Fashions impact on the planet
Both as consumers of fashion and as a collective industry it is imperative we take social responsibility in implementing sustainable practices which support, regenerate and sustain our planet. As one of the four pillars which form the infrastructure of the fashion industry to maintain the structural integrity of the model it’s important we implement a circular economy.
As the second biggest industrial polluter where approximately 300,000 tonnes of clothing are thrown away each year, the fashion industry is one of the most wasteful on the planet. In theory a circular fashion structure should encourage the consumer to practice regenerating and recovering products at the end of each service life . This is a practice which is continually growing with resale platforms such as vinted.
“Yet in practice, scaling up the concept of a CE raises political economy questions that were not historically the focus of thinking in this arena and are only starting to be explored. For example, which types of firms, sectors and regions stand to gain from the shift to a circular economy? “ ( Felix Preston ,2012). This poses an interesting question regarding the gains of a CE upon the fashion industry specifically, as from a commercial standpoint the industry’s main aim is to create profit , but it is worth noting that within the industry it is widely accepted that without the implementation of sustainable practices within their own production , the longevity of the industry as a whole will slowly diminish. A previously nonchalant view of the impacts is forcing a paradigm shift in practices.
We often are faced with a rift in the industry, between luxury brands seen as a form of slow fashion and online fast fashion giants such as Shein growing exponentially in recent years, as Artisanal luxury companies started to face the competition of large multinational corporations (Li et al., 2015). “Fashion is an industry that knows it’s unsustainable, and luxury is at the top of that value chain,” (Michael Stanley-Jones, co-secretary of the UN Alliance for Sustainable Fashion, in Williams 2019).
Increased unethical practices are caused by the increase in fast fashion brands, and relate not only to the environmental impacts but the social implications; as outlined in the UN’s sustainable development goals, we must promote “responsible consumption and production” , something overlooked in fast fashion . Within production, unethical labour practices still appear to form the back bone of the industry, The fast fashion industry employs approximately 75 million factory workers worldwide. The textile industry also uses child labour particularly because it is often low skilled (Emma Ross, 2021). It is to be noted in recent years however, that the UN are working closely to change this, as on World Day Against Child Labour, June 12, 2023 they called for Universal ratification of ILO Convention No. 138 on Minimum Age, which, together with the universal ratification of ILO Convention No. 182 on Worst Forms of Child Labour achieved in 2020, would provide all children with legal protection against all forms of child labour.
The aim for 2030 is great but can the fashion industry help meet it?
Reference list
Bloomberg News. (2019, August 20). Gucci and Saint Laurent Face an Uphill Battle to Get Green.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2019-08-20/gucci-and-saint-laurent-face-an-uphill-battle-to-get-green?leadSource=uverify%20wall [Accessed 7/10/23]
Felix Preston (2012) “A Global Redesign? Shaping the Circular Economy”
“GWU International Law in Brief” (2021). Fast Fashion Getting Faster: A Look at the Unethical Labor Practices Sustaining a Growing Industry. GWU International Law in Brief.
https://studentbriefs.law.gwu.edu/ilpb/2021/10/28/fast-fashion-getting-faster-a-look-at-the-unethical-labor-practices-sustaining-a-growing-industy/. [Accessed 7/10/23]
United Nation (2023) Sustainable development goals .
https://sdgs.un.org/goals. [Accessed 7/10/23]
Li, Eric, Wing-sun Liu, Viahsta Yuan, Elita Lam and Magnum Lam (2015), “Democratization of Fashion: a Study of Co-Creation of Cultural Heritage”. http://www.acrwebsite.org/volumes/v43/acr_vol43_1019409.pdf. [Accessed 7/10/23]
United Nations (2023). World Day Against Child Labour.
https://www.un.org/en/observances/world-day-against-child-labour. [Accessed 7/10/23]
UK Parliament. (2019). Plastic Bottles: Turning Back the Plastic Tide. House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee.