eco eco eco
So lots of headlines like 'Earth to Fashion' and 'Sustainable Style' have been flooding newspapers and magazines alike (Vogue, Vanity Fair, The New York Times, Elle, just to name a few, have had some take on eco-friendly fashion in the past few weeks), and after reading through all those features, I had one thought: How to make eco-friendly fashion (make that all consumer products really) available to the masses?
Why do I care? Because I am part of the masses - where being to afford things from Edun is a problem - and I care about the environment. And while I love that there are more and more earth-friendly fashion lines popping up, I want to know what major existing fashion labels are doing to make themselves a little less polluting.
After all, small labels are all very well but they don't sell in the volume big mass-produced labels like Topshop or H&M do.
Levi's new Eco line was the only mainstream label I clocked that is taking steps to ensure that the process of making denim look cool and wearable isn't flooding the planet with a billion weird chemicals at the same time. But why do a separate Eco line? Why not slowly convert all your jeans into eco-friendly products?
It's hard, obviously. Cheap Monday's approach is not perfect, but it's a start - aiming to make 50% of each item ecologically (organic cotton linings, recycled paper labels). That's what all big brands should do - source for factories that can make stuff like that, and ORDER. You have to create demand for suppliers to see that going green isn't unprofitable, it's a whole new industry that could boom.
If smaller lines like Loomstate and Serfontaine can find a way to make them, that's no excuse for the global brands with far more money at their disposal. I want the day to come where I can buy a T-shirt at Zara and it's made from organic cotton, the dyes didn't pollute some river in India and kill all the fish, and that no child was exploited in make it.
In the mean time, caring about fashion and the environment is hard. Short of not buying any new clothes, there's no way for me to know that what I buy isn't harming something or someone in the process.
Why do I care? Because I am part of the masses - where being to afford things from Edun is a problem - and I care about the environment. And while I love that there are more and more earth-friendly fashion lines popping up, I want to know what major existing fashion labels are doing to make themselves a little less polluting.
After all, small labels are all very well but they don't sell in the volume big mass-produced labels like Topshop or H&M do.
Levi's new Eco line was the only mainstream label I clocked that is taking steps to ensure that the process of making denim look cool and wearable isn't flooding the planet with a billion weird chemicals at the same time. But why do a separate Eco line? Why not slowly convert all your jeans into eco-friendly products?
It's hard, obviously. Cheap Monday's approach is not perfect, but it's a start - aiming to make 50% of each item ecologically (organic cotton linings, recycled paper labels). That's what all big brands should do - source for factories that can make stuff like that, and ORDER. You have to create demand for suppliers to see that going green isn't unprofitable, it's a whole new industry that could boom.
If smaller lines like Loomstate and Serfontaine can find a way to make them, that's no excuse for the global brands with far more money at their disposal. I want the day to come where I can buy a T-shirt at Zara and it's made from organic cotton, the dyes didn't pollute some river in India and kill all the fish, and that no child was exploited in make it.
In the mean time, caring about fashion and the environment is hard. Short of not buying any new clothes, there's no way for me to know that what I buy isn't harming something or someone in the process.
Comments