Confront the culture of excess
The fashion industry is no longer a place ruled by creativity; it’s fuelled by consumption. More is good – the more you spend, the more you have, the better person you become. This dictum is applicable to both brand and customer.
Perhaps you’re a luxury fashion brand. You’re shooting your ad campaign. People don’t actually buy magazines now so it will appear, on instagram feeds (that you’ve paid for), perhaps a billboard here and there. Your photographer wants to shoot on a beach at sunset. Rather than travelling to Norfolk or Cornwall, you spend a million dollars flying a production crew, models, photographer, hair, make up, art director, movement director, assistants to Mexico. Business class. Each one of these flights produces over 7 tonnes of carbon emissions. But here’s the punchline: the campaign is to show that the clothes are sustainably made. This is not an imagined scenario.
The problem with sustainability is that it’s an idea: in practice, it doesn’t exist. It is impossible to make something without devastation occurring somewhere along the line. Viscose is made from tree pulp; but there are only one or two sustainably (that word again) farmed forests in the world that make it. Recycled Nylon, called Econyl and now used by Prada and the like, create vast quantities of chemical waste breaking down the Nylon. While organic cotton might use 70% less water than conventional cotton production, a pair of jeans still uses 10,000 litres of water to be produced. That’s not to mention the fact that chemical dyes slip into the water table, plus the transportation, and waste, from producer to factory to stockroom to shop floor.
Once you’ve bought your jeans, you might think you can recycle the plastic mailing bag they’ve been shipped to you in, but a recent piece by NPR exposes a dirty fact: recycling is an expensive myth to make people think they are helping the environment. It’s cheaper and more efficient to use virgin oil and gas to produce new plastic items.
But none of this matters to the fashion industry. It’s only just no-longer illegal to burn waste products – Burberry was exposed as destroying £90m worth of products in the last five years – but, for example, they will decide that they and only they will use a certain pattern or type of fabric in production and buy it all. If it’s only used for the trim on one jacket, the remaining dead stock fabric is left abandoned in a warehouse.
Chanel think nothing of cutting down ancient trees to plant as the set for a fashion show that will last 20 minutes. Fashion journalists think nothing of being flown to Milan, Paris, New York, Shanghai, Seoul, several times a year for shows, and again for launches and openings. This morning I saw someone post on Instagram about their trip on a private jet for the launch of a handbag. Several posts down their feed they mentioned the importance of Black Lives Matter. The people worst affected by climate change will be the poorest. As Patrisse Cullors, one of the leaders of Black Lives Matter said recently, “Racism is endemic to global inequality. This means that those most affected, and killed, by climate change are black and poor people.” It's unlikely that climate change will directly affect anyone working in Fashion - but that does not mean they should not change their behaviour.
As the ecosystem of Fashion – designers, buyers, stockists and publications – collapses, exacerbated by the pandemic and the internet, this sort of behaviour makes little sense. But it still, sadly, exists. Fashion used to be exclusive. Shows took place every six months, for buyers to choose what orders they would make for their stores. Once you, a normal person, could see fashion shows live, as they happened, this was confusing. Why are you looking at a pair of winter boots in June that you can’t buy until November? Brands started to create mid-season collections, “Cruise” or “Resort”. If you’re Dior or Chanel you now do six shows a year. These shows usually took place somewhere like Cuba or, for Kim Jones’ Dior menswear show last year, Miami. Flying 400 or so famous friends, journalists, buyers, plus models, production, hair and make up, stylists (plus the clothes) to Miami (again, all business class), it seems to make sense to gift everyone with a branded something. Something they will use and keep that makes sense in the political moment, something instagramable. The obvious choice wasn’t a “carbon neutral” water bottle - but that’s what was given out.
But then, Fashion does sell itself on ‘if you don’t understand it, you’re not worthy of it.’
Last year, it was impossible to avoid “sustainability” or “sustainably made”. This hyperbole leads the consumer to think that buying a cheap sweater is a positive action. It’s not. While many brands have launched a sustainability report offering transparency on their supply chain and manufacturing process; the crux of the problem is a lot closer to home. The most positive fashion thing you could possibly do is stop listening to fashion. Stop buying shit you don’t really need.
By an industry insider
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