Eco-Chic: How the Fashion Industry is Changing for the Better

Sustainable fashion is a term describing efforts within the fashion industry to reduce its environmental impacts, protect workers producing garments and uphold animal welfare. Sustainability in fashion encompasses a wide range of factors, including cutting CO₂ emissions, addressing overproduction, reducing pollution and waste, supporting biodiversity and ensuring that garment workers are paid a fair wage and have safe working conditions. 

In 2020, it was found that voluntary, self-directed reform of textile manufacturing supply chains by large companies to reduce the environmental impacts was largely unsuccessful. Measures to reform fashion production beyond greenwashing require policies for the creation and enforcement of standardized certificates, along with related import controls, subsidies, and interventions such as eco-tariffs.

Fashion industry followers believe the business sector can act more sustainably by pursuing profit and growth. The movement believes that clothing companies should incorporate environmental, social and ethical improvements on management’s agenda. This may include increasing the value of local production and products; prolonging the lifecycle of materials; and reducing waste. Another goal may be to educate people to practice environmentally friendly consumption by promoting the “green consumer”.Critics doubt the effectiveness that this has. The discussions following the Burberry report of the brand burning unsold goods worth around £28.6 million (about $37.8 million) in 2018, which is an overproduction.

Aesthetic and social preferences of fashion change over time, leading to some items becoming obsolete and affecting garment lifespans. The fast fashion business model became dominant in the 21st century, leading to an increase in consumption of inexpensive garments. This model can disincentives companies from making durable products. It also has significant health and environmental risks impacting developing countries and garment workers. The “slow” movement, particularly slow food, has been proposed as an alternative to improve the sustainability of fashion.

One of the main social issues related to fashion concerns labor. Whilst the majority of fashion and textiles are produced in Asia, Central America and North Africa, there is still production across Europe where exploitative working conditions are also found, such as in Leicester and Central and Eastern Europe. The fashion industry has racial, class and gender inequalities. Local production is engaged in global sourcing of labor exploitation. At least 25 million people, the majority of whom are women, work in garment manufacture. Women and workers in the garment manufacturing industry face serious occupational hazards. Worker exposure to hazardous substances can affect health and lead to long-term occupational diseases, posing major challenges to worker well-being and industry regulation. 

Over the last years, over 150 major brands have publicised information about their factories online. Every year, Fashion Revolution publishes a Fashion Transparency Index. The high place of several fast fashion retailers caused controversy regarding the parameters used for such rankings.The most sustainable fibers in fashion are the ones many people already have. Thus, to recirculate existing garments, new business models engage the resale, revival, and recirculation of used, second-hand or vintage clothing. 

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