It isn’t uncommon for any of us to hear about how a particular section in a particular country is being denied basic amenities just so that we could get affordable smart clothing. The news of litres and litres of water being wasted and dyes being let out into the water bodies isn’t strange too!

Many of us have grown up listening to or reading about these stories in our science books! The textile industry has been known to wreak havoc on the resources since time immemorial. Just to make it clear, we are talking about the industries and not the handicraft workers or the handloom workers.

And, as if the textile industry was not enough, one can add the entire Fashion and Glamour quotient to it and you have multiple stadiums built out of erstwhile forest lands, multiple thematic fashion shows which exploit the energy resources and the immense garbage that this sector leaves behind after every single event; Not to forget the high on the chemical cosmetic industry!

One would now say- if it is all so bad and damaging then why do we not shut shops? Maybe that will help. Also, isn’t the person writing this article wearing a lip balm right now or wearing a deodorant maybe? How about that and the plastic packaging and even the very basic wax strips or the trimmers being used?

Well, well, well! This article is to answer all of those concerns!!

What is Sustainable Fashion?

We will put it simply first-

The kind of fashion which makes sure that all the stakeholders i.e. the producers, as well as the buyer or anyone else who is engaged in the process in any way benefits from it and the environment doesn’t get harmed will be called Sustainable Fashion!

Okay, this definition got a bit confusing so let us break it down for you:

• Who are the Stakeholders: The textile industry and its workers, the merchants, the dyeing industry and its workers, the ultimate sellers, the brands who sell, the entire supply chain of the process, and also the people who have invested their money in the brands that sell
• What could be the possible Environmental Damage: Dyes, leftover chemicals which seep, the air pollution from burning and the various processes involved, cloth waste, plastic wastes, deforestation, increased carbon emissions and basically everything!
• How about the Buyer: Yeah, they are paying money to buy the products so they are a part of this sustainable consideration too
• What Makes the Fashion Sustainable: If, all of the three points mentioned above either stand to gain something from it or at least do not lose anything because of any of the processes involved!

Sincerely hoping that this cleared out the concept for you!

What are the Aspects of Sustainable Fashion

In keeping up with the spirit of the topic, we prepared this beautiful and fashionable template for you enunciating the varied aspects one needs to consider before weighing a brand on the scale of Sustainably lead Fashion

Some Sustainable Fashion Brands

We just realised that this should be a full-fledged blog and so we will write one soon. In the meantime, some well-known sustainable fashion brands will be Levi’s (yes, they are); Pact, Everlane, ThredUp, H&M Conscious (not just H&M), Eileen Fisher etc.

However, we did write about some sustainable cosmetic brands which you can access on “This Blog”

The Parting Note

Well, just like there are arguments against vegetarianism, there are arguments against Sustainable Fashion too. A lot of environmentalists say that there is nothing like Sustainable fashion because whatever we do, we will eventually end up harming the environment.

However, the flaw in this argument lies in the very basis of the definition of sustainability. We had in one of our earlier blogs talked about how Sustainability is an all-encompassing middle ground where everyone sets to gain!

The same stands true in the case of Sustainable Fashion too. All the stakeholders and by all we mean all have to gain from the activity and the losses have to be shared equally. 

While equality and equity in this scenario will be a very subjective aspect to consider, yet the point is that a middle ground has to be reached so that at least no one loses a lot!

With this thought, we leave you for tonight! Tomorrow, we will be back with something else and the day after something more! And soon, we will be listing out all of the sustainable fashion brands for our readers so that they know whom to prefer when they go shopping next time!