The Great Debate: Eco Fashion vs. Fast Fashion by Becky Lyon

 

 The spread of continental fashion chains like H&M and Zara have fuelled the trend for the ‘fast-fashion’ consumer culture we are currently experiencing. How many of us are happy to pick up a £4 top from Primark on a weekly basis, wear it once and forget about it (or have it fall apart)? A few concerns arise here; for a company to sell a garment for £4 and still make a profit must mean the people producing the garment must be making a pittance. The second issue is the wasteful mentality this encourages; 95% of the garments currently thrown away could be recycled.  

 The environment is a hot topic at the moment as diminishing resources and global warming threaten. However, there are so many small things we could be doing but we’re not! Will we buy into the new wave of ‘eco’ and ‘ethically’ made fashions in place of our cheap buys or will we dismiss it as a fleeting trend so long as we are getting a low price?   

The Case for Eco Fashion:  

‘Consumerism with a conscience is the future of fashion and retail’, Sarah Vine; The Times  

Fashion production has helped strip the planet of resources, produced non-biological waste, utilised carcinogenic dyes and disrupted ecosystems with pesticides for cotton production…just to name a few environmental felonies.  

The good news is not only are new, ethical brands cropping up but also the big-name culprits like Marks & Spencer, Asda and Tesco are trying to right their wrongs. Businesses are starting to realise that ethical fashion is a robust proposition and will increase revenues by differentiating product and protecting brand value.  

Industry shifts need support and politicians seem to be together on one issue – environment and sustainability. The media are taking ethical issues on board; Vanity Fair now produce an annual ‘green issue’, Creative Review produced a ‘recycling’ themed issue whilst new ethical lifestyle magazine Sublime has been launched.   

According to ethicalconsumer.org, ethical concerns are growing with an annual compound rate of 49% since 1999. There has been a change from the pursuit of unadulterated pleasure, buying new and buying lots of it to social responsibility. Sociologist Dr Alexandra Plows comments that ‘consumers are becoming disillusioned with homogenised high streets and retail ubiquity’. The recent down-turn on the high street is symptomatic of the fact there is going to be a limit to how much people can actually spend meaning that fast-fashion could have an expiry date. Surely there will come a time when people just can’t afford to keep replenishing their clothes ‘for fun’ with cheap garments and will want good quality garments that last.   

It has worked for food and beauty products, consumers are happy to pay extra for organic ingredients, believing they are getting a better quality product and living better. Ethical consumption gives you the desired feel-good factor but just needs ‘sexier’ marketing! We can make environmental changes if we really want to – think about the CFC’s and litter issues in the nineties, which have improved.    

Part of the problem, is that ‘Eco-fashion’ is segregated from mainstream fashion as niche market; ‘when people stop referring to it as ‘eco fashion’, I think it will become more popular’; says designer Babou Olengha.  

 The cost of eco-fashion is only high because it is isolated from conventional production. Once the demand increases, prices will level.

 

Katherine Hamnett has commented that her brand is completely green so it is possible. In a way you have to go back in time to an age when we didn’t have the technology we do now. Similarly, M&S are raising the bar in terms of business and ethics offering a complete ‘green’ brand overhaul with the 100-point ‘Plan A’ and plan to be carbon neutral in just five years time. I guess full commitment is key. Jennifer Ambrose of ethical brand Enamore is keen to point out that ‘many businesses have been operating in a fair and ethical way for years. It’s always been down to the independents but now it’s up to the big players!’

 

The Case against eco-fashion:  ‘I know the important part of eco fashion is ‘eco’ but surely fashion has to be in there somewhere?’ Vicki Woods, Vogue October 2006  

Consumers aren’t totally convinced by ‘eco fashion’ yet simply because fast-fashion is cheaper, and you get to replace your clothes with the latest fashion all the time! Fashion seems to thrive on excess and waste with little correlation between wants and needs, not to mention the fact that ultimately, desire not virtue drives acquisition. In addition, Thomas Petit of Gossypium notes that ‘People have been educated to pay very little for their clothing.’   

Our ‘throw-away’ culture has been formed of several factors; the notion that disposability implies convenience, the fact we have more access to credit than ever, products are made with in-built obsolescence with price competition driving down quality and the fact sustainability is seen as a ‘green’ not societal issue. Cyndi Rhoades of Anti-Apathy remarks; ‘Fast fashion is another symptom of a society that depends far too much on economic growth as its key to success and happiness. If we continue to buy into a market driven economy which promotes profit as the one and only goal, I have little hope that this will change’.   

Both the production of the products and the end products themselves are expensive. Maybe only companies with funds can pursue environmentally damaging practices, like Marks & Spencer, H&M and Topshop.   

It can be difficult to measure the accuracy of the environmentally friendliness of products. Customers can be easily misled; ‘organic’ doesn’t always mean ‘sustainable’- processes can actually use more resources than conventional methods. Is there any point in ‘greening’ a part of a process if the whole is still damaging? Take the Anya Hindmarch ‘I’m not a plastic bag’ tote. The message had the right heart but it wasn’t even made of organic or fairtrade cotton!   

Then there are problems with the products themselves. Recycling may result in lower grade products that lose value of performance comments Drapers. After the Make Poverty History campaign, the Fraser Consultancy conducted a serving finding that 30% of participants cared about ethical issues but only 3% act on it because they can’t find quality products on the shelves. Then there is the ultimate problem with eco fashion – the scratchy hemp, un-dyed cotton hippy stigma. Whilst it is doing much to ‘re-brand’ as mainstream high fashion it will take a while to shake-off it’s aesthetically challenging stigma.   

In a recent edition of Drapers, editor Lauretta Roberts found that ‘Many shoppers don’t seem to care about the ethical/eco soundness of the products they are buying so long as they like them and they are cheap’. 43.5% will go for style first, 43% will go for cost whilst only 4% will prioritise ethics.   

Ultimately it seems that the case for a more ethically sound fashion industry seems ‘do-able’ whilst at the same time there are several obstacles to overcome. Whilst buying ‘eco fashion’ seems like an obvious decision, quality, cost and style are still priorities. Fashion Capital will keep you posted on all things eco-ethical.   

By Becky Lyon
becky.lyon@hotmail.co.uk