What is eco and sustainable fashion?
Wherever we look there is this prevailing pressure put on people towards more and more consumption. To satisfy that need and demand fashion production on industrial scale in today's world has become a source of hyperproduction, lessened quality, eco hazardouous processes, pollution, social and financial inequality, and exploitation. This kind of economy is linear and careless. We are all more and more aware of the negative repercussions of those phenomenons, but fortunately, things are changing. Thanks to efforts from both producers and consumers fashion is becoming more sustainable.
Expressions like eco-friendly, environmentally friendly, ethical clothing, fair, sustainable and slow fashion have entered everyone's vocabulary, but what do they mean exactly? All those terms encompass a philosophy of design and production (from sourcing to disposal, i.e. return of material into production) that shape circular processes, and is environmentally and socially responsible.
Thinking and acting in a sustainable way doesn't necessairily mean the same to all. For consumers it means paying attention to clothes they already own, to the process of caring for them, perhaps even questioning their own personal values and relation to their belongings. It also means putting more care into the process of buying new clothes – buying less, well made and of higher quality. Buying second-hand has increased in popularity and estimates show that it will soon surpass retail shopping. For producers, those terms involve new business concepts, greater transparency, innovative ideas, slower processes, actions to be taken that are more considerate towards the environment as a whole, as well as taking great care of working conditions, everyday lives, education and wellbeing of all the workers in the fashion chain, who should also be fairily compensated for their efforts.
