![]() ![]() Learn more about ethical and sustainable fashion Fast fashionįast fashion can be defined as a model of mass-producing cheaply made, “of-the-moment” items that are sold at a lower price point. For some, ethical fashion focuses more on the social impact of the fashion industry and what is “morally right”.Įthical fashion goes beyond your local labour laws and covers a wide range of issues such as living wages, working conditions, animal welfare, and vegan fashion.īut ignoring the ethical dimensions of catastrophic environmental challenges like the impact of climate change or the destruction of freshwater sources on humans and animals wouldn’t really make sense. More and more, retailers and brands are gravitating toward other labels like “conscious fashion” with similar intentions.Įthical and sustainable fashion are often used interchangeably. To reconcile the two is impossible.” Friedman has resolved to use the term “responsible fashion” instead. ![]() To combat greenwashing, policymakers everywhere, from New York to the European Union, are working on legislating how a brand can use these terms in their marketing, leading to a rise in alternative ways of describing the initial goals behind the term itself.įor example, The New York Times fashion critic Vanessa Friedman has argued the term “sustainable fashion” is itself an oxymoron: “‘Sustainable,’ after all, implies ‘able to continue over a period of time,’ ‘Fashion,’ on the other hand, implies change over time. This means the term is often limited and loses its potency. And while a brand can be “ more sustainable” and consumers can make “ more sustainable choices”, the current reality is that no brand or choice is fully sustainable. When the brands that are responsible for the majority of fashion’s overproduction, environmental impacts, and worker exploitation claim to be sustainable, the term begins to lose its meaning. In recent years, terms like “sustainable” and “ethical” have been frequently co-opted in greenwashing and corporate sustainability spin. Many experts will use terms like degrowth and the circular economy to describe the systemic changes needed to achieve a more sustainable fashion industry.īut due to its vagueness and the perceived lack of progress towards these goals, sustainable fashion is a term that many designers, activists, and policymakers now have mixed feelings about. In this view, meaningful sustainability requires a fundamental shift away from the business models that drive overproduction, overconsumption, waste, worker exploitation, and the climate emergency. When campaigners and experts use it (and related terms like ethical fashion, green fashion, and eco fashion), they’re advocating for a fashion industry that manages its environmental impacts within planetary boundaries and ensures the wellbeing of people and other animals throughout the supply chain. The intended meaning of the term sustainable fashion is often noble. Sustainable fashion builds on the concept of sustainable development, which the UN defined in 1987 as “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”. ![]() Here are 26 sustainable and ethical fashion words you need to know. “Ethical fashion”, “sustainable fashion”, “eco-friendly”, “organic”, “fair trade”, “vegan”… what do they all mean?įear not, we’re here to help. There are so many words and definitions that it’s easy to feel overwhelmed at first. Whether you’re new to the world of sustainable fashion or an ethical fashion veteran, ethical and sustainable fashion terminology can be confusing, to say the least. We’ve created a super sustainable and ethical fashion glossary so you can navigate the sustainable fashion world with ease. ![]()
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