Can Fashion Designers Really Learn to Be Sustainable?

 

In recent years, sustainability has become an increasingly ubiquitous buzzword in the fashion industry. Customers say they want to be ethical consumers, buying vintage and upcycling on Depop. Reformation calls itself the most sustainable option other than being naked, while Eileen Fisher has pledged to use “sustainable materials” in 100 percent of its products. 

Yet what sustainability actually means in this context has become increasingly nebulous. H&M launched a 2019 Conscious collection that was anything but ecoconscious; ASOS advertised nonrecyclable pants as 100 percent recyclable; and Uniqlo appointed a cartoon cat as its global sustainability ambassador while depriving Vietnamese garment workers millions in severance pay. 

 marketing only goes so far in an industry responsible for 10 percent of global carbon emissions, rapid deforestation, and 60 million tons of plastic waste per year — including microplastics that get released into the ocean and atmosphere whenever we wear or wash polyester. Not to mention the industry’s human cost: Per the Clean Clothes Campaign, only about 2 percent of the world’s 60 million garment workers earn a living wage.