Prêt-à-Trade-Fair

by Zarah Patriana

Published March 01, 2009 @ 02:17PM PT

We're in the midst of the "big four" Fashion Weeks which is resulting in some pretty fabulous internet browsing while I'm home sick in bed. London and New York churned out some great Fall collections, Milan is winding down and Paris is coming up soon enough. My favorite thing to come out of this year's 2009 Fall Collection Fashion Week, besides the fact that bright colors are here to stay, was the Fair Trade fashion event that happened during London's Fashion Week. London's Fashion Week is the only one out of the bunch that prominently features eco and Fair Trade clothing where it has its own exhibition called Esthetica. The Esthetica exhibition has been a part of LFW for a few years now, but this is the first year that it was the center of attention. This is most likely due to the Sustainable Clothing Action Plan launched by the UK's Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) that happened to coincide with both LFW and Fairtrade Fortnight. The Action Plan aims to make fashion more sustainable and less environmentally damaging.

While having many economic benefits, clothing has a significant environmental and ethical impact ranging from increased carbon emissions, waste, water usage and pollution to child labour and unfair trading conditions.  The clothing and textiles sector in the UK alone produces around 3.1 million tonnes of CO2, 2 million tonnes of waste and 70 million tonnes of waste water per year - with 1.5 million tonnes of unwanted clothing ultimately ending up in landfill.

The Action Plan has brought together over 300 organizations who are taking action to fight against the environmental and social impacts of 'throwaway fashion'. The campaign is backed by Minister of Sustainability, Lord Philip Hunt who announced the Plan at the beginning of LFW.

This action plan represents a concerted effort from the fashion industry, including top names in the high street and manufacturers to change the face of fashion.

Retailers have a big role to play in ensuring fashion is sustainable.  We should all be able to walk into a shop and feel that the clothes we buy have been produced without damaging the environment or using poor labour practices, and that we will be able to reuse and recycle them when we no longer want them.

I’m delighted that so many fashion companies have signed up  to the sustainable clothing  action plan and I look forward to seeing these actions come to fruition.

An interesting thing to note is that some of the big names to sign on to the Action Plan have actually been heavily criticized in the past for their poor environmental and social practices. Marks and Spencer, Tesco and Sainsbury are increasing their ranges in Fair Trade and organic fashions and looking into fabrics that will encourage and enable clothing recycling. Tesco is also,

extending its traceability programme across cotton supply chains to ban cotton from countries known to use child labour. It's also adding carbon labelling of Tesco laundry detergents.

Companies that have been leaders in the ethical fashion game are continuing to increase their Fair Trade fashion and are proving to be eco-fashion giants. The Fairtrade Foundation is increasing the volume of Fair Trade cotton products and are looking to achieve at least 10% Fair Trade cotton in UK clothing by 2012. T Shirts and Sons are developing the first Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS) certified system for eco printing on organic cotton. All this is exciting news for fans of ethical fashion like myself, but Guardian writer Lucy Siegle points out

Will this action plan actually reverse, halt or slow down the problematic environmental footprint of our fast fashion binge culture? And do these voluntary initiatives really address the evils lurking in the global fashion closet? Unless there's a big surprise [when the plan is announced], there is no mention here of a living wage or any commitment for overseas producers. They may not be fashionable concepts during a recession but it's still a fact that in Bangladesh garment workers cannot afford to buy food thanks to the rise in commodity prices.

We're all familiar with voluntary initiatives, such as the Harken-Engel Protocol that the chocolate industry has yet to follow through on -- eight years later. There is supposed to be improved traceability in the supply chain and encouraging sustainable clothing, but how much further is it going to go? How strict are the guidelines? Is ethical fashion only in fashion on the surface or will there be some greenwashing like GreenLAGirl pointed out on a certain fashion line. All questioning aside, I really am happy to hear about the increased exposure and feasabilty of sustainable and Fair Trade fashion. Even Project Runway recognized sustainable fashion with the pick of their latest Runway winner, Leanne Marshall who was the shows standout eco-fashion star who weaved sustainbility into all her eco-chic couture. No matter how you decide to cut and measure it, eco and Fair Trade fashion has come a long way from hemp and tie-dye to haute couture on high fashion's runway.

[photos: guardian uk & ny magazine]