Sustainable fashion necessitates establishing a balance when it comes to designing, manufacturing and consuming clothing. It entails not just preventing environmental resource depletion, but also preventing community abuse.
By having a long-term approach to the manufacture and use of clothing and accessories, being sustainable also means preserving this equilibrium well into the future. It’s about ensuring that the fashion business does both good and no harm to people, the environment, or animals.
1) SLOW FASHION
It’s a movement and way of thinking about fashion that takes into account the procedures and resources needed to manufacture garments, with a special focus on sustainability. It entails purchasing higher-quality garments less frequently so that they last longer, as well as valuing equitable treatment of people, animals, and the environment.
2) GREENWASHING
When a brand utilises marketing strategies to make its products, actions, or policies appear to be environmentally friendly when they aren’t, is known as “greenwashing.” As some enterprises try to cash in on the growing demand for ecologically friendly and ethical apparel, it’s becoming a bigger concern. Companies frequently promote allegedly “green” measures like having one modest eco-friendly product or using recycled packaging while ignoring major environmental and labour issues.
3) TRANSPARENCY
Transparency refers to the open disclosure of information regarding a product’s manufacturing process, such as how, where, and by whom it was made. Transparency means releasing all information about each participant involved in the manufacturing process, from start to finish, from the fields to the stores.
4) ETHICAL FASHION
In addition to your local labour requirements, ethical fashion covers a wide variety of concerns such as fair pay, conditions of employment, animal protection, and vegan fashion.
5) UPCYCLING
Waste is repurposed into reusable, higher-quality materials. It’s all about reusing and repurposing existing items to make something new. Upcycling removes waste from the system, consumes less energy than recycling, and has a lower environmental impact. It encourages creativity and innovation as well!
6) TRACEABILITY
Traceability for a company means knowing its supply chains from beginning to finish and being able to track each component of a product back to its source, from raw ingredients to garment tags and everything in between. It is often used interchangeable with ‘transparency’ but traceability is an essential component in ensuring transparency and vice-versa.
7) CIRCULAR FASHION
It refers to a product’s entire lifecycle and is based on the circular “create, use, recycle” model rather than the linear “produce, use, dispose” one. It looks at products beyond their original purpose and lifespan, concentrating on how their materials can be reused and recycled in a consistent way. The design, sourcing, transportation, storage, advertising, sale, and disposal of a product are all considered in circular fashion.
8) ORGANIC
Organic refers to raw materials that haven’t been genetically modified and haven’t been treated with pesticides or insecticides. Organic farming approaches avoid the use of toxic chemicals while also focusing on environmental sustainability and resource conservation. As the term ‘organic’ is gaining popularity, fast fashion brands often tend to exploit the term and engage in unethical practices that result in severe environmental damage.
9) VEGAN & CRUELTY FREE
Vegan products are those that have been created without the use of any animal products or by-products. In terms of fashion, this means avoiding materials such as leather, wool, silk, cashmere, angora, and other animal-derived fibres. Look for PETA-certified vegan products to make sure your apparel and accessories don’t include any animal substances. Cruelty-free products, usually cosmetics, are strongly tied to veganism: they have not been tested on animals.
10) FAIR TRADE
Fair trade refers to a broad movement that includes a variety of organisations with the common goal of assisting producers while also safeguarding workers’ rights and the environment. Fair trade is a term that refers to a brand or a specific product that has been certified and labelled by an independent organisation as meeting certain criteria.
A larger selection of clothes at affordable prices may appear to be quite appealing. They do, however, cause significant environmental damage that may go unnoticed. Brands are mass-producing garments that we are eager to welcome with open arms, thanks to recurring sales that occur almost every month. There’s a problem with abundance. We must consider the amount of water used, the toxins produced, and the environmental impact of fast fashion, all of which we contribute to just by choosing and supporting it.
Written by, Aastha Khera
