The Importance Of Sustainability In Fashion

Introduction

Sustainability in corporate has been much talked about and more so in case of branding. But while a lot of focus is maintained on the sustainable practices, a lot more can be done when it comes to Fashion.

Fashion discussed upon here is the current trends in the textile industry. Sustainability is still a topic which seems to be the responsibility of someone else. A corporate or a society and as consumers we still seem to distance ourselves from the same. Through this article, I am trying to look at sustainability as a designers’ responsibility and the current trends and the customer mindset that prompts a designer to do so.

Consumer Mindset Studies

Since Fashion industry is extremely influenced by the consumer mindset, any study

The result is the growth of Fast Fashion. Fast Fashion is “ low-cost clothing collections based on current, high-cost luxury fashion trends—is, by its very nature, a fast-response system that encourages disposability (Fletcher 2008) “. Fast fashion is also called “McFashion” as it gives rise to instant gratification.

The few other studies reveal that the clothing purchase decision is actually a complex set of values like self-expression, price and comfort/usability. Some of these studies do suggest that a subset of the consumers do value ethical or sustainable clothing though they seems to form a secondary value. Hence the ethical concern should only be a value add and not the main focus. The focus should be on design. This is where designers come into

A 2012 survey of 4000 executives showed that 70% of the firms have sustainability on their agenda and 41% cited the common reason as customer preferences.

Apparel Industry

The global apparel industry has been a major contributor to the pollution hazards. Starting from the sourcing of the material to the dyes used to the process of creating these labels, it’s been affecting the pollution levels as well as the exploitation of the society. Globalization has only contributed much to it. Companies now source different ingredients from different places adding to the transportation issues. This is an issue tackled by the supply chain management. We now have terms like the green supply chain.

A look at the fashion industry and the influence the consumer mindset yields over it is apparent. In the past 10 years a close look at this industry reveals an emerging trend in the consumer mindset. It’s been termed as the ethical clothing consumption. We see the industry taking note of it as well.

1. Sustainable Fashion Bodies and Industry Initiatives- Structural