What is Sustainable, Slow & Ethical fashion?

A useful definition could be:

“Ethical fashion is the deliberate choice we make that ensures that the production of our purchases did not negatively impact the lives and the environment involved in each step of the way. From field to fashion.”

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Let's discuss all the aspects that go into Field to Fashion…

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Raw Materials-

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Ethical fashion considers the impact of the raw materials required for the product to be made. This includes not only the environmental impact of the raw material growth, but also the impact of the people involved in the harvesting.

This is why programmes such as Fair Trade exist because people are exploited.   Over 250,000 cotton farmers have killed themselves in the last 15 years as a result of their hopeless situations. If the industry continues to squeeze the raw material supply chain for cheaper and cheaper prices, then those at the start of the chain will suffer the most.

When products are tagged as BCI – Better Cotton Initiative, or GOTS – Global Organic Textile Standard, then we know that there have been fair processes have been involved.

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Labour-

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The global fashion industry employs almost 1 in 6 people, and most are earning less than $3 a day. The cheap clothes we enjoy come at a cost born by the growers, producers and makers. The Rana Plaza tragedy in 2013 shamed the industry in full view of the world.  No longer could large apparel companies hide behind the actions of middlemen. Everyone was on the hook to improve the situation because it was the ethical thing to do.

Unfortunately, it cost the lives of Rana Plaza to bring Ethical fashion from a ‘nice-to-have’ to a ‘must-have’.

It’s the realisation that the lives of people must be respected and that the finite resources of the world must be sustained for future generations.  This is a wholistic ethic focussed on the inputs into the fashion chain.

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So what is Slow fashion?

Unlike ethical fashion, slow fashion is more of a philosophy.  Whereas Ethical Fashion deals with the mechanics of fashion creation, Slow Fashion deals with how we use fashion in our lives.

Fast fashion is a good contrast to understand the message of Slow Fashion.  Fast Fashion seeks to pump out as many styles as possible in the quickest timeframe.  Whereas the slow fashion movement is about how consumers develop a relationship with the clothing they buy, that puts prolonging the life of the garment as the highest priority.  Whether it is buying timeless styles or repairing these timeless pieces rather than dumping in a bin.

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But what about Sustainable Fashion?

So we know Ethical fashion deals with production, and Slow Fashion deals with the ideal of ‘Buying less, Choosing well, and making it last”.

Sustainable fashion moves ethical and slow fashion into the realm of business economics by creating business models that operate sustainably through best practices from its finances to its environmental features. Whereas many people have scoffed in the past at companies who have attempted sustainable strategies, but now some of the most famous brands have popularised such terms as ‘radical transparency’ about ethics of their supply chains.

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Although Ethical, Slow, and Sustainable fashion are important in their own right, its when they are combined that the full power can be seen, just like the three musketeers.  This is the future of apparel, and it will mean that there will be corporate casualties as companies are unable or refuse to change.

Ethical Knitwear plans to be part of the future and will continue to develop manufacturing relationships with like-minded apparel companies.