Fashion’s crisis isn’t about sustainability.
It’s about culture.
By Will Green Dec 1, 2019
Black Friday hit the stores this week. Last year the event netted retailers over £550bn globally — a 4% year-on-year growth rate that will no doubt continue this year.
In 2019, we are well-versed in the consumerist mayhem that is Black Friday. We’ve all seen the videos documenting apocalyptic scenes of people swarming outside shopping malls, breaking through barriers and stampeding over each other as if fighting for their lives, never mind a 32” plasma TV.
But we’re not part of that — that’s the Other kind of consumer, right? Well, no, unfortunately, none of us can escape the legacy of Edward Bernays. The nephew of Sigmund Freud, Bernays’s famous appropriation of his uncle’s behavioural science ushered in a new era in the story of capitalism in the early-20th century, arming corporations (starting with the tobacco industry) with effective tactics to sell things that people really shouldn’t want, let alone need. Today, we just call it marketing.
Globally, over the last two decades, our rate of buying clothes has increased by as much as 400%, and it’s estimated that over 70% of these purchases will end up in landfills.
Fashion’s new “must-have” may be “sustainably sourced clothing at scale”, as Mckinsey reports, but we do not have enough “sources” to consume at this pace. According to the Earth Overshoot Day campaign, in 2019 we had used up all the resources the planet can produce in one year by July 29th. And with the developing world fast catching up with The West’s appetite (nowhere faster than China where the rate of garment use has seen a rapid decline of 70% in the last 15 years, nearly matching the USA’s average), we are living on borrowed time. It’s estimated that if the whole world consumed at the same rate as the USA, we’d require another three planets
If the whole world consumed at the same rate as the USA, we’d require another three planets.
Fashion’s new “must-have” may be “sustainably sourced clothing at scale”, as Mckinsey reports, but we do not have enough “sources” to consume at this pace. According to the Earth Overshoot Day campaign, in 2019 we had used up all the resources the planet can produce in one year by July 29th. And with the developing world fast catching up with The West’s appetite (nowhere faster than China where the rate of garment use has seen a rapid decline of 70% in the last 15 years, nearly matching the USA’s average), we are living on borrowed time. It’s estimated that if the whole world consumed at the same rate as the USA, we’d require another three planets
Objectives set out by the likes of Zara and Kering are commendable, but they do not address the very culture of consumption that their business models underpin.
“Everything man does creates more harm than good,” says Yvonne Chouinard, founder of Patagonia. “We have to accept that fact and not delude ourselves into thinking something is sustainable.’’ Objectives set out by the likes of Zara, which include switching their energy sources, eliminating single-use plastics and producing from only sustainable fabrics, or Kering’s even more comprehensive efforts to produce an environmental profit and loss account to track the implementation of their numerous strategies, are both commendable examples of where we should be going. However, neither of them address the very culture of consumption that their business models underpin and therefore are limited in their impact — all of Kering’s combined efforts to reduce their footprint are being outpaced by the sheer growth in product sales they are seeing.
If we want to create a world that manages its resource use intelligently, we need to inspire different ways of consuming altogether, and this doesn’t start with pointing the finger at fast fashion. It starts by harnessing the power of brand, marketing, celebrity and influence and channelling it towards teaching a better set of values. To put it simply, it requires leading from the top.
We’re trying to scratch the surface of this at L’Estrange, the brand I co-founded. At the centre of our design process is the goal of creating clothes that transcend seasons, that are fundamentally versatile and wearable in many environments. In doing so, we’re increasing the number of times an item can be worn and reducing the number of garments needed overall. We’re thinking deeply about sustainability, advocating for more use, reuse and recycling, but beyond that, we’re pushing ourselves to create a commercial business model that elevates the concept of buying less but better as an aspirational lifestyle choice.
The best bit about all of this? The customer wins. In our fast-paced lives, we want simplicity, we need convenience and we like value. Having a wardrobe of fewer items that do more also translates to a lower cost-per-wear.
L’Estrange is a tiny speck in the story of fashion, and the solution to this little spoken about, and alarmingly existential, crisis which challenges the fundamental culture of fashion and society itself, is not going to be one-size-fits-all.
Better cultural values that slow down our propensity for newness may be exactly what is needed, but it won’t be eradicated completely, nor should it be. But perhaps we can overhaul the concept of ownership and enable a different, more sustainable means of getting our ‘newness-fix’. Could we all become subscribers to brands and borrow clothes for a monthly membership fee instead of buying outright? Perhaps one day you will travel to a location and instead of taking your own clothes, you have a wardrobe waiting for you in the hotel room.
Alternatively, could brands get in on the resale market, actively managing secondary markets for their pre-owned products? Consciously promoting and participating in the value creation across more than a single lifetime may influence the mechanics at initial sale. Or perhaps none of this is radical enough and we should all follow in the footsteps of Sweden and boycott fashion week altogether?
So as we reflect on what is sure to have been another record topping Black Friday, we need to recognise fashion’s deep complicity in its existence — and not just the high street but all the way to the seat of luxury.
With a revolutionary shift towards sustainability in fashion, there is no doubt that we are witnessing a sea change in the industry. But it is urgent that we tackle the root of our problems, not only seeking solutions but addressing their causes. The fashion industry is fuelling our desire for newness, which in turn drives our culture of unsustainable consumption. It’s a crisis that “sustainability” itself cannot resolve. Changing people’s mindsets is harder than changing business models, but, to take a leaf from Elon Musk’s thesis in championing electric; you can do it if you make it aspirational.