lines

It’s also important to note that supporting local designers is always a step in the right direction as well without having to spend extraordinary amounts of money on clothes.