Sustainable and Ethical Fashion
Sustainable and Ethical Fashion
Sustainability: “The
quality of being able to continue over a period of time; The quality of causing
little or no damage to the environment”
I think Sustainable Fashion is where
designers and consumers consider the each choice in the production, marketing, selling
and buying of the product to allow minimal impact on the environment to allow
the production to last for a long period of time.
- "Ethical Fashion Forum's"
definition is fashion that maximises benefits to people and minimises impact on
the environment.
- Deborah Campbell, Womenswear Designer,
states, “Sustainability to me, means ensuring that we don't impoverish the
planet for future generations. It's as simple as that.”
Ethical: “Relating
to beliefs about what is morally right and wrong”
I think Ethical Fashion focuses on the
social impact of the production, marketing, selling and buying of the product as
well as the environmental impact to ensure the product has not affected the
workers, animals or the environment in a negative way. It covers working
conditions, exploitation, fair trade, sustainable production, the environment and
animal welfare.
How is the
Fashion Industry Changing?
“I do think money will the devices to
make them more sustainable. I think it's only thing people respond to. So you
pay less taxes or less fees if your rubbish is less. So therefore, you will act
more sustainably.”
- I think that this is a very realistic opinion
of sustainable fashion. I feel that people nowadays will only do something if
they see themselves benefiting from it. They don’t consider the environmental
impact or the social impact of people living in poverty in other countries. I
think the reality of unsustainable clothes should be more of a concern, however
the idea of reducing taxes is reasonable and could help to reduce rubbish
globally.
Why is sustainability important for fashion
businesses?
Merryn
Leslie, Owner
of ‘69b Boutique’
I think sustainability offers the
possibility to, one, be smart, and people will respond to that and appreciate
that. And secondly, it can give your brand and edge that possibly would be
slightly ahead of the curve because the industry is moving in that direction.
- I think this is a good way to encourage
businesses starting up to begin sustainable and ethical which will mean
eventually most business are eco friendly, however I also believe that sustainable
fashion should be a trend, but rather a solution to an issue we have created
that needs to be solved.
Russell
Spiller, Company
Director of ‘Mantis World’
You have to be very commercial to be a
survivor in the fashion industry to start with. So that's almost a given. But
it doesn't mean to say that you necessarily have to buy the cheapest product or
the most ill-conceived and sourced product because of that. It's a fantastic
opportunity to combine for me, especially, my love and joy of the fashion
industry in the sector that we work, but also doing it in the correct, and
ethical, and sustainable way.
- I think this is a very important but also
very hard as yes businesses could start sustainable and ethical which will
result in more good brands, but realistically, people starting up businesses
may not have the money or means to use high quality, Eco-friendly fabrics and
other materials, and therefore I feel that the suitable fabrics and ethical
fabrics should not be priced unnecessarily high due to their idea, but instead
should be just as available as the fabrics we shouldn’t be using.
Fast fashion
One of the big factors that oppose
sustainable and ethical fashion is ‘Fast Fashion’ because where there used to be only 2 or 4 fashion seasons per
year, there are now as many as 52 micro-seasons per
year. ‘Fast Fashion’ has meant that more cheap and disposable
clothing is being produced which results in more of this output being thrown
away. The EPA estimates that about 14 million tonnes of clothing is thrown away
each year, of which 84% goes into landfills.