Fashion faces sustainability truth
Magazine shines comprehensive light on social, environmental accountability that industry needs to wear
RTo involve industry experts for their special issue, it created an advisory board comprised of socially conscious designers, the Dean at Parson’s School of Fashion and Amazon’s worldwide sustainability director. Their guest editor for the issue was Miroslava Duma, founder of Fashion Tech Lab, an accelerator and experimental laboratory to commercialise innovative technologies for the industry.
The issue promoted technology as the silver-bullet solution. The idea is that technology will save us from ourselves, allowing us to retain our current lifestyles and behaviours.
Technology solutions may help but are not the only road forward, nor should we rely on them to fix the problem. For example, due to technical limitations, clothing can’t be fully recycled right now. Therefore programmes Marie Claire touted, such as H&M’s “Don’t let fashion go to waste”, which encourages customers to use recycling boxes in its stores, do help but are not effective solutions.
It would take 12 years for H&M to use up 1000 tonnes of fashion waste, which roughly equates to the same amount the brand produces in 48 hours. women including Emma Watson, Livia Firth and meteorologist Kait Parker.
But if an organic T-shirt ends up in a landfill, it’s still a T-shirt in a landfill. It doesn’t matter how sustainable it is.
Approaches that promote “must have” sustainable options once a year in a special issue only make us feel good about consuming eco-products. They allow us to wilfully ignore the real issues.
As fashion magazines are a business, the goal is to sell as many ads as possible. Only those at the top of the fashion chain can afford to buy space in these glossy magazines. This can affect how information is presented: Advertised products must be seen in a most desirable light.
However, fashion’s impact on climate change is complex and of urgent global concern. It requires everyone — including fashion magazines — to participate, if we are to find meaningful solutions.
Furthering the conversation on more sustainable lifestyles can be achieved in a positive, happy manner — in the editorial style of a glossy magazine.