Will better quality creates less demand and make the industry sustainable ?
This article is not about fast fashion. It is also not about subcontractors in developing countries, and neither is this about what you should buy.
It is about the reason consumers will want better apparel, not more of it.
Consumers are realizing that their consumption does implicate consequences, around the globe, they may not have intended. Whether it is that a woman in Bangladesh is making 2 Dollars a day, a river in China is colored denim blue, even the fact that a pair of Nike shoes cost more to package and ship from any of its factories than it costs them to make.
Consumer consciousness has lead to activewear brands such as Boody, which uses bamboo instead of oil-based fibers such as nylon and spandex/elastane. Everlane gives customers a closer look into its factories, like with this profile on its Jiangmen supplier. There are many more brands that went from a one product startup to full-fledged fashion brand by offering more responsible products.
The Fashion Pact
This agreement was signed during the 2019 G7 summit in Biarritz, France. It included the luxury conglomerates of LVMH (Louis Vuitton) and Kering (Gucci), Ermenegildo Zegna, as well as H&M, Inditex (Zara), Adidas, Burberry, Chanel, Ralph Lauren and Stella McCartney (former Kering, LVMH as of 2019).
Science-Based Targets (SBT1) are the initiative’s objectives. They focus on safeguarding the planet, stopping global warming, as well as restoring biodiversity and protecting the world’s oceans. Reasonably vague, but this allows its participants at the same time to focus on the most urgent issues because not every product is made equally.
Concrete Measures
Kering, which includes brands like Saint Laurent, Gucci, and Balenciaga published animal welfare standards and pledged to stop hiring models under the age of 18 for its fashion shows and advertising campaigns.
Inditex announced a pledge to use purely sustainable fabric in its clothing by 2025 as part of a more comprehensive strategy focusing on sustainability. The problem with ‘vegan leather’ — is it really more sustainable?
The company aims for all cotton, linen, and polyester used by the group to be organic, sustainable, or recycled by 2025.
Despite having pledged to become “climate positive” by 2040, its biggest rival, H&M, is already offering a recycling scheme that grants customers a 15% discount voucher per item that they return to stores and drop into dedicated boxes. Written about by the head of product for one of the internet’s largest online retailers.
Stella McCartney, while being committed to sustainable fashion and making it one of her brands’ pillars, has received considerable backlash. After announcing that one celebrity would only wear one of her custom tuxedo’s for the entire award season, voices raised referring to below minimum pay at some of McCartney’s suppliers and her use of oil-based leather alternatives. backlash
There is more
In addition to Europe’s luxury houses, the Italian startup Orangefiber has introduced a silk-like fiber made from citrus juice byproducts. It has already launched capsule collections with some of the fashion industry’s largest brands. Ferragamo, as can be seen in the picture below, H&M x Orange Fiber, as well as E.Marinella, the tie maker of choice for presidents and proteges.
What consumers want
While many may see this development as one that is due to the increase of climate reports, factory incidents, and startup entrepreneurs, trend forecasters have long recognized this shift coming. Li Edelkoort may be the most well known among them, but there are many like her, such as WGSN. Choice and a more sustainable at such appears to be on top of most consumers, and brands are, even if slowly, delivering.
Consumers have to make choices
Everyone in the fashion industry agrees on becoming more sustainable, and to use our natural resources more responsibly. Customers choosing brands like Everlane and wearing Veja sneakers instead of Nikes indicate what the market wants.
Yet brands, most of which are bigger than Everlane and Veja combined, have to realign their supply chains and make strategic decisions on how not only to provide sustainable products but to make it a viable business in the long term.
Increasing quality and prices is one way to maintain top-line revenues, while at the same time decreasing the product volume. It does not work in every customer segment, and there are more innovative approaches required in luxury as well as at the entry-level. Customers want it, and now it is up to fashion’s management to set a course, go full throttle, and become sustainable.
The rise of made to order product lines, sustainable fabrics, and production processes represent the three main pillars of a greener fashion industry. The alignment of this industry will take years, but it seems as if consumers are in for a treat of better, longer-lasting products.
