Trend-Update: Ethical Fashion

Ethical fashion means fashion, which takes into consideration the people who made the clothes, as well as the environment.

Trend Description
To buy ethical fashion means to think twice about where it was originally made, by whom and under what conditions. All the steps in the production, for example of a pair of jeans, affect the environment and the people working to grow the cotton, to weave the denim and to make the jeans. But many companies now are trying to find a more ethical approach, which benefits the people in the production chain and does not damage the environment. Instead of producing as cheap as possible they consider organic, and fair-trade standards. A concept which works as people of all social classes are becoming more aware of the price everybody has to pay for the use of our environment (Please read our blog-entries: Green Revolution and Eco Luxury)

Cases:

Edun
Edun is a “conscious clothing brand” collaboration between U2 singer Bono, his wife Ali Hewson and the New York fashion designer Rogan Gregory. The main goal is to shift the focus away from aid in developing countries, especially Africa, towards trade, by creating sustainable employment and providing a business model that others can follow. The numbers talk for themselves. If Africa could regain just an additional 1 percent of global trade, it would earn $ 70 billion more than three times what the region currently receives in international help. Next to designer fashion Edun also sells blank t-shirts business-to-business and tries to raise awareness for the problems in Africa by selling the special-edition ONE t-shirts. One fourth of the ONE-sale revenues are used to fight AIDS in Africa.

Levis Eco
Last November Levi Strauss & Co. debuted its line of organic-cotton jeans. Levi’s Eco features 100% organic cotton, recycled buttons, rivets and zippers, and natural indigo dyes. The tag as well as all external packaging is made of recycled paper and printed with environmentally friendly soy ink. At first the jeans were just available at selected Levi’s stores and pretty expensive. Now Levis sells expensive eco jeans as part of the company’s premium Capital E label and some medium price ranged clothing products marked with the eco tag. In an interview with Business Week Robert Hanson, Levi’s U.S. brand president, explains: “The goal is to have significant organic content in the lower-priced lines. We’re aiming for minimum 50% organic.”

Ethical Fashion Show
To promote ethical fashion, Universal Love organizes an ethical fashion show in Paris every year. The show features all kind of trend-setting fashion from haute-couture to street-wear, as long as the companies and designers are concerned by fair trade and sustainable development. Fashion, that will be chosen for the show has to follow fair trade rules, has to respect people and the environment and has to foster the goals of sustainable development. Companies and designers should recycle, recover and work closely with local craftsmen, they should reinvest part of the profits in community projects and aim for a fair balance between creativity, quality and price.

Trend Impact:
The relationship between companies, public services, local communities and consumers is more and more influenced by ethics. As the awareness of fair trade and organic standards is growing, the social and environmental conditions in which products are manufactured become important to the consumer who buys them. Often consumers are willing to pay more for ethical or ecological reasons. Eco Premium brands help to set them apart from the masses. But also mass-producers start introducing organic materials and products for a fairly low price. According to Organic Exchange, a non-profit organization focused on organic farming says it expects organic cotton apparel sales to hit US$ 2.6 billion in 2008

Edun

Ethical Fashion Show

Levi’s eco

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