Planet
Planet is a pillar in the fashion industry, which is becoming increasingly more significant with regards to the climate emergency and a quest for sustainability. Sustainability has been described as “meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” (Brundtland, 1987) and has often been sidelined in the name of profit in our market-driven economy.
Fashion is important to consider in this instance, particularly with the current linear model of production used. This has been described as a 3-step process of ‘take, make and waste’ (Ellen McArthur Foundation, 2021) or alternatively, the infamous term ‘fast fashion’ (Condé Nast, 2020) which negatively impacts the environment and fails to take into consideration a garment’s ‘end-of-life’ (Gwilt, 2020) stage.
Despite our current trajectory in the fashion industry, solutions are slowly increasing in number. One of these is the circular economy, which focuses on reducing waste and pollution, so that repetitive cycles of recovery and regeneration can take place (Condé Nast, 2020). This means that clothes are designed in a way that could appeal to the consumer in a recurrent fashion, perhaps as an up-cycled or reworked piece. The fashion designer Patrick McDowell’s initiative called ‘Reimagine’ demonstrates craft of use, as familiar clothes are remade or reworked to whatever the client requests, whether that be accessories or even interiors.
Sustainability in fashion is not altogether limited to this end-of-life aspect, as all stages of production are known to be environmentally taxing on the planet (Rimarcikova, 2023).
The UN has introduced Sustainable Development Goals in order to combat this, with the hope that by 2030, the planet will be in a better environmental position. Goal 9 within this framework is industry, innovation and infrastructure (UN, 2023) and one way of achieving this would be using recycled materials, as brands such as Stella McCartney, Patagonia and House of Sunny already do. This would satisfy the circular economy model as the end of one garment’s life marks the start of another. Also, simple innovations such as using paper bags in retail instead of plastic could greatly reduce the global problems of plastic pollution, as this extensively used packaging option could be phased out for biodegradable alternatives. Investment in renewable energy would reduce carbon emissions in the production of clothes, which is also necessary to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.
Brundtland, G.H. (1987). Report of the World Commission on Environment and Development: Our Common Future. [online] United Nations. Available at: https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/content/documents/5987our-common-future.pdf [Accessed 4 Oct. 2023].
Condé Nast, Centre for Sustainable Fashion and London College of Fashion (2020)a Condé Nast Sustainable Fashion Glossary.[online] www.condenast.com. Available at: https://www.condenast.com/glossary/f/fast-fashion [Accessed 7Oct. 2023].
Condé Nast, Centre for Sustainable Fashion and London College of Fashion (2020)b Condé Nast Sustainable Fashion Glossary.[online] www.condenast.com. Available at: https://www.condenast.com/glossary/c/circular-economy [Accessed 4 Oct. 2023].
Ellen MacArthur Foundation (2023). What is the linear economy? [online] ellenmacarthurfoundation.org. Available at:https://ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/what-is-the-linear-economy [Accessed 7 Oct. 2023].
Gwilt, A. (2020). The Life Cycle of a Garment. In A Practical Guide to Sustainable Fashion (pp. 22–45). London: Bloomsbury Visual Arts. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.5040/9781350067059.ch-002 [Accessed 3 Oct. 2023].
patrickmcdowell. (n.d.). Reimagine. [online] Available at: https://patrickmcdowell.co.uk/pages/reimagine [Accessed 7 Oct. 2023].
Rimarcikova, K. (2023) Planet Earth and Fashion lecture [Accessed 2 Oct. 2023].
UN (2023). The Sustainable Development Goals Report Special Edition. [online] United Nations. Available at: https://ual-moodle-sitedata.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/9b/6a/9b6a64041b4f79fe0c4219930aed42073c61c12d?response-content-disposition=inline%3B%20filename%3D%22The-Sustainable-Development-Goals-Report-2023.pdf%22&response-content-type=application%2Fpdf&X-Amz-Content-Sha256=UNSIGNED-PAYLOAD&X-Amz-Algorithm=AWS4-HMAC-SHA256&X-Amz-Credential=AKIA2PCH3OG65JHUZNKL%2F20231006%2Feu-west-2%2Fs3%2Faws4_request&X-Amz-Date=20231006T130200Z&X-Amz-SignedHeaders=host&X-Amz-Expires=21540&X-Amz-Signature=d987fba61bee70dbf4d359cb3c85ac86f8d05bfa77a347e3856e18ac11ee11c9 [Accessed 6 Oct. 2023].