Sustainable Fashion

Define the Term

Sustainable fashion refers to clothing and outfits produced through a sustainable and environmentally friendly process.

Shockingly, the fashion industry is responsible for approximately 10 percent of all carbon emissions each year. This rate is estimated to reach up to 15 percent by 2030. As one of the biggest industries in the world, the threat fashion has brought to our future is unlimited. Some examples of how an “environmentally friendly process” is conducted include restricting carbon emissions, reducing the overproduction rate, and employing biodegradable fabrics all while ensuring that all garment workers earn a fair wage and work in a fine environment. Some concepts of sustainable fashion include buying quality over quantity, purchasing products from sustainable fashion brands, investing in second-hand clothing, and renting outfits if they’re for a single use. Just as the CEO of Eco-Age Harriet Vocking has said, “What are you buying and why? What do you really need? Will you wear it at least 30 times?” With the emergence of fast fashion, consumers begin to value the quantity of clothing more than their quality, greater demand in the production of clothing brings about greater fabric waste as well as environmental damage.

With that said, an act and market strategy to be aware of is “greenwashing,” also known as green sheen. This term describes situations where companies and brands make up or exaggerate the sustainability benefits or environmental practices of their products, hoping to obtain a greater range of customers and raise the price of what is sold. As small quantities of customers started to recognize the negative environmental impact on the fashion industry, their demands for “environmentally friendly” became a weakness for unethical companies and brands to target and acquire profits from. Aside from the directions stated above, the consumer may also search for certifications and alignments with institutions and agreements such as the Global Organic Textile Standard, Forest Stewardship Council, Science Based Targets Initiative, Bluesign, and the Paris Agreement. By participating and contributing to sustainable practices, even a little act would be dedicated to the recovery of our beloved Earth.

PROS

Advantages of purchasing products from sustainable fashion brands and companies include reducing both the overuse of natural resources and carbon emissions. It is said that the water consumed to produce ordinary fabric may hydrate 5 million people each year. Employing “organic fabric” instead of mass-produced fabric further reduces 46% of ordinary carbon footprints. Recycling programs and stations established by sustainable fashion companies also lessen the waste of fabric and provide thrown-away clothing with another new life. One of the main principles of sustainable fashion incorporates using “vegan and animal-friendly materials” instead of animal leather and body parts. This act aligns with plenty of religion’s practices of rejecting animal-based products, as well as minimizing unethical exercises such as illegal hunting and trafficking. Since “labor rights” belong to one of the principles of sustainable fashion industries, employees working under the sustainable fashion brand would be granted fair wages, transparent supply chains, and legal working hours. In Story Wear’s case, these opportunities are given to vulnerable communities and women, allowing them to bring them a steady income and, at the same time promote hand-made and low carbon emission production processes. Besides that, outfits and fabric produced by sustainable fashion companies would oftentimes bear a higher quality and structural integrity. Along with transforming second-hand clothing into new clothing, sustainable acts like this allow customers to save financial resources by consuming long-lasting garments while reducing microplastic production and implementing “circular fashion” into their daily lives. To end, buying sustainable fashion industry products is surprisingly associated with health, as more than 8,000 varieties of chemicals are employed in general fashion industries, which may potentially lead to allergies, cancer, and skin irritations. One instance is the “azo dye,” which is a chemical hazard utilized in most dying processes of garments. These toxic dyes are known to be “carcinogenic.” This means that there is a high potential for contacted individuals to be at risk of cancer. To conclude, declining against the general fabric and relying more on sustainable fashion brands, therefore, provides the customer a choice to own higher quality, environmentally friendly, animal friendly, and better health, labor benefited products.

CON

Some disadvantages of sustainable fashion brands include the unfortunate reality that sustainable fashion brands lie rare in the market. This makes all the advantages listed previously difficult to achieve and apply in a mass manner. Nevertheless, according to a report in 2019, more than 93% of all fashion industries are not paying garment and fabric labor enough wages for a living. Another disadvantage of sustainable fashion lies in its price. Although a long-term investment in sustainable fashion products may be cheap and high in price-performance ratio, in a short-term phase, the fabric and garment may appear expensive. This means that the option of purchasing sustainable products is less affordable for the ones who have greater priorities than sustainable clothing. Some of these individuals may be students, the poor, and ones in debt. This feature is the leading cause of why “sustainable products” are often associated with “high prices and rich individuals.” As mentioned when defining the term “sustainable fashion,” greenwashing has always been a misleading cause of why a portion of individuals refuse to purchase sustainable products. One example of greenwashing lies in Volkswagen's Clean Diesel event. Volkswagen, a German vehicle manufacturer, claimed that their new vehicle was more environmentally friendly than ordinary vehicles in the 2000s, declaring that their automobile holds better fuel efficiency and may therefore lower its carbon emissions. The marketing was successful. More than 550,000 automobiles were sold due to this false claim and the spread of disinformation, the cars were charged for approximately 28,000 each, bringing huge profits to the Volkswagen company. Seven years later, the Federal Trade Commission, or FTC, a US agency in charge of ensuring civil antitrust rights and laws, accused Volkswagen of their green sheen act. Behind the “sustainable” and “fewer carbon emissions” attributes, the truth reveals that the brand had secretly installed software that may steer carbon footprint tests, producing a false carbon release report, while emitting more carbon than general vehicles. From these facts and statements, we observe that the concept of sustainable fashion is not yet universal or widespread to any degree, the lack of knowledge and acknowledgment of this new industry are therefore misunderstood by the public. Consequently, the biodiversity, labor-friendly, and health benefits thereby are unable to be applied to a great number of individuals, and the advantages of “sustainability” would also be unable to shine.

Multiple Taiwan brands have started to establish sustainable goals. Since this project primarily focuses on Story Wear, one page would be entirely dedicated to the brand and Story Wear would therefore not be presented here.

Participation from Brands

Below are some of Taiwan’s sustainable brands

YNE, a brand based in Taiwan, aims to produce products with “zero waste.” In their RE-FYNE series, which originates from the Infinity Shirt Project, clothing is made out of plastic bottles transformed to yarn. By adjusting the yarn’s thickness and denier, the structural integrity and material quality are therefore modified into different compartments of outfits, such as but not limited to garment and zippers. FYNE also highlighted the series as “mono-material,” meaning that every product in the RE-FYNE series came from the same raw material, plastic bottles. These clothing are able to be recycled and even upcycled after each use, enhancing its sustainability. Another project of FYNE, the Daft Program, incorporates recycling second-hand clothing of their own brand, while giving back the customer up to 200 dollars NTD. This way, not only would the customers get a discount on their next purchase, the clothing they recycled would be able to upcycle and be remade into a new outfit, waiting for its next purchase.

Another popular sustainable fashion brand is Twine. Twine uses materials such as organic cotton, organic wool, organic jute, plant dyeing, hand-woven fabrics, rice bags, cement bags, recycled fabric, recycled glass, recycled metal, etc. Nettle, hemp, sea grass, alpaca wool, cashmere, yak wool, raw silk, banana silk, pineapple fiber, olive wood, mango wood, mahogany wood, are recycles saree are also incorporated in some of Twine’s design. Aiming to become the most influential sustainable fashion brand, Twine is recognized as a formal member of the World Fair Trade Organization, or WFTO. Nevertheless, all products are handmade. Twine produces handmade products not only to reduce environmental impact to the lowest degree possible, but also to increase job opportunities so people in need of financial assistance have access to a secure wage. Some techniques include hand weaving, block printing, hand knitting, hand embroidering, and natural dying.

THE HISTORY

During the 60s and 70s in the United States, sustainable fashion first emerged in the form of “second-hand outfits” and “vintage remakes.” The Hippies Movement is a classic example of this. The Hippies were a group of “rebellious” middle-class youth who opposed ordinary trends in the US, including nuclear weapons, the Vietnam War, conservative sexual orientations, and so on. A significant portion of these individuals are vegetarian and support eco-friendly concepts. Their lifestyle was completely different from the US’s materialistic manner of living. Some characteristics include long hair, long beards, wearing sandals, granny glasses, granny dresses, and oftentimes isolating themselves from the general US community. “Make love, not war,” was one of the most used and heard slogans of the Hippies. In terms of clothing style, the hippies often wore branded necklaces, leather clothing, headscarves, headbands, and dresses. Clothing often looks enthusiastic and joyful, reflecting their positive and anti-war vibe, this is also why the hippies were known as “flower children.” Since the hippies valued the environment, not only were used garments transformed into new outfits, but most Hippie clothing was also hand-made. Each piece of clothing is original and creative, coming from the hands of private designers and businesses owned by Hippies themselves, representing each Hippie’s personality and preferences.

A decade after the establishment of Hippie culture, Punk subculture arrived in the US as well. The Punks also rejected norms in the US. Some characteristics include belief in anarchy, rejecting religious influences, and promoting freedom, rebelling against mainstream values, particularly in North American areas. The Punks were especially known for their styling. Fabric and materials such as leather, denim, and metal ornaments were employed in their outfits. Trousers, vests, metal chains, tartans, motorcycle jackets, and tear pants and shirts were also a part of their style. The Punk’s rejection of mass-produced clothing and the act of “upcycling clothes” aligns with sustainable fashion’s concept of “quality over quantity.” The Punk subculture continued until the 1980s, and by then, the Punks actively participated in protecting animal rights as well as the environment. Some common features of the Hippies and the Punks are their principle of equality, freedom, and individuality. Marking the first appearances of sustainable fashion, the two communities both encouraged hand-made and secondhand clothing. Despite being criticized for extreme and aggressive rebellions and style, “neglecting the norm” surely and surprisingly brought about the establishment of sustainable fashion, laying the foundation for today’s eco-friendly fashion trend.

In the 80s, four main events occurred. First of the list, the concept of “upcycling” and “secondhand clothing” was popularized due to the previous influence of the Punk and Hippie culture. Vintage brands and shops prevailed among citizens, especially in the US, UK, Europe, Australia, Canada, and Japan. The second event was related to fashion designer Katharine Hamnett, known for her political clothing brands and her participation in ethical, ecological efforts in the fashion industry. Her brand has long committed to sustainable efforts years before sustainable clothing became mainstream. Katharine Hamnett is also known as the first to begin the trend of inputting organic cotton and shredded denim into products. The third event “anti-fur movement” was the beginning of the ethical fashion trend. The Trans Species Unlimited (TSU) and Coalition to Abolish the Fur Trade (CAFT) were two animal rights organizations that initiated the first non-violent protest against illegal activities for animal fur. Their effort later turned into the well-known anti-fur movement and became a significant portion of sustainable fashion trends in the present day. Enough with the positive influences and attempts in the 80s, fast fashion became increasingly in demand and popular in this decade. Lower-income countries took fast fashion as a chance to gain profit. The mass-produced clothing industry came with environmental suffrages such as textile waste, water consumption, illegal labor, carbon emissions, plastic microbites, and more. This trend went against the principles and qualities of sustainable fashion, however, the cheap price and upcoming fashion trends made fast fashion even more prominent, leading to a decline in sustainable fashion industries.

In the 90s, fast fashion and sustainable fashion both grew and developed in different areas. Fast fashion became prominent among brands such as Zara, H&M, and Topshop, while sustainable fashion such as People Tree marked its place in eco-friendly markets. The term “fast fashion” first emerged in a New York Times article describing the event where Zara settled down in New York and attempted to make fashion affordable and available for all. Climate change and carbon emission became a hot topic during the 90s. Individuals placed attention on the origins of pollutants, and this is, the factories. Inspection on the factories brought upon conversations of illegal labor, horrible working environments, as well as the consumption and environmental impacts of these mass-production machines. During this decade, fashion brands took the attention of environmental awareness as a chance for marketing. Green washing emerged. Despite misinformation and disinformation of “sustainability” for profits and marketing, a few remarkable sustainable fashion brands still stood out. Introducing Patagonia, an outdoor retailer brand. Patagonia was only one of the first brands to exclusively use organic cotton, but also one of the first few to incorporate plastic fleece. Today, the company uses 100% renewable energy and 76% renewable energy in a global context. Its clothing and outfits also aim for goals such as long-standing, high quality, with simple design, and recyclable. Another brand, People Tree, is founded by individuals who aim to reduce carbon footprints in Europe, explicitly using organic fiber as their clothing material and reducing carbon impact, water consumption, and chemical influences to the lowest degree possible.

In the 00s, the internet made marketing and trends spread even faster. Fast fashion especially, skyrocketed and became a huge trend among the working class. The monopolization of companies also started to occur. Bigger companies overthrew smaller, individual companies, and thereby manipulated the market. By then, the term “slow fashion” emerged. This concept is brought upon by Kate Fletcher, a sustainability activist and designer. This principle aligns with sustainable fashion and promotes fashion trends that support sustainable and ecological goals as well as the protection of human rights. In the 10s, particularly 24 April 2013, when 1,134 workers lost their lives in the Rana Plaza factory collapse. This incident led to a collective consciousness of environmental awareness among global citizens, sizable brands therefore began to incorporate “eco-friendly products” as a category of clothing. Until the 20s, greater efforts were made to turn garment production into a more sustainable process. No matter it’s the circulation of fabric, diversification of choices, increase of affordability, or a greater demand in sustainability, the 20s have it all. The efforts continue as greater attention and investment are put towards sustainable actions, a lot is expected in the following decade.