Why "responsibility" must become the new buzzword in fashion right now

By Camilla Rydzek

In the last 30 years we have seen a slow, carefully considered set of actions towards sustainability – a journey which in 2020 has come to a rapid standstill. Within 24 hours the industry was shocked into inaction, as stores closed, orders were put on hold and plans for the Spring/Sumer 21 collections were re-evaluated. As Marc Jacobs recently shared in an interview with Vogue, as a designer he is taking this opportunity to breathe, reflect - and grieve for fashion. 

As McKinsey has forecast, fashion is facing a severe economic contraction, as consumer spending will decrease as a result of a potential new recession. Fashion will be especially hit especially hard due to its “discretionary nature”, and recovery will be slow. Inevitably the industry will become smaller - as we have already seen with Oasis, Warehouse and Debenhams recently falling into administration.

As brands struggle to survive, priorities will inevitably shift. The long-term gains of a sustainable strategy will lose their appeal when the short term has much more pressing concerns. 

Yet, 2020 has also given the industry an unprecedented window of time to slow down, offering a welcome respite from its break-neck speed of output. What is becoming clearer is that if sustainability should remain on the agenda of fashion, systemic change will need to occur. Today, more than ever the industry collectively needs to overhaul its infrastructure to create the condition for sustainable disruption to occur. Fashion has to think bigger.

In the face of this pandemic, if we keep thinking about sustainability as the obligation of individual companies, the progress we have made up until this point will reverse. 

Even before the pandemic, the fashion industry was by no means wholly interested in building a more sustainable future. Case in point: The Pulse of the Fashion Industry 2019 edition outlined that 40% of brands are still either taking uncoordinated action or building the foundations of a sustainable strategy.  

Looking back over the past three decades, sustainability in fashion has been driven to a large extent by the voluntary, individual actions of fashion brands. Mostly these incremental improvements were reactive in nature, following consumer backlash. After it was revealed that Burberry had burnt 28.6 GBP million worth of clothes, perfume and accessories, the brand announced it would be the first company to stop this industry-wide behaviour. More recently as brands cited “force majeure” to get out of paying suppliers, consumer ire caused some to backtrack and announce they would make an effort to pay.

Now, the fashion industry has to shift what it means to be sustainable. Sustainability can’t continue to be treated as a voluntary initiative, a “nice to have”. Instead it needs to be an attitude which is reflective of acting in a responsible manner. This means seriously considering why so many clothes end up in landfill, and how it is possible for the industry to simply cancel orders and not pay suppliers. Asking why designers such as Dries Van Noten have signed a petition for a more sensible fashion calendar.  

The industry needs to find ways to make sustainability an integral part of its future, at every step of the way. It should be an integral part of fashion shows, supply chain management and education. The industry needs to create the conditions for brands to thrive sustainably in the post-pandemic world, so that ethical and environmentally responsible production can be part of every single brand and industry player.

Many aspects of the industry are ripe for disruption. As retailers are stuck with excess stock and heavy discounting, perhaps it is time to look into alternative models of revenue, such as re-sale. Scandi cool-girl brand Ganni meanwhile has been trialling a rental model. 

In terms of producing clothes, the logic of a fragmented supply chain is called into question. If fashion is to take responsibility for the tonnes of clothing it produces every year, it will have to shift to an increasingly demand-led model, and the supply chain will have to become more agile. Value chain complexity will have to be reduced, and perhaps we will see the manufacturing industry also move back home, or nearer at least. It is time to stop “chasing the cheap needle across the planet”.

This would also make transparency a more achievable task, which as Fashion Revolution has revealed in this recently published White Paper, is as imperative today as it ever was before. With closer ties to suppliers, tools such as the Higg Index could find the footing they need in the industry to change the use of materials. 

Another very interesting prospect is regenerative farming, which takes us all the way to Tier 1, where the raw materials are harvested. This method embodies a principle central to the circular economy principle – regenerating and replenishing, instead of slowly decreasing harm. 

Pre-Covid-19 sustainability could anything and nothing. In 2020, sustainability needs to be synonymous to responsibility. 

As Eva Kruse, Founder of the Global Fashion Agenda said recently at the Fashion Innovation World Wide Talks (live-streamed, of course); "Sometimes the best way to predict the future is to create it". I think this is a mantra fashion can take to heart in 2020.