What is Sustainable Fashion and Why Should We Even Care?

Sustainable fashion is creating waves amongst the millennials and everyone else, however, is it just another marketing term that has got our attention, or is it something ‘real?’

It might astonish you to learn that the textile industry is amongst the biggest polluters in the world. This industry, in fact, is the second biggest to oil industry when it comes to producing toxic waste. Plus, textile mills are obligated to use about 20,000 different chemicals to make clothes while most of them are carcinogenic. Most of our daily wear is made out of plastic, meaning more destructions in the manufacturing with microfibers in our oceans.

Sustainable fashion also means ensuring fairer pay for the workers, better working conditions and no illegal sweatshops. The only way to STOP this cycle of pollution, destruction and death are by bringing ‘sustainable fashion’ to the table for good.

What does exactly make our clothes sustainable?

For a company to be called 100% sustainable, it has to include every phase from farms where cotton grows to be eventually weaved into a useful fabric, to the treatment of animals that are usually shaved for their wool, sustainable fashion is sustainable only if all the processing steps are responsible. Not only using organic cotton to manufacturer the garments will help you with ‘LABEL,’ but also your packaging must demonstrate to be a ZERO WASTE one. The only clothing that is made out of environmentally-friendly materials, using natural resources sensibly, and the never hurts anyone in the process – could be reflected in a sustainable fashion.

Three key reasons to care about sustainable fashion

So this is sustainable fashion – however, why should we even care? The fast-fashion culture, although, could give you new clothes every 3-4 months, and at the fraction of cost, it’s basically the problem in itself.

Everything is better for workers

If you purchase a T-shirt for $15-$20, how much of that money do you think goes to the poor workers who made it in the first place? It is far lesser than you think. The fashion industry generates billions in profits a year, still, a nearly 60 million strong workforce is living impoverished. Sustainable fashion allows workers' rights, including safer working conditions, a decent living wage, and far less risk of being assaulted in any form.

Better for the environment

We have already discussed the damage the fashion industry has been causing to the environment, contributing to global carbon emissions. About 85% of toxic waste from clothing manufacturing factory end up in landfills, only because they are made cheaply and easily disposable. However, when you choose sustainable fashion, this ensures longer-lasting clothes. It further means when they come to the end of their life, they could be used again for creating another useful product for our future generations, because they were made from recyclable materials in the first place.

Better for the future

Two people out of 100 considering sustainable fashion is not going to help the industry grow, meaning the world won’t change with only a few people investing in it. Although, change has never been a tale of distant land with today’s younger generation growing as responsible consumers. However, who can wait that long for the ultimate change to be actually happening – the sooner more people understand the fact that sustainable fashion is just the initiation of the revolution, the better it is.

Sustainable is the only conscious choice to be made by each one of us, not just by companies.

A bold new world

If the fashion industry aims to move towards slow fashion, then there are ample changes ahead for many businesses. All aspects of a production chain require to transform, from sourcing biodegradable materials and treatment of the workers, to packaging and the consumer attitude. With each community inclining towards the new change, sustainable fashion could be the next step in the industry.

Sheep & Pelle - as a leading transparent and Slow Fashion Brand in Australia, aims to encourage more and more people to join them in their endeavours to preserve the planet.