See how at the market, in supermarkets, or even in restaurants, traders show where the raw materials come from what could end up on your plate? Give clues to freshness more or less seasonal products, to find out if they are locals or come from the other side of the world, but also to get an idea of the terms working (fruit and vegetable picking or animal husbandry), for example.
Many increasingly important criteria in the minds of consumers, after the health and/or media scandals of mad cow disease, avian flu, the horse found by mistake in Findus lasagna, or the possibilities of modern slavery behind the low prices of some Spanish strawberries .
What if we cared about the contents of our wardrobe as we care about the contents of our plate?
Actually, Could all these ethical questions that have become reflections in the minds of producers and consumers be applied to fashion? This is the question I ask myself by launching a new podcast miniseries made in Madmoizelle, Raw material, with a first episode to be released on May 31, 2021. This podcast pedagogically deciphers the issues of traceability in the textile industry so that we dress more sustainably and ethically. For since the carnage of the collapsed sweatshops in Bangladesh, or the murderous floods in Tangier, the dream industry has changed too little.
The traceability of our garments has a price, and is not given (literally)
Because questioning the health of the planet and that of female textile workers, among other things mostly women, inevitably entails the possibility of trace from beginning to end how and by whom these materials are produced, transported and processed: the leather of our shoes, the wool of our sweaters, the silk of our blouses, the cotton of our jeans, the rubber of the soles of our sneakers or even the polyester of our clothes…
Unlessn being able to track all of that, of course, is expensive. And that’s not very motivating for an industry that loves to cultivate trade secrets, aimed at consumers who don’t necessarily care as much about them as they do about the food they eat. Especially since we have completely lost our sense of reality and costs in terms of fashion, as the edifying documentary clearly demonstrated The true costdirected by Andrew Morgan, or the most recent Fast fashion – Fashion below at low prices by Édouard Perrin and Gilles Bovon.
Demanding traceability and transparency, to the point of becoming a reflection
Indeed, these documentaries contribute to the pedagogy necessary for everyone to see more clearly in this nebulous industry. And the more we demand transparency and traceability, the more fashion brands will have no choice but to stick to it. For now, it’s a minority of consumers who demand to know where and who made their clothes.
In the meantime, brands have no interest in spending time, energy, and therefore money, to do it themselves in the name of the beauty of the gesture if it doesn’t pay them back. This is how the author of several essays on fashion Dana Thomas sums it up perfectly Fashionopolis: the price of fast fashion and the future of clothing :
“If they can make more money being transparent, make more money being sustainable, then they will. But no company is going to change the way it does business just because it’s the right thing to do. They must have an economic incentive. »
Governments and technologies combine to make fashion more sustainable
And when it comes to the economy, politics is never far away. Some governments are also trying to help make fashion more sustainable (understand: less disposable, more durable).
For example, in France, a so-called circular economy law bans brands from burning their unsold non-food items starting in 2022. Until then, the industry is trying to organize itself to fight the waste of clothing, which used to cost a lot less than to try to produce the right amount, better manage their inventories and recycle their unsold products rather than tearing, burning or burying them. And maybe it’s us consumers who make the difference…
Other solutions are also emerging for a more traceable, transparent and therefore ethical fashion. Eon, a New York startup, is developing a kind of universal digital passport for clothes to better identify and track them. Because it can be difficult to understand a physical rikiki clothing tag, when it hasn’t been cut or defaced by time before ending up on the second-hand market, for example. All the better if its digital counterpart (accessible thanks to a QR Code or an NFC chip) can prove to be more educational and indelible. This would also have the advantage of fighting counterfeits.
But managing unsold products and this type of technology will still come at a cost. That the brands will surely make us pay back…
Relearn the right price of fashion, and above all love what you already have
Ethical brands that can trace the origin of their raw materials and clothing workshops necessarily cost more than fast-fashion brands that cultivate vagueness. It is also up to us to understand these prices, know what we are willing to trade on and use common sense!
Of course, we don’t necessarily have the means to buy an Hermès bag for thousands of euros in the name of French handmade craftsmanship. Buying an H&M, Zara or Mango shirt once every five years that you’ll keep for a decade won’t by itself cause a hole in the ozone layer. AND buying secondhand clothes every other day reproduces the bad habits of fast-fashionso good…
“I don’t know who needs to hear this, but a low income person who buys a few things from H&M or some other fast fashion company and keeps them for years has a much more sustainable walk than people who ‘buy a lot of clothes from “sustainable brands” and carry them every month”
An ethical wardrobe isn’t just about the brands on the labelor production methods: we also play a lot with what we already have. While we are calling on the networks and in the streets, for brands, companies and governments, to take climate action on a structural scale, to extend the life of our clothes, shoes and accessories, it is up to us to do it individually.
And that’s okay, because a durable wardrobe, sustainableit’s also the best way to avoid having to haggle the inevitable price of greater transparency in fashion.
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Source: Madmoizelle
Mary Crossley is an author at “The Fashion Vibes”. She is a seasoned journalist who is dedicated to delivering the latest news to her readers. With a keen sense of what’s important, Mary covers a wide range of topics, from politics to lifestyle and everything in between.
