More consumers are trying to switch to sustainable clothing options. However, not everyone realizes that sustainable and ethical fashion, comes with a higher price tag. Consumers who are familiar with shopping at retailers such as, H&M, Zara and Forever 21 are more accustomed to a certain price point that is relatively low. The reality is, when clothing is extremely cheap, some type of short-cut is likely being made. Lower price tags may be the result of unfair working wages, mass order sizes, cheap fabrics etc. Although, fast-fashion retailers have been making changes to be more sustainable, mass production is still harmful and is less sustainable than independent designers who are creating sustainable lines for smaller audiences.
Sustainability is a definition that varies a little for everyone, in general sustainability involves aspects of caring for the environment and when in relation to apparel, the ability to last. In return, won’t end up in the landfill. Stephanie, previous owner and designer of Fait Atelier, says sustainability means creating something that is made to last. “My garments were made of linen, because linen ages well, I also used indigo to dye my products because it’s natural and as it ages the colour changes, making the aging process beautiful”. Stephanie spoke on how a product that lasts forever is something worth investing in. “I wanted my products to be an investment, that is fixable if they ever needed repairs and would last forever”.
Fast-fashion retailers produce products faster than we can keep up with, often resulting in packed stores and lost margins. Forever 21 is a good example of a store that produced too fast, having too much inventory and maybe not the “right” inventory, resulting in a bankruptcy. Irene Kim and Kaitlyn Wang state in Business Insider that “Jin Sook was eventually approving over 400 designs a day. Which meant the company could sell trends as they were happening. Even if some of those designs landed Forever 21 in trouble.”. Although speed is a desire for consumers to have the latest trends, rushed products tend to result in a less sustainable product. Stephanie gave a breakdown of how long it takes her to make a “batch” of her indigo dyed, linen garments. “A breakdown of the whole process includes everything from the idea down to the marketing. It took me about 5-10 hours to create and idea and source for it, and it took me about 30 hours to cut and sew a batch of about 20, then I had to tag them all and take pictures and market them, which took about 5 hours”. That’s about 45 hours for one batch! The time and effort put into independent brands can’t be compared to the mass market when it comes to care and sustainability.
Apparel production is without a doubt harmful for the environment, the mass production apparel market is especially damaging. According to an article by Jasmin Malik Chua in September 2019 for Vox, apparel and footwear production accounts for about 8.1 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. Brands and designers have pressure to produce as responsibly and ethically as possible by consumers. However, fast-fashion retailers get away with taking short-cuts as customers desire affordable prices. What some customers don’t realize is retailers that produce a mass amount of clothing at an affordable price are likely to be making shortcuts. It can be assumed that the retailer is making a fair mark-up margin, so somewhere down the production line a price shortcut is being made to achieve a low price tag. Stephanie spoke about how sourcing locally increases cost to produce. She said “My fabric of choice was linen, which is already a more pricey fabric, sourcing it locally is definitely more expensive than if I were to ship it. I also account for my time it takes for me to go and source my fabric, because if I shipped it, I wouldn’t have to account for that”. When shopping locally and sustainably, the prices tend to be higher because the costs of goods are generally higher.
When I asked Stephanie if she thinks customers being accustomed to fast-fashion retailer’s low price points affected the willingness of customers to purchase her line, she shared, “I think it affects younger shoppers the most, the people who were usually willing to shop my line were more mature, and I think that’s because young shoppers grew up in the prime of fast-fashion. Where more mature, older generations were aware of it, but value a good product more. Younger generations seem to shop frivolously and carelessly, for fun. The clothes probably sit in their closets with tags on them, because they shop just to shop and cheapness is more important than ethics”. She also mentioned that she has been noticing a change in younger consumers more recently, “I do think there’s hope for the future, younger customers are slowly starting to share concern about the world, and I understand the want for cheap clothes. I don’t think it’s necessarily fair either that being sustainable costs so much...”. Consumers desire ethical, sustainable clothing, but the price of fast-fashion seems hard to ignore.
Independant, sustainable brands definitely have their work cut out for them when working against mass production retailers that offer prices they simply can’t afford to offer. Stephanie shared she’s taking a break from her line because she wasn’t making enough money to be profitable. A common struggle that many smaller designers and brand owners face.
Sustainability is a definition that varies a little for everyone, in general sustainability involves aspects of caring for the environment and when in relation to apparel, the ability to last. In return, won’t end up in the landfill. Stephanie, previous owner and designer of Fait Atelier, says sustainability means creating something that is made to last. “My garments were made of linen, because linen ages well, I also used indigo to dye my products because it’s natural and as it ages the colour changes, making the aging process beautiful”. Stephanie spoke on how a product that lasts forever is something worth investing in. “I wanted my products to be an investment, that is fixable if they ever needed repairs and would last forever”.
Fast-fashion retailers produce products faster than we can keep up with, often resulting in packed stores and lost margins. Forever 21 is a good example of a store that produced too fast, having too much inventory and maybe not the “right” inventory, resulting in a bankruptcy. Irene Kim and Kaitlyn Wang state in Business Insider that “Jin Sook was eventually approving over 400 designs a day. Which meant the company could sell trends as they were happening. Even if some of those designs landed Forever 21 in trouble.”. Although speed is a desire for consumers to have the latest trends, rushed products tend to result in a less sustainable product. Stephanie gave a breakdown of how long it takes her to make a “batch” of her indigo dyed, linen garments. “A breakdown of the whole process includes everything from the idea down to the marketing. It took me about 5-10 hours to create and idea and source for it, and it took me about 30 hours to cut and sew a batch of about 20, then I had to tag them all and take pictures and market them, which took about 5 hours”. That’s about 45 hours for one batch! The time and effort put into independent brands can’t be compared to the mass market when it comes to care and sustainability.
Apparel production is without a doubt harmful for the environment, the mass production apparel market is especially damaging. According to an article by Jasmin Malik Chua in September 2019 for Vox, apparel and footwear production accounts for about 8.1 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. Brands and designers have pressure to produce as responsibly and ethically as possible by consumers. However, fast-fashion retailers get away with taking short-cuts as customers desire affordable prices. What some customers don’t realize is retailers that produce a mass amount of clothing at an affordable price are likely to be making shortcuts. It can be assumed that the retailer is making a fair mark-up margin, so somewhere down the production line a price shortcut is being made to achieve a low price tag. Stephanie spoke about how sourcing locally increases cost to produce. She said “My fabric of choice was linen, which is already a more pricey fabric, sourcing it locally is definitely more expensive than if I were to ship it. I also account for my time it takes for me to go and source my fabric, because if I shipped it, I wouldn’t have to account for that”. When shopping locally and sustainably, the prices tend to be higher because the costs of goods are generally higher.
When I asked Stephanie if she thinks customers being accustomed to fast-fashion retailer’s low price points affected the willingness of customers to purchase her line, she shared, “I think it affects younger shoppers the most, the people who were usually willing to shop my line were more mature, and I think that’s because young shoppers grew up in the prime of fast-fashion. Where more mature, older generations were aware of it, but value a good product more. Younger generations seem to shop frivolously and carelessly, for fun. The clothes probably sit in their closets with tags on them, because they shop just to shop and cheapness is more important than ethics”. She also mentioned that she has been noticing a change in younger consumers more recently, “I do think there’s hope for the future, younger customers are slowly starting to share concern about the world, and I understand the want for cheap clothes. I don’t think it’s necessarily fair either that being sustainable costs so much...”. Consumers desire ethical, sustainable clothing, but the price of fast-fashion seems hard to ignore.
Independant, sustainable brands definitely have their work cut out for them when working against mass production retailers that offer prices they simply can’t afford to offer. Stephanie shared she’s taking a break from her line because she wasn’t making enough money to be profitable. A common struggle that many smaller designers and brand owners face.
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