Don’t point at the Consumer; Point at the Fashion Industry
The fashion industry falsely markets ethical and sustainable fashion, stunting the growth of the green, ethical, and sustainable fashion movement.
Consumers are to blame for the growing environmental crisis created by fast fashion consumption. It is often thought that consumers lack the knowledge, or will power to acknowledge and educate themselves on the harm fast fashion consumption creates on the environment; however, the blame should be pointed at the fashion industry due to the lack of industry regulation, and transparency in the production and manufacturing of their products to consumers. The lack of industry regulation allows fast fashion companies to profit off “greenwashing”, which is a type of false marketing companies use to market themselves as more green, ethical, and sustainable than they are. This appeals to the emotional and moral need to shop for green, ethical, and sustainable goods. The lack of regulations, transparency in manufacturing, and the false marketing of green, ethical, and sustainable fast fashion negatively affects the attempts to decrease or prevent excessive waste. It also prevents consumers from finding accurate information about the products they are buying and removes the moral and emotional distress associated with fast fashion.
The truth on Greenwashing
H&M conscious 2019 Commerical
The lack of regulation in the fashion industry leads companies to misuse ethical and sustainable fashion terminology to appeal to the market of greenwashing. An example of greenwashing is H&M’s eco-conscious line “H&M Conscious”. They use terminology such as “green”, “eco-friendly”, “ethical, “sustainability”, “responsibly made”, and “organic” to encourage the consumption of their products; however, the terminology they use is meaningless. The labelling and certification of green, ethical, and sustainable clothing are not approved by any form of government body, companies can use terms however they please. This results in a vague and confusing labelling system for consumers; consumers need a universal labelling system that can help them make informed decisions on certain pieces of apparel. It is up to individual consumers to navigate within the marketing of fashion brands. Unfortunately with the vague labelling system consumers can feel emotionally torn, uncertain or confused. Companies and the industry are aware that is time-consuming and takes a lot of effort for consumers to research a company’s ethical and sustainable standards and policies. This leads the fashion industry and companies to rely on their consumers’ inability to do their research so they do not need to follow any regulations within the industry, this prevents the truth of companies and the industry coming into light.
If they don’t see it, it’s not true
The fashion industry outsources their manufacturing processes and materials to lower-income countries such as Bangladesh to distance their consumers from the visible unethical and unsustainable practices created by the faster turnaround time for cheaper clothing. This successfully removes the emotional, moral distress, and discomfort consumers feel when participating in fast-fashion consumerism. Consumers feel too physically and culturally distanced from the unethical and sustainable practices of outsourcing material and production created by the fashion industry. This distance allows consumers to deny these practices because if they do not see the negative impacts then it is not true, this removes the moral and emotional conflict created by participating in unethical and unsustainable apparel consumption. The denial leads the consumers to the justification to participate in unethical, and unsustainable consumerism.
The fashion industry also leads their consumers to believe that their unethical and unsustainable practices in low-income countries provide economic growth by providing jobs in manufacturing. This tampers with the emotions of the consumers. For instance, this enables fear and empathy in consumers. Consumers do not want those in low-income countries to lose their job or slow down the country’s economic growth. This leads consumers to justify the participation of the fashion industry’s unethical and unsustainable practices, or they reject their knowledge of the fashion industry using unethical and unsustainable methods for the sake of those working for fashion companies. In other words, the fashion industry successfully removes the emotional and moral distress and discomfort associated with outsourcing materials and manufacturing by distancing consumers from the visible negative impacts of the industry, and leading consumers to believe they are providing job opportunities and economic growth in low-income countries.
The fashion industry’s lack of regulations, transparency, and false advertising of ethical and sustainable fast fashion negatively affects the attempts to decrease or prevent excessive waste. The lack of regulations and transparency stunts the growth of the ethical and sustainable fashion movement. The fashion industry must come up with a universal labelling system so consumers who are trying to participate in the ethical and sustainable fashion movement can do so without any form of confusion; ethical and sustainable marketing will only work if labelling and marketing stay true to actual ethical and sustainable practices. Also, with fashion companies outsourcing their manufacturing processes and materials they successfully take away any emotional, and moral conflicts consumers may feel while shopping. By taking away the emotion and morals behind participating in unethical and unsustainable consumerism creates the justification for such practices. Lastly, the fashion industry successfully tampers with consumers’ emotions by justifying their unethical and unsustainable practices by providing job opportunities and economic growth in low-income countries. This leads consumers to participate in the consumption of unethical and unsustainable clothing to ensure that those in low-income countries have job opportunities and stable economic growth. The fashion industry must do better in creating ethical and sustainable standards, and transparency so consumers can make educated decisions on the type of apparel they are going to purchase because if we want a greener future it has to start at the source — it must start with the industry, not the consumers.
