AUT Senior Lecturer Lisa McEwan looks at the challenges of sustainable fashion, and comments on the latest Ethical Fashion Report 2018…
“Reports like the Ethical Fashion Report are a great wake up call for New Zealanders. New Zealand consumers are typically behind the rest of the world when it comes to understanding the impacts of fashion on garment workers and the environment. This is largely because of our geographic isolation and population size; until recently New Zealand consumers simply haven’t been exposed to the problems. We do have people who understand the issues, but because of our small population, they are a noisy few, so their message isn’t heard as compellingly as it might be in London, for example, where critics have been having this conversation for decades.”
“One of my worries with reports like these, however, is that they can lull consumers into a false sense of security, so they continue to consume thinking products are “good”. I am extremely cautious about the idea of sustainable fashion. If you are a company that wants to make big money by operating on an endless growth model, then I would question whether or not the business model, or product, was sustainable.”
Slow Fashion
“Shoppers need to be looking more into slow fashion. This is the idea of spending significantly more money on one timeless, quality garment that you would wear over a number of years, rather than buying several pieces that follow the latest fast-fashion trend.”
Murky Supply Chains
“One of the problems we have in fashion is that the majority of clothing is made in other countries. It is extremely difficult for brands to know whether factory or sourcing company that they are working with aren’t sub-contracting the work out, at which point your supply chain becomes murky.”
Water use in cotton manufacture
“When talking about the sustainable use of the products, cotton is usually the first material discussed in terms of being certifiable as organic and fair trade. The challenges of cotton production in terms of its incredible water consumption are also well known in the industry. In New Zealand, where we produce and wear a lot of wool garments we need to weigh up the methane outputs of sheep too. This isn’t a discussion that we hear much about and we need to engage in these difficult conversations.”
Lisa’s top three tips when purchasing clothes:
· Buy fewer but buy better. Buy the best you can afford and only get a few key items each year.
· Look at the inside of the garment. Checking the seams and hem is a pretty good indicator as to the quality of an item. If it looks rough it probably isn’t going to last more than a few washes.
· Talk to the people in the store about their philosophy of their clothes. If they truly are a company that cares about their materials and the conditions in which their clothes are produced, it will be clear.
Lisa McEwan
18 April 2018