Why Sustainable Fashion?
- Abigale
- Apr 6, 2020
- 4 min read
Updated: Apr 8, 2020
In chapter 1, Rethinking Fashion Design of “The Practical Guide of Sustainable Fashion,” the beginning of the chapter goes over the role of the fashion designer, what the market levels are in fashion, and the activities of the fashion supply chain. The activities in this include design, sample making, selection, manufacturing, and lastly distribution. With each of the activities in the supply chain, the designers have to consider the social and environmental impacts that come with their products. Most of the activities are in the Fast Fashion side, but the activities are not limited to just that. They are used all around the fashion industry. Some impact activities that a designer must have in mind are the materials, fabric and garment production, distribution and retail, use, and disposal. The consumption of fashion and garment is a big deal in sustainable fashion. Consumers must see the many different ways of recycling a garment instead of throwing it away. 74% of clothing ends in a landfill and the other 26% is shared between material recovery and incineration. With all of these things in mind, sustainable fashion has been rapidly growing since the 1960s.
In chapter 2, The Life Cycle of a Garment, it strictly goes over the five key stages the life cycle has. These stages are design, production, distribution, use, and end-of-life. When thinking about designing for sustainable fashion, the designers have to make a life cycle map for the product, and they have to identify the key issues with the design and product. To identify key issues, designers must conduct an assessment of environmental and social impacts as stated in chapter 1. There are also assessment models that can be used like the sustainable assessment and the simple assessment models. In addition designers can use different sustainable design strategies. One of the strategies includes having work done in green or eco designs. Within the strategies, there are 7 different principles included that are helpful in achieving the strategies. These are minimizing the consumption of resources, choosing low-impact processes and resources, improving production techniques, improving distribution systems, reducing the impacts created during use, improving the garment’s lifetime, and last but not least improving the use of the end-of-life systems. When designing though only one principle must be used.
Now after all that info just thrown at you, the chapters discussed have great information if you are looking into sustainable fashion from background information on the fashion industry to how anyone can utilize sustainable practices in their creative process. In my opinion, these processes should be utilized by the whole fashion industry so we can make the industry better when it comes to saving our planet. I believe that sustainable fashion should be fashion. We should get rid of the harmful practices in place, and only use the sustainable ones. If anyone wants to look into the book, it is called “A Practical Guide to Sustainable Fashion,” written by Alison Gwilt.
Here is a short video on how sustainable fashion is changing the world!
A sustainable designer that I have chosen to reference is Gabriela Hearst. You can find her on the links below!
Here are some questions on how she achieves sustainability in fashion.
~What is her design philosophy? Gabriela’s vision is sustainable luxury. She makes sure “each garment is impeccably constructed and made with noble, conscientious materials.” Which is very obviously seen! She wanted to create a brand where the garments and designs aren’t rushed and she creates things that matter and mean something to her rather than what is trendy within the media!
~How is she making a difference? She uses biodegradable “Tipa packaging” For those of you who don’t know, it is a form of packaging that is compostable! She is a plastic-free brand and “is investing in zero waste stores.”
~How does her company address what we have read from the book previously mentioned? Her sustainable practices are also seen in the distribution process. The materials she has been using come from her family's ranch that her father gave to her. She gets materials such as silk, cashmere, linen, and wool. How cool is that?!
As a designer this really makes me think about how this career impacts the earth and those on it! After learning more about sustainability, I will be more conscious of what materials I am using and where they are coming from. It is also now easy to see how often garments are being thrown out when they have more life left in them.This will be something I think about before throwing out materials and my own personal garments that I “don’t want/need” anymore. Let’s admit it, we all throw out our old outfits!
When it comes to patternmaking and draping, it is easy to create waste. With paper patterns it is important to utilize as much space as possible without creating more waste that cannot be used later for another project. It is also important that when you are finished with a pattern that you conserve it as best as possible that way it can be used multiple times for multiple garments! In draping, being sustainable is different. The muslin that is being used is often chemically dyed and/or processed through a factory. To prevent that, we need to be using more organic muslin that isn’t chemically dyed! It is also important to keep the drape to use as reference in later dates.
Gabriela Hearst has a vision for the future of fashion. After seeing the quality of her designs, you can’t tell a difference in them compared to a non sustainable brand. They are on the same level of construction and aesthetics of design but their ways of obtaining their materials and ways of distributing, is what differs. This definitely inspires me to look into ways that I can be sustainable with my designs without compromising my design aesthetic.
Gabriela Hearst (@gabrielahearst) • Instagram photos and videos. (2019, October 29). Retrieved April 6, 2020, from https://www.instagram.com/gabrielahearst/?hl=en
Gabriela Hearst (@gabrielahearst) • Instagram photos and videos. (2020, March 18). Retrieved April 6, 2020, from https://www.instagram.com/gabrielahearst/?hl=en
Gabriela Hearst (@gabrielahearst) • Instagram photos and videos. (2020, April 4). Retrieved April 6, 2020, from https://www.instagram.com/gabrielahearst/?hl=en
~This blog was a collaboration with Carlie Gothard! Go check out her page!~
Gabriela Hearst. (n.d.). Online Store. Retrieved April 8, 2020, from https://www.gabrielahearst.com/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMItYi7sL7Z6AIVNf_jBx2UrgeIEAAYASAAEgL2GfD_BwE
GWILT, A. (2020). Practical Guide To Sustainable Fashion. S.l.: AVA ACADEMIA.
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