This will make you rethink the history of sustainability in fashion 

The fashion industry accounts for 10% of the world’s total carbon emissions, and although sustainability is the buzzword of the decade, it’s important to remember that it’s a concept that has been around for hundreds of years. 

Whether we mean to or not, our understanding of sustainability in the west has been shaped by ‘whiteness’. Whether that’s white fashion and environmental influencers or white policy makers who often leave out or take credit for the contributions of BIPOC. It’s an all too familiar narrative, one that I cannot comment on personally. Self-education, research and conversations has informed me that leaving BIPOC out of these conversations not only creates further inequality, but generates blind spots in our advances towards tackling the climate crisis.

This isn’t a new problem. Priyanka Bansal, author of the article Why are White Women the Face of Environmentalism, writes that a quick Google will only reveal white women activists who are the ‘face’ of the movement. “This completely ignores the decades of work people of colour have put into the eco-justice movement,” Priyanka says.  

BIPOC communities have been practising eco-friendly methods for decades, but are left unrewarded as it has always come from a place of need. Originally it was an issue of class and poverty that forced communities to take on the now ‘trendy’ methods, from shopping second-hand to mending old clothes. 

Inspired by Priyanka, this article aims to educate about the history of sustainability within the wider global narrative of fashion, rather than an all too familiar white western gaze. 

‘Sustainability’ and ‘ethical Fashion’ are definitions that will always cross over. Sustainable fashion is clothing created and consumed in a way that’s not detrimental to the environment, and values the Earth’s natural resources. Ethical fashion, and arguably cruelty free fashion, can have two definitions. It’s not made from animal fabrics like leather, wool and cashmere, and also doesn’t compromise garment workers’ safety.

When you first Google the history of sustainability in fashion, you come across this. “Sustainability is a concept that properly came into the wider public consciousness between the 1960s and the 1980s, with the UN releasing an official definition on sustainability in 1987 coinciding with the environmental movement, and the 1962 publication Silent Spring by American biologist Rachel Carson.”

During the 1950s there was a post war economic and consumerist boom amongst the younger generations; urging a pivotal shift in the way we consume. Years later in the 1980s and 1990s, eco-fashion initiatives were largely shaped by ecologists and feminists to combat this boom, including Arne Naess, Carolyn Merchant and Suzi Gablik. 

It was during the 1970s that the US, and many other western countries, signed the Multi Fibre Agreement which essentially limited the number of apparel exports from textile producing countries with the aim to help boost the industries within their own countries. This had a negative effect on the apparel industry, as businesses moved to off-shore manufacturing where it was far cheaper for clothes to be produced in the global south and far east. 

In the 19th century and early 20th century, Parisian couturiers were at the head of the fashion industry, crafting tailor-made pieces for the wealthy. Prior to this, and also during this time, there was little textile waste. Fabric offcuts were sewn together, dresses were either passed down or constantly altered, and textiles were continually made into furnishings, blankets, and more.

But sustainable practises and concepts have always been deeply embedded within indigenous and non-western communities. One of the many examples is Taoism; an ancient Chinese philosophical concept that believes we should always be living in harmony with nature, rather than in competition with it. 

Publications Vogue and Refinery 29 have recently used their platform to give a voice to BIPOC fashion designers, writers and activists; allowing further conversation that sustainable fashion has become a white western adopted movement, that - steeped in colonialism - has been appropriated from BIPOC. 

“We have to change our attitude towards the world we live in. We must learn who was here and leading the conversation before us”

Vogue’s article features Keri Ataumbi, a jewellery designer raised on the Wind River Indian Reservation in Wyoming. Ataumbi’s beautiful passage states, “Couture is something most indigenous people I know have had in their lives since they came into the world, our aunties, parents and grandparents make things for us that are loaded with meaning.”

In this small passage, Ataumbi challenges and exposes what western countries have perceived ‘couture’ to be. Historically, couture is thought to have been a 19th to early 20th century Parisian invention by Charles Frederick Worth, where there was a separation from dressmaking to luxury fashion. But, the act of creating something beautiful, loaded with aesthetic as well as spiritual meaning, hand-crafted, and made from rare and unusual fabrics was also evidently happening in indigenous communities. 

In Eco Age, Saja Elmshiri argues the Middle East needs to be included in the sustainable fashion conversation, noting, “It’s time to challenge whether sustainability is geographically limited to so-called, developed countries”. For instance, the world’s first sustainable fashion council - the Middle East Fashion Council - has recently launched. But how many of us in the western hemisphere know this? 

There are numerous examples around the world where sustainability is an entrenched way of life rather than a ‘trendy’ movement, and where non-western countries are taking vital ground-breaking steps to intertwine the fashion industry and circular economy. At the 2019 Hong Kong fashion summit, a 60 million dollar fund was launched to invest in sustainable innovations in India, Bangladesh and Vietnam. 

Orsola de Castro, founder of Fashion Revolution has commented continuously on the fashion industry’s racist and exploitative behaviour directly causing the horrendous working conditions in the global south. But, as much as I admire de Castro’s work, we don’t stop and think enough about how the movement also ignores, and in return is racist, towards BIPOC. 

During the height of the BLM movement in May and June 2020 there was an increased awareness around the term ‘white saviours’ which is essentially where white people co-opt a movement but centre themselves, in turn causing more harm than good. Arguably sustainable and ethical fashion has become another outlet in which this can occur. 

In the past 5 years, the conversation surrounding sustainability has embedded itself within people’s minds. Large companies are starting to take note, and social media has breathed new life into social and political movements. In sustainable fashion, this has included the #cleanclothes #whomadeyourclothes and #payup campaigns fronted by leading organisations like Fashion Revolution. 

However, this has also led to greenwashing amongst  larger fast fashion companies, with H&M, ASOS and Missguided among others, releasing ‘sustainable’ collections in the past year. 

The constant churning out of new collections, as well as the 350,000 tonnes of clothing ending up in landfill every year, will never be eclipsed by ‘organic cotton’ or ‘recycled polyester’. And of course, garment workers consistently pay the price. 

The Rhana Plaza disaster in 2013 claimed 1,134 lives, and only on March 11th 2021 a lethal fire in a garment factory in Cairo killed 20 people. For a fashion brand to be truly sustainable, safety and kindness needs to be at its core values, not as a consumer-driven marketing stunt to generate more sales.

All in all, we have to change our attitude towards the world we live in, but we must learn who was here and leading the conversation before us. Sustainable fashion has so far been written as a white woman movement, but it’s clearly far more than that.