Fashion Industries Response To Animal Welfare And Climate Change

Could big name brands who pledge to move towards sustainable clothing and manufacturing be the beginning of change for the fashion industries climate change and exploitation problem?

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We can only hope that brands like Alexander McQueen and Balenciaga are not just creating sustainable items for their companies to be “trendy.”

High fashion brands are at the forefront of sustainability because their impact can reach a wider audience, so their claims of moving towards cleaner and humane options for creating and distributing their items—again, we hope—will not be empty promises.

Activities like thrift shopping is now the societal norm among Generation Z, which is supposed to be one of the ways to help make the world greener and fight the effects of climate change.

Could that mean fashion brands are simply just trying to bank on this generations desire to see environmental change?

Possibly—so we must make sure these high fashion brands are not acting “woke” for the same of their image and doing so because they want to see change in the world.

Adidas has pledged to go fur-free like Alexander Mcqueen and Balenciaga, but both Adidas and UGG is doing something a little different on top of that. Adidas has found a great alternative to leather, and UGG is producing products using carbon neutral materials.

As someone who doesn’t shop in the high fashion department, however, one can dream that even smaller brands like Misguided and Pretty Little Thing will make this shift as well.

Good on You is a website used to search any brand's environmental impact.

Affordable brands tend to not be eco-friendly in the same way high fashion brands are. This may be because sustainable fabrics and manufacturing often raise the prices of items, which will then make it hard for people like me to buy new items without breaking the bank.

In my opinion, though—I’d be willing to pay a little extra if I knew what I was buying was helping the planet in some way. I’ll always have thrift shopping to fall back on, but change will not come if we are not willing to compromise.