Making fashion sustainable

Valerie McPhail
MSMU Class of 2015

(2/2020) Recycled trends are not enough to sustain an environmentally-conscious fashion industry. More newsworthy than Jennifer Aniston's satin Christian Dior by Galliano was her interaction with Brad Pitt. Photographed in mid-conversation — questionably mid-reconnection at the 26th Screen Actors Guild Awards [SAG] Awards last month— the internet went wild over the actors. A viral spew of social media content and blog articles reported the sentiment for a super couple of a previous decade. Blazoned with passion, "swipe left" Instagram posts compared the "Now and Then" photos from January 2020 to 1998, when the couple first met, reminiscent and hopeful that Aniston and Pitt's friendly backstage exchange could spark the famously beloved relationship they had in the past. Does fashion culture devote to celebrities, and missing out on the art and glamour of fashion?

Each New Year’s introduces an award season for the arts and after fashion week. Celebrities are photographed on the red carpet and streets of the world's cosmopolitan cities, wearing the latest trend or a coveted runway piece. The fashion is hardly appreciated farther than existing as the stylish or scandalous look of the moment and then quickly replaced by another outrageous look. Amidst The Golden Globes, SAG, Grammy's, and fashion shows in Milan, Paris and New York, fashion is hardly a vehicle for sustainability, but rather an item for ravenous consumption. Despite the vicious cycle, The Business of Fashion reports in headlines of the new decade "The Year Ahead: Sustainability Takes Centre Stage."

The writer was speaking in response to 17-year old activist, Greta Thunberg, who urged the fashion industry to pay attention to the impact the environmental impact production has on our Earth. On their website, Harper Bazaar reported, Quantis' book "Measuring Fashion." "More than 75 percent of the carbon footprint in the entire lifecycle of our clothing takes place there [in the fabric mills.]" Fashion paid attention. The conversation has since developed into buzzing discussion on how to educate and practice eco-friendly practices within fashion.

One type of system that has trended within the consumer world is subscription-based shopping. Such companies, for example, Rent the Runway, and Nuuly offers customers the opportunity to rent high-end fashion pieces at a monthly membership rate. The promise to sustainability is that rather than spend money on disposable fast fashion trends, renting allows clothing to be worn, and after return within a community that is passionate about fashion. Aside from the fact that two businesswomen, Jennifer Fleiss and Jennifer Hyman, fellow Harvard Business School graduates offering new perspectives into the fashion landscape, the industry followed suit. In July 2019 Urband Outfitters brand launched Nuuly. If Birchbox was made to sample the beauty industry, Nuuly was created to experiment with fashion.

Rent the Runway

At the New York Flagship store in Chelsea, a group of gals opens the store, ready to dress for the workday. And at day's end, they return their outfit and repeat, Monday through Friday. This is the consequence of a start-up company of just nine years. Rent the Runway has quickly become a go-to lifestyle brand - offering its customers everything from denim, ski jackets, sweaters, custom jewelry and handbags, shoes etc. For a membership fee, the unlimited access, offering four rented pieces at a time from $150 monthly, Rent The Runway offers Tibi, Proenza Schouler, GANNI and Addidas, and Yohji Yamamoto's Y-3. From glamour and glitz, office attire, to athletic-wear, the company has recalculated approach to fashion. Its consumer community considers the business model sustainable. Renting is the solution to engaging with the season's trends at an approachable price and without indulging in fast fashion.

By way of introduction through Urban Outfitters, the street style brand has released an exclusive monthly subscription, with aspirations for each customer to explore personal style. A curated collection of brands including "Iconic Labels, Emerging Designers + Rare Vintage" sets this renting service apart. Unlike Rent the Runway, Nuuly does not have a brick and mortar, nor partnerships with office spaces for drop off locations. Where Rent the Runway partnered with WeWork, Nordstrom, and the W Hotels, Nuuly is strictly mail delivery. This specific aspect of the service heavily controls the company's sustainability initiative. Shipments via a cloth parcel, made of recycled product inaugurate the eco-friendly fashion prerogative. Included in the parcel are recyclable garment bags, which are made of the same recycle water bottle material as the cloth-material boxes that contains the shipment. The Urban Outfitter brands, Free People, and Anthropologie labels are included as shoppable explorations.

In spite of these sustainable initiatives, are these subscription-based fashion companies educating their customer base to invest in fashion? It is not the Zara and H&M, fast fashion labels they rent; rather, there is access to high-end brand name that is introduced and offered. To invest, rather than overspend - in any capacity - of high or low fashion, would prove the ultimate win in founding a sustainable future. I question whether renting markets the human ego that we can adapt a celebrity mindset and rent the high-end outfit for the day, or the event, just as we see on the red carpet and social media. Though undoubtedly eco-friendly, renting fashion challenges my convictions.

Is sustainability just another trend in fashion? Less not the renting services feed off a short-lived social media experience and fade out of influence, like Birchbox's virtually nonexistence. The hope is that this year, now that the January detox regimes and resets are complete, new habits formed, and clarity of mind established, sustainability will become a foundational mission-based practice within the fashion industry, despite reports that define the concept as the New Year, 2020 trend. It would be uncomplicated to offer recommendation for socially and environmentally cautious brands of the moment, some vegan, others emerging and even more mainstream labels that gained reputation through transparency on both environmental and social practices, with their customer base. However, sustainability is not so painless. When in question with fashion, vegan design is the first answer, easily. However, veganism requires sacrifice, which is not so easy. Though an investment, vegan, and non-cruelty fashion costs a pretty penny, for which culture appears interested though not entirely convinced. In such climate, Anna Wintour gave another suggestion: taking care.

The American Vogue Editor-in-Chief spoke at the Change Makers Event in Athens Greece, an event hosted by Vogue Greece, and spoke with publication Reuters. There, the origination reported that Wintour shared, "(It’s all about) talking to our audiences, our readers, about keeping the clothes that you own, and valuing the clothes that you own and wearing them again and again, and maybe giving them on to your daughter, or son, whatever the case may be." By taking care of the fashion we shop, we too, will then take care of our planet. This urge keeps sustainability fashionable. In the end, ‘going green’ is in vogue, not for trend sake, but with purpose. Or perhaps, this is just the beginning; sustainability is a style to remain. With intention, this will make the world go-round.