Sustainable fashion entails fulfilling current requirements while also ensuring that the methods used to achieve those needs meet future demands. Ethical fashion is concerned with a brand’s societal influence and ethics. Ethical Fashion strives to address issues with the present fashion business, such as exploitation of workers, environmental damage, the use of toxic chemicals, waste, and animal cruelty.
The materials used in a fashion brand’s clothing and how the fibres are farmed and treated before a shirt or skirt is produced are at the heart of what makes a fashion brand ethical. Garment production is one of the most environmentally damaging businesses on the globe, which is why ethical fashion brands do everything they can to keep their products in a closed loop system and reduce the amount of waste they send to landfill.
These companies are adhering to the ethical fashion criteria in a variety of ways, including using leftover fabric to make accessories, establishing “take back” systems in which clothing can be returned and reused, and ensuring that the materials used were produced in a sustainable manner. Ethical fashion analyses the environmental impact of various fabrics used to produce apparel, ranging from linen and cotton to polyester and denim, because each fabric has a different influence on the environment, and ethical design is all about choosing the fabrics that have the least impact.
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT
Some materials, such as leather and fur, are unmistakably derived from the slaughter of animals. Others, such as silk, use animals less visibly in their production. Plastics can be found in a variety of synthetic materials, and their terminology might be confusing. Wearing this is unhealthy, but it also means that the clothes you wear will pollute the environment by producing microfibres.
Of course, it takes energy and resources to grow plants, process their fibres, and turn them into materials and finally clothes. This refers to both the availability of water as well as the availability of energy. A critical approach for a fashion firm to be sustainable is to use a material that requires less water to grow. Did you know that dyeing and finishing a single tonne of fabric can need up to 200 tonnes of clean water? Water is also used extensively in the textile sector to colour its materials. In addition, this technique involves the use of harsh, poisonous chemicals. These substances have the potential to leak into water systems and pollute them severely.
The brands to look for are those that make a point of declaring that their fabric does not require a lot of water to be treated, or that it requires less than the industry standard, and that they maintain their toxic-free standards throughout the production process.
INCLUSIVITY
At its most basic level, an ethical identity comprises doing the right thing; it’s humanizing, inclusive, and extends well beyond the product. It stems from the foundation of the company’s existence. This entails matching beliefs, offerings, corporate actions, and communication to create a holistic, ethical system.
Ethical fashion houses, brands, wardrobes, and consumers ensure that they positively impact the trifecta: people, the environment, and animals. This includes brands treating workers fairly across the supply chain and workplace policies on child labour, forced labour, safety, accessible union rights, and the implementation of a liveable wage.
TRANSPARENCY
You can be confident that if a clothes company—or any company—claims to be ethical, it will be as transparent as possible. Transparency can take various shapes, and businesses can demonstrate it in a variety of ways. Some companies put everything on their website, while others showcase a list of certifying organizations that appear when you Google their name. A few will even reveal the lowest income they pay their staff.
PACKAGING
Another indicator of a company’s eco-friendliness is how much packaging it utilizes. It can add up to a lot of waste if they come in packaging full of unneeded plastic, paper, bubble wrap, etc. Plastics can be disguised in locations such as labels, boxes, and protective strips on products, even though the packaging does not appear to be “plasticky.” If a company wants to call itself ethical, it must package its products with paper, cards, and other material that won’t take hundreds of years to decompose. These should also be used in small amounts by an ethical fashion firm. It should be able to vouch that all of its packaging is 100% recyclable and biodegradable.
The pandemic is compelling everyone to work together to assist the world find long-term solutions to the catastrophe. Winning brands are sensibly pushing clean and green economic packages and using their money to fund the transition to a low-carbon economy. They will be able to demonstrate the rationale for their organization’s existence, as well as why it is essential now and in the future, by doing so.
Written by, Aastha Khera
