Forget Sustainable Collections, We Need A Sustainable Fashion Industry

Fashion and sustainability aren’t two words you often see in the same sentence. An adjective that evokes images of industry and ecology, “sustainable” is actually coming into fashion when describing, well, fashion. And as Director of Denim at WGSN, I can tell you this is very good news for our industry.

Sustainability as a concept has been buzzing for years, but its precise application to the world of fashion has been a bit murky. Still, there have been milestones:

● This past June, H&M, Nike, and Asos were amongst the 13 fashion and textile brands who signed the Prince of Wales International Sustainability Unit, vowing to source 100% of all their cotton from sustainable sources by 2025

● In April, the industry came together at leading denim trade show, Kingpins, part of Amsterdam Denim Days, and stirred up the sustainable denim debate 
● In March, global fashion retailer C&A and its corporate foundation, the C&A foundation launched the Fashion for Good initiative, promoting a circular fashion economy.

 The fashion industry is now at a crossroads: it cannot ignore the environmental trend any longer. One-off sustainable campaigns and collections won’t be effective unless they’re part of a broader strategy: brands have to think of the full lifecycle of their products; more consumers need to change their habits; non-fashion corporations need to shift their conventions; politicians need to address climate change head-on; and a socially-conscious mindset needs to be applied across the board to create a truly sustainable industry. Let’s look to Patagonia as a role model. They consider every step of their supply chain: every stitch, every fabric, and every manufacturer before they create, design, or produce anything. That is what I believe every fashion and textile company should be doing. There’s too much at stake for all of us.