The Chic Might Inherit The Earth

Headlined by brands like Gucci, the pandemic and the devastation it wrought has given the fashion industry pause to rethink and reshape the cycle with an eye to environmental sustainability

- Jonathan Ho

ACCORDING TO UNITED NATIONS ECONOMIC COMMISSION FOR EUROPE (UNECE) 2018 figures, the fashion industry accounts for approximately 10% of global carbon emissions, and up to 1/5th of the world’s wastewater. To put things in context, fashion’s carbon footprint is bigger than aviation and shipping combined. While covid-19 travel restrictions put a stop to a burgeoning aviation industry, domestic lockdowns added further complication to an already complex supply chain. It used to be that garments were transported, distributed, sold and then disposed when the consumer no longer found them fashionable. Mid last year, seasonal collections were left to fallow as retail shutdowns made sales impossible, further exacerbated by the luxury communications nightmare of - gasp! discounted off-season sales online.

Alarmed by the industry’s snail’s pace in the face of accelerating climate change, sustainability experts have long argued that existing practices like producing too much and across more seasons (it used to be Spring/Summer and Autumn/Winter, and now there are additional Resortwear and capsule collections), have made the situation tenuous at best. When lockdowns started to stockpile a backlog of unsold luxury goods, with EU regulations making it illegal to destroy unsold stock, the situation became outright untenable.