Redress Design Award

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The Need for Speed in Fashion’s Transformation By Bel Jacobs

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Few doubt that 2020 will go down in history as one to remember. Against a backdrop of flood, drought, famine and forest fires, the result of the extreme weather patterns caused by global warming, COVID-19 has exposed millions to uncertain futures, transforming the way we work, socialise and shop for the foreseeable future. And it looks as though fashion is one of the worst hit. Supply chains have been decimated, retail outlets closed and companies have gone out of business. The top 200 apparel companies reported a 34% decrease in sales in the second quarter of 2020 (1).

In the midst of their struggle to adjust, brands cancelled orders with some refusing to pay for orders already made, leaving factories and garment workers high and dry and exposing a fashion system that is based on the endless consumption of new products, made by some of the world’s poorest people, who - when push comes to shove - will be abandoned.

“For decades, brands have wilfully profited from global supply chains which push suppliers into low price contracts, resulting in precarious and low paid employment for garment workers,” says campaign group, Labour Behind the Label. “Now the economic fallout of the pandemic is seeing garment workers lose their wages, their jobs and even their lives.”(2)

The timing couldn’t have been worse. For the past two years, fashion seemed to be waking up to its impacts - and to its responsibilities. Launched December 2018, the Fashion Industry Charter for Climate Action includes a target of 30% greenhouse gas emission reductions by 2030. In early 2019, the UN introduced the UN Alliance for Sustainable Fashion, designed to contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals through coordinated action. In August, at the G7 summit, Kering chief executive François-Henri Pinault was the driving force behind French President Emmanuel Macron’s new Fashion Pact (3). Meanwhile, Zalando, Europe’s largest fashion e-tailer, announced it would not stock brands that fail to meet minimum sustainability requirements by 2023.

Brand action has also been encouraging. Spanish mega-brand Zara has pledged to use 100% sustainable fabrics by 2025, following H&M’s commitment to 100% recycled or sustainable materials by 2030. Adidas intends to phase out virgin polyester by 2024. During Paris Fashion Week, LVMH announced commitments to the environment and biodiversity. Meanwhile, NGOs and campaign groups continue to raise questions, set standards and challenge bad practice. In an industry that produces 100 billion pieces of clothing a year, of which three fifths will end up in landfill within a year (4), the work of the Redress Design Award, for example, is invaluable in demonstrating the potential to turn that waste into beautiful clothing and educating future fashion professionals, consumers and the wider industry alike on the issues.

But what COVID-19 has made clear is that more needs to change and it needs to change faster. The fashion system itself - with its ideas of exponential growth, immeasurable waste with worker inequity and planetary pollution in between - is unsustainable. With all the will in the world, no eco fibre or renewable energy source will ever outweigh the effects of turbo-charged production and consumption levels.

“Even in the unlikely scenario that all textile producers would suddenly use sustainably-sourced and biodegradable materials, the industry’s total consumption of biomass and energy would still be unsustainable,” Wolfgang Blau, former Global Chief Operating Officer at Conde Nast told Global Fashion Agenda. “Any savings achieved are inevitably lost due to the rapidly increasing volume of sales and textile consumption per person.”(5)

Increasingly, consumers and brands are looking to governments and legislatures to bolster their efforts. Only governments have the power and scope to create change at the speed it needs to happen. When, in January 2020, France passed an anti-waste law banning designer clothes and luxury goods companies from destroying unsold or returned items through incineration, the fashion world took note (6). It is in this spirit, in the UK for example, that the campaign group Hubbub and All-Party Parliamentary Group for Ethics and Sustainability in Fashion teamed up earlier this year to produce a new report calling for the UK government to support the industry as it seeks to rebuild better from COVID-19.

‘Making the UK a leader in Sustainable Fashion’ report is informed by the work and the findings of a 2019 House of Commons Environment Audit Select Committee, during which fashion retailers, supply chain and environmental experts were challenged to explore new ways of addressing fashion’s footprint. Recommendations in the subsequent report “Fixing Fashion: Clothing Consumption and Sustainability” included strengthening the Modern Slavery Act; tracing the sources of raw materials and making fashion retailers take responsibility for the waste they create. It was historic but ephemeral: ministers turned around and rejected almost every recommendation.

“The ultimate political aim [of the report] was to get the new Environmental Audit Committee to go back, relook at those recommendations and say, yes, this is a priority,” admits Hubbub’s head, Trewin Restorick. “It’s to say: the industry has to change. The world is very different from when you did that first report. And it’s also to say the public, by and large, do support them.” And they really do: 66% of those polled by Hubbub backed increased investment in research and development to create more sustainable fabrics while 64% were in favour of clearer information and labelling to help educate consumers about their everyday choices.

As a micro-example of a global movement towards change in the fashion industry, the report shows that change is happening - and it’s happening amongst ordinary people, and most significantly, amongst younger people. According to Business of Fashion and McKinsey’s State of Fashion report 2019, nine out of 10 Gen-Z consumers believe brands should address environmental and social issues. (7) In Piper Sandler’s Fall 2020 survey, when asked for causes they cared about, Black Lives Matter and the environment ranked highest among US teens. “With Environment at the forefront of their minds, we are seeing an uptick of teens “thrifting” or shopping secondhand,” says Erinn Murphy, Piper Sandler senior research analyst. “We believe this will be a very important trend to watch in the future.” (8)

Whether it will be enough is another issue. According to the most recent Global Fashion Agenda, on its current path, the fashion industry would most likely miss its 2030 emissions targets by 50% (8). It’s clear that fashion is at a crossroads, a moment of great moral consideration. The question is: in response to this drastic downturn, will fashion seek to claw back to “business as usual”, ignoring the warning signs that damage to natural ecosystems will soon be irreversible?  Or will it take this opportunity - with the support of brands, consumers and governments - to create a more just and sustainable approach which will, ironically, help ensure its survival? The jury is out.

MagazineHannah Lane