Green and more than pleasant
On Tuesday, Net-a-porter launches Net Sustain – a collection of more than 500 products from 26 designers that comply with one or more of five best practices concerning animal, human and environmental welfare.
This is getting interesting. While 26 designers isn’t many – given the 800 fashion and 200 beauty brands that they stock in total – the list includes some of the most searched names on social media, from Stella Mccartney, Chopard and Veja to newcomers such as Maggie Marilyn. But more than the names and numbers is the heft of Net-a-porter itself, one of the most glamorous retailers on the planet. It may still not quite have worked out how a business model that’s predicated on selling clothes – lots and lots of them – can adapt to a buy less approach from consumers, unless they really do buy better. But they’re throwing a lot of energy into this. The shoot to promote the products adopted a zero plastics policy and the company says it’s reducing travel for campaigns.
It’s still not clear what’s really driving this, customer demand or the fashion industry’s belatedly aroused conscience. David Attenborough’s Blue Planet II had a surprisingly powerful impact on the fashion world internationally – one of the many exclusive collaborations in Net Sustain is between Mother of Pearl and BBC Earth. The main point, as Elizabeth von der Goltz, Net-a-porter’s global buying director, says, is “customers don’t need to choose between style and sustainability any longer”.
In many ways, luxury labels are better placed than mass brands to toe the eco/sustainable line. It’s far from perfect when it comes to water pollution, but thanks to higher price
margins, conditions for workers are generally better, and while smaller brands can be more agile when it comes to delivery, waste and marketing (many don’t do the latter), bigger companies like LVMH and Kering can invest in new techniques and materials that make a difference. We could well be about to enter a stage when best practice and eco brands are dubbed elitist. Let’s hope that doesn’t happen, because where the rich lead, the rest tend to follow. The super-glam could be very useful when it comes to making sustainable ethical fashion truly aspirational.