Creating Responsible Brands: Fashion And Sustainability

The fashion industry routinely changes trends and carries with it, the power to decide what people across the world will wear. They know how to influence the buying habits of their consumers, but this doesn't mean that consumers don't get a say. At the end of the day, it's consumer demands that highlight what trends will be in vogue. Right now, it's sustainable fashion that consumers are demanding.

This shift in what the consumers want places the fashion industry in a place where they must make changes. Brands need to portray themselves as sustainable, if they want to keep drawing consumers in. Fashion and sustainability are intertwined - people are embracing fashion trends that don't harm the environment while still looking good. But what exactly is sustainable fashion?

What Is Sustainable Fashion? 

The fashion industry and sustainability haven't been friends for long, but it's better late than never. In the context of the fashion industry, sustainability refers to producing and purchasing clothes in a way that keeps the planet free from harm. Both the environment as well as the people making the clothes, both are protected under sustainable fashion practices.

For brands that want to go the extra mile, they can consider ensuring that every step in the production process is safe for the environment and keeping humane working conditions in mind. For a long time, the fashion industry has struggled with wasteful practices. The fashion industry alone is responsible for nearly 10% of the carbon dioxide output across the world. It also produces around 300 million tones of plastic every year.

Recently, due to changing consumer demands, the fashion industry has had to reevaluate how it affects the environment.

Why Is Sustainable Fashion Important?

The debate on fast fashion vs sustainable fashion has been gaining steam with every year. More and more people are talking about sustainable fashion, and this has led to fashion brands opening themselves up to the topic. Consumers consciously choose brands that adopt environmentally sustainable practices. There are also consumers that claim to have stopped making purchases from brands that are known for being unethical and promoting sustainability.

To cater to this rising demand, fashion industries are doing their best to adopt sustainable practices. Sustainability is not just important simply because it's what the consumers want.

The importance of sustainable fashion cannot be understated. Without adopting sustainability, available resources will be depleted and the environment will be more polluted. In the face of global environmental changes, adopting sustainable practices is important. This is especially true for the fashion industry, which for many years has been known as wasteful. 

Sustainability In Fashion And Textiles

Ethical clothing brands are becoming more popular by the day. Now that you know what is sustainable fashion, let's look at how fashion and sustainability relate to each other. The textile industry in particular is in a real position to positively impact the world. Fashion designers and fabric mills alike have adopted sustainable practices. Numerous discoveries and inventions in the fields of material science, waste prevention and recycling have made it easier for fashion brands to be more sustainable.

Fashion and environmental responsibility should go hand in hand. The statistics on how fashion affects pollution is staggering. According to the UNEP, nearly one garbage truck full of clothes are dumped at a landfill every second. 500,000 tonnes of microplastics get released into the ocean. The fashion industry, as per the UNCTAD, uses up around 93 billion cu mts of water every year. This is enough water for nearly five million people.

Sustainability in fashion and textiles involves limiting waste and using less resources to meet consumer demands. Ethical fashion brands make it possible for people to purchase clothes without harming the environment

Fast Fashion VS Sustainable Fashion: What You Should Know

Fast Fashion refers to clothing that's been mass produced, based on rapidly changing fashion trends and that promotes overconsumption of clothes. Fast fashion brands keep churning out new clothes, sometimes on a weekly basis. Nearly 100 to 150 billion pieces of clothing are generated by fast fashion brands every year. They keep their prices low by using cheap materials as well as cheap labor. They also don't have any incentives to recycle or reuse their products.

This is how fast fashion negatively affects the environment:

• Environmental Effects: To create large numbers of clothes, cotton needs to be produced. Overproduction of cotton goes together with using pesticides that kill useful bugs and harm the land. Nearly 8000 liters of water can go into making just one pair of jeans.
• Ethical Effects: Sweatshops and child labor from developing countries are used to produce fast fashion items. Factory workers are exploited and paid minimal wages while being made to work in unsafe environments.
• Reduced Quality: Fast fashion items aren't made to last and they need to be replaced often.
• Overconsumption: Because of the fast fashion industry, clothing is being produced at a level that's unsustainable. People are encouraged to throw out wearable clothes and replace them with new items.

Sustainable fashion on the other hand, is the opposite of this. Sustainable fashion brands understand the environmental impact of fast fashion. This is why they choose to adopt sustainable practices. Sustaunable clothing isn't designed to be worn and thrown out after a few times. Instead, it's meant to last. Sustainable fashion brands provide fair wages to all employees and try to dispose of their waste products responsibly.

Fashion Sustainability And Social Accountability Act

The Fashion Sustainability and Social Accountability Act aims to reduce the carbon footprint of the fashion industry. Fashion brands that want to sell to consumers in New York will need to set and achieve targets that are based on science.

Fashion retailers will be held accountable for the social and environmental impacts of their businesses.

Conclusion

Responsible Fashion industry practices are becoming more popular. Fashion and sustainability are closely interlinked in today's world, and fashion brands that want to succeed will need to think about adopting sustainable practices to attract consumers.

Sustainable brand marketing can go a long way towards inspiring people to purchase from your fashion brand. Learn more about fashion and sustainability with a speaker from Speaker Agency. Learn how you can make your business more attractive to consumers by adopting sustainable practices today.