The State of Sustainable Fashion

When Megan Thee Stallion first told us about “HOT GIRL SUMMER”, she was referencing more than just a season; she was also undoubtedly referring to climate change. Extreme weather in recent years has spurred serious conversations about how individuals & brands can combat the crisis. The fashion industry has been at the forefront of these conversations, pioneering sustainability efforts—at least, that’s been the intention.

In the world of fashion, ‘sustainability’ was once something radical brands undertook to shake up the industry and change the trajectory of climate change, from using recycled materials to eco-friendly manufacturing. However, in recent years, the language of sustainability has been co-opted by brands in order to make themselves relevant, effectively setting off waves of ‘greenwashing’: an advertising spin that allows brands to appear sustainable without actually putting in the work. Still, consumers have taken to fighting greenwashing, even suing retail giant H&M for its false advertising around its ‘Conscious Collection’.

H&M isn’t the only brand with a suspect ‘eco-friendly’ collection; Boohoo recently announced a new ‘sustainable’ line with Kourtney Kardashian as its ambassador, a contrast to ASOS quietly removing its ‘responsible edit’ from its site. These sorts of collections feel like an overdone idea, though; brands are steadily moving towards secondhand marketplaces, tapping into Gen Z’s penchant for thrifting and the surging resale market. Pretty Little Thing launched their own marketplace just last week, with creative director Molly-Mae Hague calling the move disruptive (which is laughable, considering every other secondhand marketplace), joining a spate of brands, from fast-fashion to luxury, with resale platforms. While this circular economy is undeniably a step towards a more sustainable future and also a way for brands to shine a spotlight on their own archives, it doesn’t get to the root of the problem: excessive consumption.

Alec Leach, former style editor of Highsnobiety, sustainability consultant, and the mind behind the IG FUTURE DUST, recently released a slim manifesto on overconsumption & fashion, The World Is On Fire But We’re Still Buying Shoes. In it, he traces a journey towards a better working relationship with fashion, combining KonMarie philosophies with Marxist terminology to give readers a new framework to think through purchases.

This thread of repairing seems to be the next, true wave of sustainability in the fashion sphere. Platforms like Fixing Fashion and The Seam are providing tools alongside brands like Patagonia, giving consumers an additional sense of agency over their clothing. TikTok users, especially those part of SewTok, are flooding FYPs with their tutorials, with the #SewTok and #clothingrepair hashtags garnering ~400M views. The radical act of repairing clothing also feels closely aligned to Leach’s manifesto: namely, that we should have a relationship with the fashion in our lives, that those relationships require work, and that while individually we may not solve climate change, we can do better and be better for it—and that we should be able to demand brands do the same.

As September sees the rollout of Fashion Week across the four major fashion hubs, we’ll be keeping an eye out for brands that are radically transparent and actively fostering a community of consumers who are unafraid to be critical in service of shaping the brands they align with and love. To chat with us about the emerging movements we’re seeing in sustainability and fashion, drop us a line!

With Love,

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