Do YOU Wear Ethical Fashion? (Or Even Ethical Clothes!)

Are Your Clothes Ethical Fashion? (And Is It Easy to Change?)

Do you keep up with the latest fashion? Even if you don’t, you still wear clothes. Right now, we wear clothes that are made in an Extractive Economy. It works on Take – Make – Dispose.

• We take resources (fossil fuels, trees, minerals, rocks) and don’t replace them.
• We use them to make something – clothes for example.
• And then we dispose of them – into the garbage to go to landfills (or by littering). That’s what our economy is based on.

The fashion industry is famous for its waste and its pollution. Seasonal clothes are quickly discarded as “out of fashion” or “old-fashioned”. Beautifully coloured clothes often use polluting dyes.

A Circular Economy however is quite different.

In a circular economy, products are designed with their full life cycle in mind. So things are made to last, using resources that can be renewed. Renewable energy is used to produce electricity to manufacture. Non-toxic materials such as dyes are used. Waste is re-used or recycled or composted – nothing leaves the circle. The manufacture uses good ethics (human capital).

It’s Green and Eco-Friendly

I like how Mochni describe the circular economy as it concerns fashion:-

The nature of a circular economy is green and eco-friendly. A product is designed to last in society for as long as possible with little to no waste. It is made with minimal resources and environmentally friendly materials. When the owner is done with the product, it should be reused, rebuilt or recycled into a new product to keep it flowing through society.

Circular fashion stems from the circular economy model but with a sole focus of… fashion! Clothes, shoes, accessories, handbags. The entire lifecycle of these products is considered. Makers and designers create and source materials with purpose and intent. Products are made and transported in environmental and non-toxic ways and then marketed and sold offering reuse, repair and redesign. Finally, the product’s end life (if there is an end!) is recycled or disposed of in a planet-friendly way.

How It Works – A Great Example

MUD Jeans is an innovative circular fashion brand that pioneered “Lease A Jeans”. Here’s how it works – it’s very simple.

1. You lease a pair of jeans for a year.
2. When your year is over, you send the jeans back to MUD and/or lease a different pair.
3. If you choose to send the jeans back, they are recycled and reused to create new products such as sweaters or jeans.

On average, one new pair of jeans takes almost 2,000 gallons or 7, 000 litres of water to produce. But by recycling the returned jeans, and using an innovative water filtration system, MUD cuts this water usage by 78%.

MUD Jeans aim their products at educated individuals who are aware of environmental issues and wants planet-friendly products. I think they’re great! They’re a European company but they have stores all over the world and of course online options as well.

The Circular Economy, Us and Ethical Fashion

We as consumers also play a part in a Circular Economy. Instead of buying cheap goods and throwing them away after wearing them just a few times, buy quality over quantity. Consider renting, borrowing, swapping or buying second-hand instead of new. Use, wash and repair with care.

When you do that, you’re wearing ethical fashion.

Of course, this way of looking at clothes is different. We’re not used to it. It seems strange. (Although our grandparents probably did exactly that).

But that’s how change happens. Soon, it becomes “normal”. (Remember how everyone said “oh, I never remember to bring reusable bags when I shop” – but now most people now do it, without even needing to think).

Here are some suggestions for ethical fasion:

1. Leasing might work for you! Leasing makes a lot of sense if you’ve got a special occasion – why spend a fortune for something that you’ll wear once and then it will lurk in your closet for ever?
2. Leasing makes sense if you get bored with clothes. You can swap them out, but not waste resources doing so.
3. Consider gently-used clothing instead of new
4. If you’re buying new, choose quality over quantity. (You’ll appreciate it more).
5. And vote with your wallet! Choose companies to buy from that aren’t “sell, sell more, sell even more” but are more in tune with the circular economy and ethical fashion.

Finally, here’s a useful resource – a guide to brands that believe in ethical fashion. (They won’t all be available in your neighbourhood, but it’s a start).

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How do you buy your clothes? And what do you do with them afterwards? (Mine get used for dusters and cloths after I’ve worn them to death).  Let me know in the comments below.

Warm regards,

P.S.  Don’t forget to download your free green living handbook “Live Well, Live Green” here.

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