Ethical fashion strives to make the world a better place; it is:
Social Responsibility
Ethical fashion means providing workers with fair hours, wages, and rights, as well as a healthy work environment. Further it refers to practices that take into consideration all associated with apparel supply chains including management, designers, production workers, sales and even we the consumers. This includes, but is not limited to:
• Fair and living wages for workers
• Safe, clean working conditions
• Worker’s rights (For example, those outlined in the ILO conventions)
• Workers’ freedom of association and voice in the workplace
• Promote traditional skills
• Promote rural development
• Locally made
Environmental Responsibility
Ethical fashion ensures that the process of getting the product from raw materials to the consumer has as little negative impact on the environment as possible. This can be done in a number of ways, depending on the impacts identified and the design strategies applied:
• Use of environmentally responsible materials (organic fibers avoid chemical use in growing fiber, polyester fibers can be made of recycled materials and require less energy in washing and drying, for example)
• Minimizing negative environmental impact by employing sustainable best practices (shipping, office waste, etc.)
• Reusing, reassembling, and maintaining clothes in use for longer (vintage/used clothing stores, repair services, taking apart old clothes and sewing new finished products with them)
• Designing for disassembly and repurposing clothes so they have a second life (disassembling clothes and using the material to create new finished products)
• Employing energy and water efficient processes for dyes and finishes and using non-toxic substances.
• Does not use pesticides or harmful chemicals
• Use innovative textiles that minimize harm on the environment and follow the precautionary principle with new technologies (produced from recycled or newly engineered materials)
• Minimize load on landfills by using Biodegradable products (e.g., ones that could easily be broken down by the environment at the end of their life cycle. Embodies cradle to cradle concept that materials should protect the ecosystem and be free of waste.)
• Minimal waste in the production process
Innovative new businesses that are not based on the make, use waste principle, but are based on principles of cycles
• Animal products are ethically sourced and vegetable tanned
Has an Impact
Ethical fashion means working to impact the greatest number of people in as positive a way as possible. You as an individual can make a huge difference, small companies can make a big difference, and even the world’s largest companies can be motivated to shift toward more ethical practices.
Conventional Companies with a Social Mission
Using a percentage of sales and re-directing it to non-profit programs and projects around the world. While not always socially or environmentally responsible, these programs bring new values into commerce and make the world a better place.
Why “Ethical Fashion”…?
“Ethical Fashion” encompasses “Sustainable Fashion”, “Eco Fashion”, “Fair Trade Apparel”, animal rights, and cultural concerns. It goes a step beyond to include all fashion that is socially and environmentally conscious.
What About Mainstream Fashion and the World’s Biggest Brands?
We believe the best approach is to work collaboratively with big companies. While not always associated with ethical practices, many of the world’s largest companies are making a huge impact! If a huge company produce even just a few pieces each season using ethical practices, it can have an enormous global impact on cotton farmers and the organic cotton market!
Becoming Fair Trade Certified by a third party organization, for example, can ensure that thousands of farmers and factory workers worldwide benefit from increased income. This is not easy because it can involve implementing complex new auditing systems on hundreds of thousands of farmers and factories across the world. If enough consumers make ethical fashion choices, companies will realize that switching more of their business makes good business sense and that the benefits outweigh the costs.. The consumer shapes the market, and your actions and choices send a message directly to brands on how market awareness of ethical fashion is shifting.
