Is Sustainable Fashion Just A Trend?

As we’re moving forward into the 21st century, sustainable fashion movement, eco-friendly brands, and a more ethical mindset are consciously or unconsciously growing a stronger presence in everybody’s lives. People choose to educate themselves along with others about the useful benefits of a slower living, the dangerous consequences of the huge wave of overconsumption as well as globalization, and how essential it is for each and every one of us to be aware of the changes we can offer to our society through a slightly different lifestyle.

But still, there will always be the people who grow more suspicion than awareness and won’t easily accept the positive effects of ethical fashion. They will often attack those who firmly believe in the idea, arguing about how “it’s just a trend” – meaning that it’s just a massive following that will be easily forgotten after a while. Even if some view it as such indeed, wouldn’t it still matter, considering that everyone’s small steps play their important part? Every action towards change, as insignificant as it may seem, is the start of every blooming revolution.

Every revolution was first a thought in one man’s mind and when the same thought occurs to another man, it is the key to that era.

– Ralph Waldo Emerson

Let’s start off with what sustainable fashion exactly is and how or when it all started.

Unfortunately, the magnificent industry of fashion, in which fast fashion is based, mainly works with minimum ecological responsibility and piles up a great amount of social injustice. Searches have shown that it is linked with several environmental pollution cases and therefore to global warming. In addition, there is a lot of textile and materials waste in the process. As for the social part, the workplaces they use (the so-called sweatshops) have extremely poor conditions, often dangerous or illegal for their employees, who get paid the minimum compared to the hours of hard-working, whereas their basic human rights are pretty much violated. On top of that, they are highly responsible (or actually irresponsible) for child labor.

Sustainable fashion wants to change all that. The sustainable fashion brands, which are often independent, choose to use fabrics and dyeing whose production is less harmful to the environment and they support the low waste, minimal practices for their businesses. Additionally, the working conditions are more humane.

A few terms that we associate with sustainable fashion are: biodegradable, fair trade, organic, recycled, upcycled, and vegan.

Biodegradable clothing is made out of natural materials that are easily decomposable such as hemp, linen, Tencel lyocell, and their production is less polluting.

Fairtrade labeled clothing is made by people who earn a fair income.

Organic clothing is more “clean” meaning they haven’t used any chemicals on them.

Recycled clothing is made from materials that have been reused.

Upcycled or repurposed clothing is made from materials that were for waste, transforming them to brand new pieces.

But when was the first report on sustainable fashion?

A few of the first brands that observed the massive impacts the clothing manufacturing industry’s policies have on our planet were Patagonia, Esprit, and Katharine Hamnett. They experimented with the production of “pioneering” sustainable clothing in the late 1980s. That’s when sustainable fashion began to make its mark. Although before then, there were other revolutionary fashion movements we could connect it with.

During the 1960s the hippie counterculture appeared. Hippies opposed the war (a statement empowered by the disastrous effects of the Vietnam War) and embraced a simpler way of living, being closer to nature and using natural fibers like cotton for clothing.

Later on, we see that goth and punk styles become popular from the 1970s to the early 1980s. The supporters of both movements preferred to buy clothes from thrift or second-hand stores, offering a different storytelling to what fashion can mean.

In the late 1980s, we meet the seemingly most successful movement: the anti-fur movement. Anti-fur protesters were against the cruelty towards animals and we owe them the birth of the “faux” materials aka the imitation of the originals, so no animal gets hurt. Subsequently, we got faux fur, leather, and others that nowadays are mostly connected to the vegan movement.

Around 1990 things started to get complicated. Mass manufacturing became once again a thing, it was all quantity over quality and the road for consumer mania was open. Nevertheless, people did not completely stop caring about the more ethical side of living but it wasn’t until at least 15 years later that jumped its way to the surface. Activists started talking more about the ways we could save our planet and when veganism took on a larger extent, more and more began supporting minimalism and slow living. The access to the internet definitely helped for more knowledge and therefore education on the subject, while it worked as a platform for exposure of so many scientists, celebrities, and others who wanted to positively influence the audience.

So in conclusion, my answer to the question “is sustainable fashion just a trend” is simple: sustainable fashion has always been a thing, even if it was under a different name or different circumstances. There were always those who believed they can change the world and took action. And people shouldn’t see it as a trend because its importance is sort of vital. Right now it’s maybe the best era for it to bloom brighter.

Small & helpful tips to maintain the awareness of sustainable fashion going in your own wardrobe?

Try to recycle, swap, or donate your clothes, buy from more sustainable businesses, buy from small businesses, second-hand or vintage stores, transform your clothes into something new, accessorize them differently, and don’t throw out anything just because it got old or has any issues. In any case, you can choose to repair it instead. Buy things with the thought that they will last not with the thought of temporary use. Choose quality over quantity. Choose kindness.