We love fashion. There are apparels that we adore and keep and there are some that out of trend that we give them away. We no longer want it in our wardrobe. Some of us are quick to cycle to new clothes and ignorant about usually they end in the landfills.
Do we know, whatever we wear, we somehow responsible to a carbon footprint?
Fashion industry contributes to 10% of the global carbon emissions.
Fast fashion industry produces mass clothing in a short time to keep up with latest trend by designers and celebrities. They use chemical fibres in the clothing materials and chemical dyes for vibrant colours. We need to be aware that fashion industry is one of the contributor to climate change.
In line with climate change pledge and awareness, the sustainable fashion starts to take place in this vast and growing industry. In Malaysia, recent years show that key players start to put visible actions in their chain supplies to reduce carbon emissions. Retailers already working on reducing overproduction, hence cutting cost and saving the environment.
Sustainable fashion emerges with the vision to create positive social impact, especially to our environment and socioeconomic. With the rise of sustainable fashion, they take measures to shift towards sustainability ecosystem within their product life cycle.
A good start in an environmental-friendly fashion retailers would be banning animal skin or fur, no plastic bag policies and opting biodegradable packaging.
We have seen textile recycling initiative by Zara, H&M and Uniqlo. Local players like Kloth Cares and Project Denim Angel by Voir are in this movement too.
The next notion would be to focus on the materials used are eco-friendly. For example, applying natural dyes extracted from tree bark, leaves and fruit skin. Some fashion houses use organic cotton, recycled polyester and nylon.
Muni and Kooshboo are local fashion brands that highlighting the use of earth-friendly materials in their clothing and accessories lines. Natural fibres like cotton and wool are biodegradable instead of polyester and nylon.
Some social enterprise such as Biji-Biji Initiative use recycle materials such as seat belt to make stylish and trendy bags. Kloth Lifestyle is onto recycled plastic bottles to produce microfiber towels and face masks.
For a bigger phase in sustainability cycle, they step in to look into supply chain to reduce carbon emission and water pollution. The process improves by saving energy or tons of water for cleaner production methods. There is a growing interest and moves to improve value chain globally.
With ethical fashion brands emerging worldwide, it is seen that mass consumers are starting to look into environmental and social responsibility for a more sustainable future. It is a lifestyle that now modern societies emphasise when they decide to purchase clothing.
Having to buy new apparels and at the same time conserving the environment are essential influence in decision making. It is now an alternative lifestyle to embrace environment and social conscious in our everyday life.
We as buyers shall also partake to uphold this and opt for quality over quantity. We need to absorb fashion conscious in our buying trend to reduce our contribution to the carbon emissions.
For good marketing, fashion companies that portray concern on environment, gain loyalty consumers as brand fashion with a message. To name a few of Malaysia fashion that supports firmly on earth-friendly sustainability improvement are Fugeelah, Sayang and Little Clothing Shop.
It is a continuous work to address global warming. Growing fashion brands are adopting sustainability business models. There are commitments to improve how clothes are produced and consumed. More fashion brands take into account the environmental and social impact to the planet.
Policymakers, industry players and mass consumers are all important actors that play prominent roles in a sustainability fashion ecosystem.
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