Can The Fashion Industry Change Its Mind?

The lady in the pants is in trouble.

Abigail Glaum-Lathbury and Maura Brewer are known to the outside world for the establishment of the rational dress Association (Rational Dress Society). The absurd Marx group is committed to replacing all the clothes in the wardrobe with a pair of male and female trousers. This short sleeved denim "one-piece dress" can be used not only as a factory uniform, but also as a curator's green eye with a single item. They often use wooden shoes and various kinds of strange earrings.

Over the past three years, the two women wore this uniform every day, attracting a lot of media attention and bad reviews.

In 2017, Glaum-Lathbury and Brewer came up with a strange trick.

They spent two months collecting a lot of Ivanka Trump from all over the country.

The plan is to create a special version of the pair of trousers with these recycled fabrics: the styles still follow their iconic studio fashion style, but they are presented with Millenium powder.

But in the past year, these Ivanka Trump waste clothes have been stacked in the warehouse, and nobody cares, let alone crush them.

Facts have proved that in the United States, clothing recycling is much more expensive and much more expensive than people think.

Glaum-Lathbury spent three months studying how to crush cloth. It turns out that there are only three feasible ways in the United States (including two university projects and a factory called Martex), and the cost is estimated to be up to $5 million.

"We didn't expect that clothing recycling would be such a big project," Glaum-Lathbury said.

"With the deepening of my understanding, I became more aware of the fact that" recycling is basically theoretical, "she continued." it has a lot of work and basically you can't mix it up. "

Despite the good intentions of recycling and reuse, clothing waste is increasing.

At present, only 1/4 of the world's clothing is recycled after the end of the use period.

But even so, recycling is difficult.

Most of the clothing melts and turns into a mixture of polyester fibers and other synthetic substances, which is very difficult to decompose.

Although the technology of recycling mixed fibers does exist, it is not yet possible to achieve large-scale popularization in the industry.

It is for this reason that less than one percent of the recycled clothing is remade into new garments, and the so-called "closed loop" or "recycling" system, that is, the process of recycling, reproducing and reusing materials - the alternative to traditional linear systems (production, use and discarding) - is a distant dream for most people in the industry.

Last September, the H&M Foundation, an independent charity H&M of Swiss fashion giant H&M, combined with the Hongkong textile and garment research and Development Center (Hong Kong Research Institute of Textiles and Apparel), with an operation process: hydrothermal treatment of mixed textiles, making it reusable and producing new garments.

The foundation plans to authorize the technology in the market, but the specific timeline and promotion plan are not yet known.

At present, the rational dress Association collects hills like

It is also stacked in the studio of Glaum-Lathbury, Chicago, which is famous for its fashionable leisure and magnificent patriotism and accumulating dust.

Not fast enough?

It is not just the rational dress association that holds excessive inventory.

In June of this year, H&M revealed its backlog of $40 billion merchandise inventory, and intended to be processed through donations or recycling.

However, the above two methods are not good choices for Burberry.

According to BBC's report in July this year, Burberry has destroyed over $90 million worth of goods over the past 5 years to prevent these unsalable products from being stolen or sold at a low price, thereby diluting the gold content of its well built brand.

However, dozens of fashion retailers such as Burberry and H&M have set the goal of achieving 100% in 2030 using renewable or other sustainable source materials.

Even if you are not a pessimist, they will question whether they can fulfill their oath.

Judging from the current data, the situation is not optimistic.

First of all, the greenhouse gas emissions from the global clothing and footwear industry still account for 8% of the total global emissions. Secondly, according to the current trend, by the 2050 year, the number of resources consumed by the textile industry will increase to three times.

"The situation is very critical now," said fashion consultant Julie Gilhart, who interviewed BoF at the beginning of this year. "We have to change the way we do things, and this is certainly not very comfortable."

At the same time, the average number of clothing used before or when a garment was discarded was reduced by 36% compared with 15 years ago.

According to the data provided by the Environmental Protection Agency, in 2015, as the world's largest consumer group, more than 9% of the 2.62 hundred million tons of solid waste dropped by Americans were textiles, leather or rubber products.

This is equivalent to an average of about 70 kilograms of clothing waste produced by every American.

Looking at the world, 73% of the annual clothing waste will end up in the landfill or sent to the incinerator to destroy, and less than 1% of the clothing materials are recycled.

All of the above data are from the Ellen MacArthur Foundation's report entitled "A New Textiles Economy" (MacArthur New Textiles).

"We should not just try to" do little bad things "but instead change the way we make and use clothes.

The production and use of clothing should be able to build economic, social and natural capital rather than make them less and less. "

At the 2017 BoF VOICES summit, it was said, "at present, the fashion industry is undergoing incredible changes. We should improve our expectations."

People who see a ray of hope are not just MacArthur.

Other sustainable development advocates within and outside the fashion industry also believe that improvements do exist, but at a slow pace.

First, the big companies in the industry begin to publish the list of suppliers, so that the brand needs to take full responsibility for the factory's status.

The indirect effect of this approach is that the wages of garment workers have risen.

But it is sad that the lives of 1134 workers killed in the collapse of the factory in the heat building of Bangladesh prompted these companies to act.

Industry watchers say that progress is mainly in pparency - starting with the announcement of supply chain information, and reducing environmental pollution and recycling and upgrading - the end of the apparel life cycle - the progress is no longer in progress.

Sustainability Consortium is an international organization dedicated to solving the supply chain problems of all walks of life. Christopher Cooke, senior director of its technology development department, said: "high profile brands are constantly improving, while many other companies are an aloof attitude."

Cooke said: "I think the fashion industry has paid more and more attention to sustainable development in the past few years, because the problems of clothing waste and labor rights have really hit their sore spot."

According to the company human rights report released by Vigeo Eiris in 2017, the luxury fashion, accessories and jewelry industry has the best performance in 38 different sectors of the industry in terms of pparency and treatment of the supply chain.

Vigeo Eiris is a ESG rating agency that pforms the environmental, social and management initiatives of the company into specific ratings for investors and other stakeholders.

Fashion Revolution is a fashion industry observation organization. It publishes a fashion pparency index every year.

It finds that the pparency index of fashion industry has increased significantly every year since 2016.

Sarah Ditty, head of the organization's head of policy, said: "we see 150 big brands have released the list of suppliers, which will be considered a crazy move 5 years ago."

The Global Fashion Agenda (Eva Agenda) is an organization that focuses on the sustainable development of various sectors of the fashion industry.

This year, the total score of the fashion industry released by the organization rose from 32 last year to 38 points, with a total score of 100 points.

The data reflect the social and environmental impacts of all aspects of the supply chain, based on the Sustainable Apparel Coalition developed by the Sustainable Development Alliance (Coalition).

The higher the score, the more positive the influence will be.

"I feel that besides the industry itself, consumer awareness is also improving," Kruse said. "However, many things are progressing too slowly."

Structural obstacles

Simone Cipriani says slow progress is only a token of bigger problems.

Simone Cipriani is the founder of the Ethical Fashion Initiative, which is commissioned by the United Nations to serve as a liaison between the international fashion brands such as Stella McCartney and Kenya, Indonesia, Ethiopia and Afghanistan.

Cipriani said: "people have always wanted to adopt a more general ethical framework, but the business mode of the industry is still structured around the cost of labor.

A few years ago, our report was still unattended.

Now, almost everyone is scrambling for our report.

The United Nations economist pointed out the phenomenon of "bottoming out" in the fashion industry, or the internal pressure to maximize profit margins by maximizing production costs and providing attractive low prices to consumers, which in turn lured many people to buy more clothes.

In addition, when discussing this complex problem, the impact of automation on employment and wages is also an important factor to consider.

At the Copenhagen fashion summit and the annual global fashion agenda annual conference this year, Kruse and Target, Kering, and other fashion industry leaders unveiled a CEO Agenda report.

The core idea of the report is to create a framework for promoting sustainable development as the guiding principle followed by the executives of fashion enterprises, whose main body includes seven priorities.

As a supplement to the agenda, the 2020 year old fashion system commitment was also composed of a series of objectives designed to abolish the so-called "linear" expenditure system for recycling, resale and reuse.

According to the global fashion agenda, as of June 2018, 94 companies signed this commitment.

Whether these companies can achieve their goals and press them down, but their signature signifies that the fashion industry has started from the top level, and has changed the business mode in a mild, if not primary way.

But as long as the fashion industry continues to produce T-shirts priced at 5 US dollars, and drives the trend and fashion season to run endlessly, people have reason to doubt whether substantive changes will occur.

Some have openly stated that these measures are sheer hypocrisy.

"A product needs sowing, planting, harvesting, combing, spinning, knitting, cutting, sewing, decorating, printing, labeling, packaging and shipping so many links. How can it cost only a few euros?" fashion trend forecaster Li Edelkoort launched a complaint against fashion in the 2015 Anti- Fashion Manifesto.

"Consumers will naturally be tempted by these prices, and they will not boycott these companies," she continued. At the same time, the companies that copied the works of Hedi Slimane and Christopher Bailey earned money and were not punished by any law.

Easier said than done.

If you think Edelkoort is too harsh or unfair to judge the overall progress of the industry, it may hurt your heart, so take the time to figure out the following figures.

The Walk Free Foundation predicts that there are 4300 million people in the world currently enslaved, and the fashion industry is the second most important culprit behind science and technology.

In addition, according to the data released by the International Labour Organisation in 2016, 1 of every 10 children are forced to work, which is equivalent to 150 million child workers worldwide.

"You can't just talk nonsense, you have to put it into action," said Omoyemi Akerele, founder of Style Fashion Files, Lagos Fashion and Design Week.

In Akerele's view, the current discussion has not yet touched on some very important elements, such as how to make people realize that it is wrong to dump clothing waste in the third world countries.

I come from a country where second-hand clothing is shipped all over the world, "she continued." imagine what we can do without assuming that rubbish. Imagine what it will do to our local retail industry.

Another topic that is suppressed by vested interests is the impact of e-commerce on the environment.

Research shows that e-commerce can not only offset the environmental impact of physical retail, but also generate more carbon footprint.

Just imagine how many cardboard and plastic bubbles will be handled by Amazon Prime members every year.

For such complex problems, although there is no conclusion yet, it is clear that the fashion industry has yet to curb its environmental impact.

In fact, according to a report by Quantis in 2018, if the production continues at the current rate, the impact of the fashion industry on climate will be increased by 49% by 2030.

Cognitive disorder

The biggest stumbling block we face is: as long as garment production continues to be based on the current consumption culture, resources will eventually be depleted, and landfills will be more and more.

And for this consumption culture, it is the greedy companies that ignore the bottom line and pursue growth and expansion.

"Circular economy" can become the preferred path for sustainable future. It has a reason to follow. It has more advantages than the other development mode which reduces the economic scale.

Even the most sincere and conscientious brand will face this fact.

Although it is clear that we need to do the right thing in the fashion field, fashion itself is the opposite, which makes their cognitive dissonance.

He said, "I am not sustainable in this industry," said Shivam Ponjya, who founded sustainable brand Behno in New York in 2013.

In the heat of the building tragedy, he began to do the opposite thing: set up a garment factory in India, where the wages of workers are higher than the minimum wage and enjoy medical care.

"There is always a link in the process that cannot be sustained," Punjya admits. "But I think our goal should be to achieve sustainable development as far as possible after understanding the system we are working on."

Suzanne Rae is an active designer in New York. Her product of the same name is designed to combine sustainable practice with feminist consciousness, but the contradiction between production and sustainable development has left her at a loss.

In recent years, with the growth of demand for retail partners such as No. 6 and Opening Ceremony, Rae has expanded its business scale.

We only do (spring, summer, autumn and winter two seasons).

I can't do another season.

"I don't want to oversupply," she paused. "Development means more resources. I can hardly accept that."

"To be honest, I don't know the answer," she continued. "But I really feel that in the final analysis, it's about caring for yourself and caring for others, so that we can achieve sustainable development and ethical practice."

Progress, but not perfect.

Although the fashion industry is full of contradictions between sustainable development and capitalism, early fashion entrepreneurs such as Punjya and Rae still provide a glimmer of hope.

For Isko, the world's largest denim manufacturer, striving for sustainable development means reducing the use of chemical products in dyeing and allowing all 3000 employees to join trade union organizations.

"In terms of definition, fashion is not sustainable, from pportation to ownership, to leasing and resale," said Fabio Di Liberto Liberto, director of brand. "We are not encouraging consumption reduction, but encouraging better consumption and better quality consumption."

Isko has more than 2000 customers, producing denim for many retailers from Reformation to Stella McCartney.

This year, the company has carried out life cycle assessment of all the fabrics it produces.

Inclusiveness and pluralism

Another tiny but optimistic sign of fashion progress is the diversity of the cover of this year's 9 monthly magazine. From Beyonc cover's cover page of the US version of Vogue to Tiffany Haddish, the cover of the American version of Glamour is numerous.

And this year there are many magazines with black women as cover models.

For example, the Canadian version of Elle invited the Tracee Ellis Ross, and the British version of Vogue invited Rihanna, the US version Marie Claire, Zendaya Elle, Slick Elle, and "the".

"This is really meaningful.

This shows the trend of the future -- not only on the cover, but also on the creative staff behind the scenes, from directing to photography to modeling, "says Akerele, who seems to be very relieved because this generation of young black women may not have to rely on" Essence "and" Ebony "to understand what the next beauty product for black women is.

Obviously, there is still a long way to go to correct the problem of diversification in the fashion industry. Some people have warned that the fashion industry must be vigilant in order to prevent the present outcome from going away.

At the board and chief executive level, the level of gender diversification is still very low.

Nearly 3/4 of the 15's biggest fashion companies are male.

Last year, however, marked the most diversified coverage of magazine covers all over the world.

Interestingly, the largest proportion of non white people on the cover last year was the Arabia version of "Vogue" published in Dubai. The cover of the 12 issue magazine was presented by non white models, and invited a number of celebrities such as Imaan Hammam, Halima Aden, Rihanna and Jourdan Dunn to play the leading role.

"When I hope to lie in bed at night, I will tell myself that I did the right thing," explained Manuel Arnaut, editor in chief of the magazine.

"When I was a young reporter, I often heard the older editors say that if the cover was a black model, then the magazine would not sell well," Arnaut said. "But the best cover for us is the black women, the older women and the full grown women."

Whether it is from pluralism, sustainable development or ethics, Arnaut's simple observation conveys an important message.

That is, people often tell us that the two balances with moral balance and enjoying commercial success are opposite.

But as long as we have enough determination, cooperation and commitment to constantly push forward the fashion industry, doing the right thing can also mean making profitable things.

Besides, do we really have other choices?