Ethics In Fashion

By Danielle Horanieh

I’d like to think I’m a pretty socially aware gal. I recycle. I volunteer. I buy organic, sustainable products and use a reusable bag whenever and as often as I can. But I’ve always had a weakness for clothing—lots of it.

Once a year, I perform a ritual “closet cleanse” and donate all the clothing I haven’t worn in the past year to the Salvation Army. It’s helped me realize (not proudly) how little I once considered the social and environmental impact the production, manufacturing and purchasing of clothes has on the world.

Since 2008, Americans have spent $250 billion on clothing and accessories every year. Worldwide, the fashion industry employs 25 million people. That’s an enormous amount of lives being impacted by American spending.

In my search for easier ways to shop consciously and understand the impact this pleasure of mine has on the world, I recently came across a new column in Good Magazine, Ethical Style: Fashion Advice for the Socially Conscious.Its author and creator Tabea Kay raises interesting questions to both companies and consumers. Why has the industry been slow to respond to its increasingly socially-conscious consumers? How can caring consumers who lack industry know-how spot the difference between greenwashing and actual commitment to better practices?

Today, the demand for socially and environmentally conscious business practices is growing. Consider the recent consumer backlash about working conditions at Foxconn, the Chinese factory where our dear and coveted Apple gadgets are produced.

For companies in fashion, an industry that’s long had a bad rep, this is an opportunity to creatively use brand to change the way they’re perceived in the world. It’s time to listen to the people who buy their products and change their business practices to give consumers (like me!) more ways to feel good about associating with them.

So how do you shift the conversation from apathetic to empathetic, from pretentious to considerate?  Some brands are beginning to make headway in sustainable business practices: H&M has integrated organic and recycled raw material in their supply chain and Stella McCartney has been called “a forerunner of vegan fashion.”

Still, in H&M’s case, their sustainability efforts are dulled by a focus on throwaway fashion that only lasts a season. The waste piles up in our closets and then, our landfills. In regards to Ms. McCartney, her line, as ethical as it sounds, is hardly accessible to the main street consumer. The solution doesn’t scale.

Part of the problem is linguistic. Most industry leaders don’t have the language to conceive of what “ethical fashion” could be. To help, a U.K. non-profit called the Ethical Fashion Forum has begun creating guidelines for sustainable fashion. They call it the “triple bottom line.” Ethical Style summarized it briefly as “a sustainable company must consider the people, the earth, and the bottom line.”

I applaud the EFF for providing information and sustainable guidance to fashion industry leaders, but there is still another gap that needs to be filled. Consumers also need better language and information to guide their shopping decisions; in this sense, fashion is several large steps behind the food industry.

As consumers become more aware of their role in the global economy, new factors affect all of our buying decisions: What we buy and where it comes from reflects who we are. Right now, this presents a challenge, but also a unique opportunity for fashion companies to educate and engage their customers. What if they looked to the food industry as a model for how to build consumer loyalty by giving them more information?

Danielle Horanieh is an account manager at Wolff Olins NY. 

Image via myfashionlife.com/