When it comes to the issue of sustainable fashion, multinational brands are not the only ones who should be held accountable for ensuring an eco-friendly approach. While it is the manufacturer’s responsibility to be considerate of the environment, consumers should also practise responsible shopping habits.

The evolution of the 21^st century’s fast-fashion system – where inexpensive designs move quickly from the runway, into stores to meet and create new trends – has since pushed idealistic dreams of sustainable fashion further and further away.

• READ MORE: How Sustainability is Driving Innovation in the Watch Industry

Challenging the traditional means of annual four-seasonal releases (Fall, Winter, Spring, and Summer), it is not uncommon for fast-fashion retailers to introduce new products multiple times a week, utilising replication, rapid production, and low-quality materials in an attempt to stay ahead of competitors and on-trend.

With about 52 “micro-seasons” a year, fast-fashion retailers produce at least one new collection per week, and are at all times, equipped with a towering supply of stocked merchandise. While these methods keep stores from running low on designs and help them appear consistently “fresh”, their goals are to ensure consumers never tire from their inventory.

The accelerated production pace coupled with low retailing costs inevitably leads to poor and inconsistent product quality, which lack longevity and will eventually be thrown out or replaced with something “trendier” in a year or two. While this is an igneous business model for ensuring a retained consumer base, each element that characterises “fast fashion” has severe consequences not just to the overworked and underpaid workers involved, but to the environment.

As the fashion industry’s leading contributor of pollution, fast fashion is responsible for at least 5% of total global emissions – with the textile production industry producing more emissions than international flights and maritime shipping. With 1.2 billion tonnes of CO₂ produced per year, textile production easily ranks as one of the world’s most destructive industries.

60% of all textiles are used in the fashion industry and a large proportion of clothing is manufactured in countries that rely on coal-fuelled power plants such as China and India – increasing the carbon footprint of each garment.

In addition, to the consequence of production, research has revealed that in the United States, an estimated 11 million tonnes of clothing — full of lead, pesticide, and an innumerable amount of chemicals — get thrown out every year.

Stella McCartney is one of the numerous brands working toward cruelty-free, no-fur, ready-to-wear fashion for both men and women. Reshaping fashion from the get-go of the early ’90s, Stella is known for creating modern garments which exude natural confidence, utilizing reengineered cashmere and ethically sourced wool, organic cotton, and recycled textiles.

• READ MORE: Taking the Sustainable Green Movement to a Whole New Level

In 2014, the brand launched a simple five-step labelling system to help consumers care for and prolong the life of their clothing through mindful garment care. This system entitled ‘Clevercare’, aimed to minimise consumer wastage, considering the brand’s potential carbon footprint at every point of the product’s life.

Stella McCartney is an official member of the Ethical Trading Initiative and has actively collaborated with various Non-Profit and environmental conservation organisations, such as Wildlife Works and Parley for the Oceans.

Major French international luxury group, Kering has also taken strides to become sustainable. Just last week, Kering CEO François-Henri Pinault announced that the group would be implementing a company-wide ban on the use of fur across all its labels. Many of Kering’s own brands had already gone fur-free prior to this new announcement. In addition to Gucci, Bottega Veneta, Alexander McQueen, and Balenciaga have all made the jump — Saint Laurent and Brioni were the only brands left to make the change.

• READ MORE: Gucci breaks with luxury tradition and adopts Sustainability with The RealReal Pre-owned Goods

The announcement follows through on a pledge Kering made in 2019 to become carbon neutral within its own operations and across its entire supply chain. With a goal to offset the entire group’s annual greenhouse gas emissions from 2018, Kering plans to work towards reducing its environmental footprint by 50% by 2025.

Revealing its intention to purchase carbon offset credits from REDD+, an international initiative supporting forest conservation projects in developing countries, for every unit of carbon it fails to eliminate, Gucci alongside, Kering will accomplish their sustainability goals through verified best-in-class REDD+ projects that conserve critical forests, biodiversity and support the livelihoods of local communities.

Despite the significant initiatives of revered name brands, critics and experts have accused the industry of offering consumers and the media mere “lip service” while co-opting the phrase as a marketing ploy to shift more product without enacting real change.

Of all the measures set in place, “carbon neutral” runway shows have gained immense traction – beginning with the Gabriela Hearst show at New York Fashion Week, followed by Burberry in London, and Gucci in Milan.

However, according to senior expert in McKinsey’s Apparel, Fashion and Luxury Group, Saskia Hedrich, who works closely with brands on strategy, sourcing optimization, merchandising and sustainability: While there is a lack of objective criteria in rating fashion sustainability, using recycled materials or pledging to become carbon neutral does not necessarily make a brand sustainable.

For example, cutting down on single-use plastic is just one element of sustainability, it does nothing for the humanitarian-aspect where 90% of garment workers worldwide are denied negotiating power over factory conditions, wages or their own health and safety.

Former fashion editor of the Financial Times and newly appointed chief fashion critic and director of the New York Times, Vanessa Friedman, confronted the fallacies of sustainable fashion in her speech at the Copenhagen Fashion Summit, in April 2019.

Pointing out the contradictions of the two-worded phrase, Friedman dispelled sustainable fashion as a false and pretentious myth, “On the one hand the fashion industry is under the pressure to be new, on the other is the imperative to maintain. If you put them together, they repel each other, like the opposite ends of a magnet.”

Urging listeners to actively reduce consumption through the collation of a sustainable wardrobe – swapping out fast fashion for higher quality garments and accessories with varying styles, which can be mixed and matched multiple times to create fresh outfits.

Her solutions align with eco-conscious fashion label, Asket – an activist brand with the sole, slow-fashion mission of creating clothes with longevity. The name Asket which translates to “A person who does without extravagance and abundance”, is felicitous to the brand which believes in mindful manufacturing, fair labour rights, natural-only material, and lasting garments.

For more fashion reads, click here.