Holistic approach to the sustainable fashion industry.

Fashion, like all ecosystems, is dynamic and complex. This is why holistic thinking is so important. The fashion system has both intangible and tangible components. All of which have connections with each other. The watchword of the fashion industry In the 20th century was ‘take, make, and waste’. This analytical model is the foundation of the linear economy, in which raw materials are gathered, turned into products that are briefly used, and then discarded. It has resulted in the global fashion and textiles industry being one of the most polluters on the planet. Each month, billions of garments are produced, and inevitably they are ending up in mountains of waste in countries such as Ghana, Burkina Faso, and Ivory coast.

Source: Image by mario_luengo on Freepik

Fashion industry has a major negative impact on natural ecosystem and people. Approximately 17-20% of the world’s water is polluted as a result of the use of nearly 8000 synthetic chemicals in its processing. Non-organic cotton uses 25% of the world’s pesticides. The majority of these pollutants are caused not only by clothing manufacturing countries, but by cotton producing regions, chemical and synthetic material producers, and, most importantly, by western clothing consumers. To encourage people to stop buying “fast fashion” and actively seek out more information about the clothing they are buying, it is crucial to increase public understanding of the problems at hand.

Fun fact: It is believed that the protagonists of “slow fashion” were Hippies, who favoured locally sourced, handcrafted, and pesticide-free goods, popularized ethical fashion in the 1970s.

In general, holistic thinking in fashion refers to higher socioeconomic, ethical, and environmental standards for clothing production. Basically covers all the aspects of the industry: customers’ education, environmentally friendly production, product life cycle, supply chain and sourcing, waste and recycling, ecodesign, etc. Each of the mentioned areas only partially relates to the “bigger picture”. To create truly sustainable clothing, you must consider a variety of factors and relation between them. You have to remember not only about bigger scale tasks but even about such “details“ as building corridors for wild animals in cotton fields. This is where holistic thinking allows you to look into the problem in its full extent.

The issues to be dealt with are on several levels. Let’s look at some of them while thinking about more holistic solutions.

Consumers

There are numerous reasons why the industry falls short of achieving sustainability. People desire to see trendy clothing arrive on retail shelves on a regular basis. As a result, brands tend to focus on low-cost garments with short manufacturing times in factories. Fast fashion let consumers to purchase latest fashion on demand at extremely low prices.  But they never consider who pays the cost for cheap clothes. Low price suggests also that the clothes are disposable. Shopping is frequently used as an emotional release, a sense of control, or as an escape. Understanding of such wants and needs, which might also affect how people shop. Customers’ behaviour must be changed in order to enforce the sustainable fashion movement.

Designers

Designers visualise our fashion. It depends on them how and what our clothes are made of. By choosing eco-fabrics and styles that will ensure the durability and longevity of the garment, they could change the existing trends. If their product were multifunctional, it would become a classic style, showing customers new values ​​in fashion. But for that to happen, they need to be educated from the beginning.  Fashion school, could be also  a sustainability school –  showing to the students their responsibility, the eco-materials and resource-saving aspect of the manufacturing process.

Celebrities & media

Today’s media plays a significant role in shaping consumers’ fashion aspirations and desires. Fashion magazines and mainstream newspapers tell us what’s hot and what’s not, what colours to wear and which styles to avoid. Also celebrities are the most influential people in our culture and society. Fans all over the world copy their style and fashion. Celebrity and media could contribute to the environmental and social impacts of sustainability by putting th pressure to textile and clothing manufacturers, but the most challenge consumers to change their habits of fast fashion and unnecessary cheap clothing consumption and dumping.

Retailers & brands:

Nobody in business wants to reduce consumption in a world dominated by profit.  As a result, businesses will never promote changes in consumer behaviour. For brands and retailers sustainable approach requires a holistic look and taks an effort by engaging all counter parts in the complex supply chain. Few well-known companies and retailers discover that sustainable fashion sells and can be profitable as well as financially rewarding. But they are under a great deal of pressure to secure a profit that they previously made with fast fashion and paradigm of growth.

Manufacturers:

Factories are still typically powered by coal, oil, and natural gas. A massive amount of fibre, the sector’s most valuable raw material, is thrown away or burned. Factories need to learn and practice ethical production and CSR. They  have to rearrange their corporate behaviour, employee training and invest money in nature-based knowledge and technology. It all starts with suppliers of raw materials and working out the code of ethics with them, ensuring no child labor or forced labor, and fair price for fair payment are in place. Next steps are innovation, collaboration, process optimization, sustainability reporting, and greening the supply chain.

Educator

Textile and fashion schools offer degrees in textile engineering, apparel manufacturing, fashion design, and fashion management. If sustainability were a core component of graduates’ curriculum, they would have a strong understanding and opportunity to create sustainable fashion. Universities could initiate and fund research projects on sustainable fashion and collaborate with industry and institutions. The industry itself could fund research projects and encourage competition for sustainable fashion industry solutions. From an entrepreneurial standpoint, we must all unite under the banner of sustainability. Our challenge will be pollution prevention, recycling water and waste, using alternative energy to power factories, sustainable technology, corporate social responsibility, human and labour rights, transparency, design and materials used and chain supply management.