Olimpia Hottinger

Nowadays the fashion industry has a harmful impact on our environment. Indeed, climate change is today a challenge that faces us all and the fashion industry represents today the second high carbon footprint industry amongst all as well as an extremely high water footprint. I believe the fashion industry needs to adapt and use every single talent to address this challenge. This is a cause which should not be taken lightly and which requires radical as well as imminent changes. The phenomenon of fast-fashion, which involves mass production of clothing over a short period of time, is pushing for mass consumption as it offers very affordable prices for their customers. Overconsumption has led us to an unsustainable ecosystem. You need to reconsider what “your needs” are versus “your wants”. The abundance offered to consumers is much greater than their needs. In addition, we can observe that the production of clothes has almost doubled during the last fifteen years. Despite the fact that prevention increases daily this has almost no impact on the way of consumption, we must find a way to prevent the negative impact on the environment as well as on the humans who make their clothes. In response, events such as Fashion Revolution Week are set up to educate consumers about production techniques. Transparency and traceability are essential. Transparency involves openness, communication and corporate responsibility. We can no longer afford to live the same lifestyle we are used to. In order to answer this issue we need to make the fashion industry more sustainable by promoting other ways to be fashionable by buying vintage clothes, rent, resell, reuse, exchange, repair, adapt or share. I accordingly particularly admire the work done by the brand “Encré” as it promotes a new perception by recycling stylish clothes to which embroidery are added and this way giving them a second life. The brand is therefore not only fashionable but also encompasses two characteristics I admire in fashion: uniqueness and sustainability. Moreover, well known designer such as Stella McCartney which only designs sustainable and environmental friendly products should be taken as an example in the fashion industry.  Personally I want to use my voice to defend sustainable fashion and raise awareness about climate change. However in recent years the sustainability of these sectors has taken over as we can see in 2018, 48 brands and large groups signed the Fashion Industry Charter for climate action under the aegis of the United Nations , saying they are ready to join forces to reduce the industry’s greenhouse gas emissions by 30% by 2030. An ambitious but inevitable bet, knowing that fashion is one of the most pollutants to the world. It also happens that consumer expectations have changed. Better production conditions and more transparency, these are our fashion requirements nowadays. This shows a positive shift in the awarness on sustainability in the world of fashion. We must all continue in this direction so that the impact on our environment decreases taking into account that it is not the only industry with harmful impacts on our earth.