Eco Obsession

 

 

 

With all these ambiguous labels it can make a consumer mad as Naomi Campbell at another assistant or confused as Bai Ling's fashion sense. Most conscious buyers of fashion have some sense of the injustices of supply chains within the textile industry; however, the extent of this knowledge does not always go beyond a brand's clever marketing slogan. Is the market place over saturated with these righteous trade markings, do manufactures need to be more concise when conveying there ethics or is it up to us, the consumer, to be educated and aware as to what we are sporting?

 

 

 

Organic fabric: hippies with dreadlocks wearing hemp. Fairtrade: yuppies in a coffee shop. Not to stereotype but certain labeling vocab does tend to typecast. The purpose of its use, although, is clearly not meant to conjure up these images. I highly doubt when companies such as Marks & Spencers incorporated Flo certified organic fabric into their lines it was not an attempt to re-brand themselves as a hippie hemp-wearing, coffee drinking yuppie, if that even exists! No, the move to certified products is a forward moving step by companies to, idealistically, alleviate poverty in developing nations through paying fair wages and ensuring that the entire manufacturing of products is done in an environmentally sound manner. The Flo label, just like numerous other accreditation bodies, confirms that this is done in a sustainable and just manner. Slapping this label on not only helps with M&S's image of being a responsible corporation, (and let's face it, image is everything in fashion), but also guarantees that the methods in which M&S are claiming to produce are monitored and ensured. However, does the questioning of a garments moral fibre stop there?

It is estimated that in the UK the average consumer spends roughly £780 a year on clothes. Although issues like child labour, pesticides and water wastage are not generally associated with this purchasing, for those manufacturing the clothes these issues are linked tangibly, in separately. Cotton uses more pesticides than any other crop. Chlorpyrifos that are used in West Africa to grow cotton cause brain and foetal damage along with importance and sterility, and eats up to 40-60% of their total production costs. On top of this staggering figure is the fact that cotton necessitates 20,000 gallons of water per 1kg! Add these environmental concerns to the fact that countries like Uzbekistan, the worlds third largest cotton exporter, use of state-sponsored child labour on the cotton fields and you have a humane recipe for anyone to check labels.

 

 

When a celebrity has exceptional style it is almost always coveted and emulated by the public. An uber contemporary example would be the fashion sense of model Agyness Deyn, who recently became the face behind the Japanese brand Uniqlo. Even the biggest ‘Agy' fan would take discretion when purchasing this latest campaign of clothes, selecting only pieces they felt represented the style they were attempting to achieve. This same form of reasoning can be used when bombarded with fair trade labeling: just because the label says it represents something it does not mean that further independent investigation and thought are not necessary. Uniqlo entrusted the popularity of their new sportswear line in promoting it with Deyn, but it is up to the individual consumer to discern what items they want to incorporate into their wardrobe.

 

 

In the world of ethical fashion, there are countless certification bodies and independent labeling that exclaim principled and moral processing and manufacturing processes. Some are larger and garner more attention and others are smaller and more specific to components. For a shopper who wants to live a green lifestyle and support sustainability, but also just wants to pick up a plain white t-shirt, sorting through all the array of branding can be daunting. However, research and understanding of what a label wholly represents and indeed accomplishes is just a Google search away. A Jimmy Choo fanatic may not be the first in line at H&M when Tamara Mellon unleashes her collection in November for the discount brand, and vice versa, but you can bet top dollar that both of these customers will have an understanding of what both lines encompass and not just make their decisions totally based on the name that accompanies the product. Although we do entrust a certain amount of credibility in a brand, as corporations do in a certification label, one's own literacy is key when it comes to find your way through the jungle that is fairtrade labeling.

 

PICTURE NUMBER FOUR For a guided safari through this jungle, check out some labeling bodies:

 

http://www.fairtrade.net/

www.wfto.com/

http://www.made-by.nl/

http://www.fairtraderesource.org/

 

You would not let a big fashion house or small designer dictate every aspect of your wardrobe would you? Personal taste via ones own discretion plays an enormous part, with the market suggesting a route as to how to go about it. The same can be applied to certification labels. The industry, slowly but surely, is attempting to integrate steps towards sustainability and its our job, as the consumers and the gas that keeps the fashion world running, to sort through the mass amounts of eco-documentation. Just think of it in the same vein as riffling through a thrift store in order to find that gem of a cocktail dress, and just as I would say in both situations: best of luck!

 

Meaghan Curry