Miami-based label Chromat debuted a new line of swimwear made from recycled plastics.Credit:Sipa USA
Alysha Buss, a curator at Sydney's Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences says consumers are more empowered than ever. “I do think consumers are now holding fashion brands to higher standards and calling them out on social media when they don’t act responsibly – a recent example being the uproar around Burberry burning unsold stock,” she says.
What’s more, brands who don’t engage with ethical fashion and social issues risk becoming the worst thing possible in fashion: irrelevant.
In its 2019 State of Fashion report, the influential fashion news website Business of Fashion said 2019 would be the turning point for brands when it comes to being socially aware.
“Younger generations’ passion for social and environmental causes has reached critical mass, causing brands to become more fundamentally purpose driven to attract both consumers and talent,” the report noted.
The wokeness is everywhere, from the Duchess of Sussex wearing sustainable sneaker brand Veja during the Australian Royal Tour last year, to the rise of genderless fashion at luxury houses such as Louis Vuitton, to Tiffany & Co donating $1.4 million to the Great Barrier Reef Foundation last year.
Not all wokeness is equal though. In March 2018, the millennial-skewed website Refinery29 invented a sort of “Bechdel test” (the famous test invented by illustrator Alison Bechdel to measure whether a movie is sexist) to compare the influx of brands designing International Women’s Day capsule collections that year.
Younger generations’ passion for social and environmental causes has reached critical mass
Business of Fashion
The editors wanted to see which brands were actually putting their money where their slogan T-shirt was by donating at least 20 per cent of profits or supporting gender parity all year around. The answer was: not many.
However, the fact that formerly crunchy ideas such as feminism, sustainability and ethical fashion have become go-to for fashion marketing teams signals a change. While style has long represented the mood of the time — sexual liberation and mini-skirts in the 60s, say, and Diane von Furstenberg revolutionising the new working woman's wardrobe with her wrap-dress in the 70s, the fashion industry buy-in today feels especially right for now.
When Anna Wintour, editor-in-chief of US Vogue and fashion’s official gatekeeper denounced tennis great Margaret Court’s homophobia and Prime Minister Scott Morrison's record on LGBTQ rights in a speech during the Australian Open in January, she reinforced the idea that it has become acceptable, if not chic, for fashion to engage with hot-button societal and political issues.
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Graeme Lewsey, the CEO of the Virgin Australia Melbourne Fashion Festival (VAMFF), Australia’s largest consumer fashion festival, says Wintour’s impassioned speech was a “sign of the times”.
Lewsey has worked in the fashion industry for decades and says he doesn’t recognise the industry now “and thank goodness for that”. Examples of this change, he says, include the diversity of models that casting agents are scouting, the increased interest in sustainability and the positive reaction to the diverse models VAMFF showcases on its runways.
He says feedback from attendees at the festival is that they want their communities to be represented - whether in race, gender fluidity and body shape. And, while he acknowledges the festival (and the fashion industry) isn’t perfect, this change, even though for some it remains token, is positive and something that should be continually worked on. “We have to keep the conversation going and keep championing for better,” he says.
One of the biggest conversations in this space is around sustainability.
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Fashion search engine Lyst reports searches for ethical fashion surged 47 per cent in 2018. Many of the luxury brands have banned fur in recent years, and celebrities such as actress Emma Watson have become quasi-evangelists when it comes to ethical fashion.
Sandra Capponi is the co-founder of app Good On You, which helps consumers find brands operating ethically and now has 200,000 users. Capponi says she’s seen an increase in consumer interest in sustainable and ethical fashion.
“There’s a huge movement to make fashion more ethical and sustainable, especially in the last year or two,” she says.
Capponi says this is evident in the work of designers such as Bianca Spender, who manufactures her clothes in Australia, uses "dead stock" and recycled fabrics, is accredited by Ethical Clothing Australia and has worked with ethical fashion brand The Social Outfit on a capsule collection made with refugee and new migrant sewers.
Other examples, she says, include the increasing use of sustainable materials such as Econyl [a Nylon made from recycled plastics], and the growing influence of global industry events such as the Copenhagen Fashion Summit. Dubbed the "Davos of fashion", this year the summit marks its 10th anniversary as one of the world's leading sustainable fashion business events.
A piece from Byron Bay label Spell and the Gypsy Collective.
"We’re hearing about new ethical brands and initiatives just about every day, and there’s a real sense that it’s not only necessary but desirable to reduce the impact of fashion and wind back the excesses of fast fashion.”
Elizabeth Abegg, one half of cult Byron Bay label Spell and the Gypsy Collective, has been on a long road of sustainability and ethical accreditation, and taking her customers along for the ride.
She warns against tokenism in the fashion industry when it comes to sounding off about sustainability and ethical fashion. “I think greenwashing is a huge obstacle to overcome … in everyone’s rush to brand themselves as remotely ethical it’s easy to make broad-brushstroke statements without the data to back it up," she says. "So there’s a lot of consumer education that needs to happen too.
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“I think over the next five to 10 years it’s going to become more critical for brands to be more transparent about their supply chain and their environmental impacts. When you consider how far sustainability has moved up the agenda over the last, even two years, it’s quite astounding. I do think there may be a stronger focus on environmental sustainability as the planet continues to deteriorate, but the social and environmental go hand in hand.”
However Abegg believes the movement has moved beyond a trend and that fashion has the ability to empower. “It’s here to stay. I guess that’s why we’re so keen to speak loud and proud about our journey, because the more brands that shine a light on their supply chain, the more mainstream it will become.”
Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences' Buss agrees fashion’s wokeness can go beyond slogan T-shirts and lip service.
“Fashion can engage in social issues and contribute in positive, meaningful ways, especially when it is a core part of a brand’s identity and business model,” she says.
“Take for example Outland Denim, whose jeans are made by Cambodian women who have been rescued from sexual exploitation and human trafficking. Outland Denim aims to train and equip these women and for the positive effects to flow on to their families and community.”
Annie Brown is a lifestyle writer at The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.
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