Week 12 - Even Fashion is sustainable?

What does it mean of wear sustainably?  Do we have the image in mind that there is a woman in a crumpled recycled-paper or newspaper dress which looks nothing pleasant at all?

Well, it used to be like that. Sustainable clothing used to mean dressing like a "1960s flowery bird" with clothes that are resembled recycled papers, available in limited stores. Because of that situation, sustainable clothing became an object that no one wants to touch as consumers did not want to sacrifice style for sustainability. However, nowadays sustainable clothing means nothing like that anymore.

Traditional sustainable clothing.

Sustainable Clothing now which makes textile from renewable wood fibres. 

It is said that it has finally come to a new era that sustainability becomes a trend in fashion design. Nowadays, sustainable fashion product is much easier to find, some brands are even using sustainability as their brands' concept. And the products from these brands, compared to before, have been improved a lot in terms of aesthetics. Style and sustainability is finally co-existing in the fashion industry.

To achieve sustainability in their designs, designers are using materials that are safe and can be perpetually cycled. Of course, sense of beauty has to be embedded in the products. Not only for those self-design brands, some of the luxury brands has started to put fashion and sustainability as the priority of their products. For example, Stella McCarney and Maiyet. Also, as shown in pictures above, although the designers are choosing sustainable/ recyclable materials on clothing, for example, renewable wood fibres, it does not mean that it has to look like the "old fashion" way of the paper-bag kind of look.

In addition, sustainability in fashion is about "safeguarding the indefinite lifespan, diversity and productivity of our biological systems", means it is putting the endurance of environment's capacity at the first consideration.

It is not a particularly working sustainable solution for me, as I think that there are always barriers. Eco-fashion has a problem that the price would be higher than normal clothing. And consumers still tend to buy a $15 tee shirt which is the latest trend instead of a $45 one which is made of well crafted organic cotton. 

It is a significant barrier based on the consumers' behaviour. The fashion trend is generally moving very fast. Not like a luxury good field, for example, cars or buildings, in which design trend is moving rather slow. Consumers want their clothing fast and cheap, regardless the material and production process. It's probably because of the lack of information to the general public. For example, consumers might spend a few more cents on an organic fruit because they know it is good for their health. Yet they are not fully aware of the fact that the possibilities of the cheap products be exposed to toxic chemicals during the production process. 

Also, from the manufacturers' aspect, it is always the best to use the quickest and cheapest way to produce to improve their productivities. Even if the designers try to find the most sustainable ways to produce, manufacturers would finally turn down their proposal as it takes time and it is not productive. As a result, the production scale of sustainable products is still remaining small.

Maybe, it needs to be informative for the society to understand the importance to wear sustainably. It can be predicted that as long as the demand goes up with appropriate profit, the manufacture issue can be resolved naturally. So, let there be more education and promotion, let the society be healthy not only from the "inside", but also from the "outside".

Resources:
http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/life_and_entertainment/2016/05/21/1-sustainable-clothing-signals-design-focus.html
https://www.broadsheet.com.au/sydney/fashion/article/green-new-black
http://fashionista.com/2016/05/fashion-sustainability