Fashion isn’t just the clothes we wear, but a vital and enduring form of self-expression that can reflect our values and culture. However, the fashion industry is highly resource intensive, the fashion industry is highly resource-intensive, with fashion production comprising 10% of total global carbon emissions. Additionally, the “fast fashion” approach that much of the industry also facilitates various environmental and social inequalities, from excess waste to child labor. To meaningfully address these issues, emerging fashion designers need to be mindful of their impact and adopt more conscious design practices, including more sustainable and ethical production methods.
The term conscious fashion refers to a growing design philosophy within the fashion industry, to create a system that allows designers to continually design and produce new fashion without negative impacts on the environment or society as a whole. In that way, conscious design aims to deliver on the triple bottom line: profit, people, and planet, whereas traditional business practices in the fashion world tend to prioritize the first above all else. Conscious design in fashion is ethical, sustainable, organic, animal-friendly, or vegan, and aims to mitigate the extensive environmental and social impacts of the modern fashion industry.
One only needs to look at the many inequalities caused by the modern “fast fashion” system to recognize how negatively the industry can affect the environment. Recent data shows that 20% of global production waste comes from the textile and apparel sectors, and considering that many non-biodegradable fabrics can last upwards of 200 years, these discarded clothes will take up a lot of space in landfills. Also, not only is the fashion industry a major contributor to global emissions, but it also uses about 93 billion cubic meters of water annually, representing 4% of all global freshwater withdrawals.
Modern fashion also has serious societal implications: there is ample evidence of forced and child labor in clothing supply chains around the world, a problem stemming from the need to produce large quantities of clothing quickly and cheaply. Another problem is a lack of traceability: due to the complexity and globalized nature of fashion industry supply chains, brands, and retailers often cannot see the full scope of their supply chain, making it difficult to identify specific points where human rights issues might occur. This is why there are mounting regulatory standards that aim to address the issue, with the Fair Trade Certification and the Global Organic Textile Standard all encouraging more ethical practices.
Of course, making the transition to conscious design is no easy task, which is why we at Inside Fashion Design provide tools and resources to help designers transition smoothly. Our multimedia platform brings together a supportive community of fellow designers and top fashion industry professionals from around the world. The Conscious Fashion Design Academy training course teaches valuable strategies and insights to succeed sustainably and ethically in the industry, covering everything from integrating conscious design principles into your work to building circularity into your business model.
Though it comes with its fair share of challenges, conscious design is the ideal solution if we want to address the serious environmental and social impacts of the fashion industry. We can reduce emissions and eliminate needless waste by embracing sustainability and circularity in our design approach. Meanwhile, implementing higher degrees of transparency into fashion supply chains and moving away from unsustainable speed and production practices can ensure that fashion production isn’t tainted by forced or child labor. So I’d encourage anyone in the fashion industry, from the experts to the up-and-comers, to learn more about conscious design practices and adopt them in their own work.
To inqure, send a note to: d esign@insidefashiondesign.
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