Why Are So Many Leading Fashion Labels Hesitant To Embrace Holistically Sustainable Business Models?
Throughout my first few years of fashion school at Parsons, the designs I dreamed up were colorful and highly conceptual. However, I experienced a major perspective shift after watching the True Cost documentary in 2015. Stunned by the extent of environmental damage and human exploitation in the industry, fashion was no longer solely about personal expression for me. When crafting my thesis collection, my commitment to ethical design standards immediately clashed with my desire for unbridled creativity. I finally arrived at a minimally chic, black-and-white body-adaptable line of luxury womenswear, but along the way, I sacrificed the soul and vibrancy that characterized my earlier work. Though commendably ethical, body-inclusive, and beautiful, the resulting collection, with its neutral tones and safe silhouettes, felt like a departure from my unique creative voice. In hindsight, my motives were driven by virtue-signaling instead of authenticity as a creative.
My experience is a cautionary tale, highlighting the complex balance many designers must navigate between artistic expression and ethical responsibility. While sustainable practices are undoubtedly crucial, there is a danger in adopting rigid, one-size-fits-all approaches that homogenize a design aesthetic. This tension may explain why the fashion industry hasn't fully embraced holistic sustainable practices.
The problem with the "sustainable fashion aesthetic"
Stella McCartney once said, "If I'm doing my job right, you shouldn't see any sustainability in my shows. It should just look like the most luxurious, glamorous show. I don't want it to look like sustainable fashion." I've categorized "sustainable garments" into two camps. The first includes clothing explicitly marketed as sustainable, boasting fabrics sourced from organic cotton or pre-waste fibers, naturally dyed colors, and "timeless," body-inclusive silhouettes. Often, these designs lean towards muted tones to avoid toxic chemical dye processes. If vividly colored textiles are incorporated, they are usually block printed or batik dyed by artisans in the Global South, ensuring fair wages. While this admirable approach fosters comprehensive sustainable design practices, the formula has quickly become cookie-cutter, blending into a sea of other sustainable brands. This lack of identity has led to the failure of many sustainably marketed luxury brands.
In an era where diverse cultural, racial, and gender expression emphasizes personal style, the formulaic design aesthetic that sustainable fashion has adopted (on top of the higher price points) is what hinders sustainable design practices from penetrating consumer appeal and the broader fashion industry.
The problem with designers defining sustainable fashion for themselves
The second camp includes garments crafted by buzz-worthy, fashion-forward designers who adopt a more sporadic, tokenized approach to sustainability. This approach allows the industry's most notable designers to explore "conscious" design without causing too much friction with their authentic aesthetic choices. They might occasionally produce lines from eco-conscious runway production like this season from Jacquemus or introduce spin-off collections featuring more eco-friendly fabrics, as seen with Prada's Re-Nylon. While these designers spearhead eco-friendly projects intermittently, their overall business and design practices often fall short of sustainability standards and typically lack supply chain transparency. Sure, the industry's top designers are the ones who make the most thought-provoking art that inspires the next generation of artists, but do their lethargic approaches to ethics truly move the needle forward toward a more equitable, environmentally safe fashion industry?
The state of sustainable fashion
The stats say no. Since the release of the True Cost, the fashion industry has moved from the second-largest polluting industry to the third-largest, indicating slight progress. But sadly, the fashion industry still accounts for 10% of annual global carbon emissions, and experts predict that greenhouse emissions will rise to 2.7 billion tonnes annually by 2030. The Fashion Transparency Index, a yearly report that analyses and ranks 250 of the world's biggest fashion brands and retailers based on their public disclosure of human rights and environmental policies, says that while more brands are disclosing their factory lists than ever before, the average sustainability score of 250 brands still lingers at 26%.
Another index, Good on You, rates brands based on how "good" they are to people, the planet, and animals. It says that 85% of the 1000+ brands it rated last year score either 1 out of 5 (We avoid) or 2 out of 5 (Not good enough)—less than 1% score 4 out of 5 or higher.
There's no doubt that fast fashion machines like Shein, Zara, and H&M, to name a few, account for most of fashion's global harm. However, stats still show that while luxury and haute couture houses produce much smaller quantities, they often adopt the same toxic environmental and socio-economic practices. According to Good on You, only 11% of luxury brands score "Good" or "Great" overall, and only two of the Haute Couture brands they rated received a 3 out of 5 "It's a Start" or above. 75% of these brands scored 1 out of 2, "Not Good Enough" or below. 111 out of 174 (63%) large luxury brands were flagged as not paying a living wage to their supply chain.
What does sustainable fashion even mean?
The "progress" from the industry's top design houses mirrors the greenwashing tactics often seen in fast fashion brands. Many industry favorites with low sustainability scores, such as Simone Rocha, tout "heirloom pieces" as a sustainability marker, while Louis Vuitton emphasizes quality craftsmanship. While the Oxford Dictionary vaguely defines sustainability as "the avoidance of natural resource depletion," climate change and social justice experts describe it as a comprehensive shift towards closed-loop systems and equitable supply chains. This approach entails prioritizing resource-driven product availability, reducing waste through biodegradability or upcycling, sourcing materials from regenerative farms, and equitable supply chains to support worker empowerment and flourishing.
One would think that the creatively innovative minds responsible for ethereal 3-D-printed dresses and innovative silhouettes could channel their brilliance to produce more designs that benefit the Earth and its inhabitants. This collective reluctance to comprehensive sustainable business models raises many questions. Part of the issue lies in culture's vague definition of sustainability, but a few stigmas surrounding sustainable fashion warrant debunking.
Stigma #1: "Prioritizing sustainable design practices goes against ‘art for art's sake.’ Designing art and luxury is inherently sustainable and beneficial to the world."
In navigating the discourse around sustainability and fashion, Rei Kawakubo's insight resonates profoundly: "Fashion is not a way to make money; it is a way to dream." Luxury and high-fashion designers often justify their hesitant adoption of sustainability by claiming that "craftsmanship, lower yields, and wearable art" inherently embody ethical principles. However, several investigations reveal that workers in luxury brands' supply chains often receive wages similar to those in fast fashion sweatshops. Despite claims of ethical manufacturing, many luxury brands label their products as "Made in Europe" or "Made in the USA" to imply fair labor practices. Yet, exploitation and labor abuses persist even in these regions. The Fashion Revolution's Fashion Transparency Index from 2023 reveals that numerous designer brands, including Chanel, Marni, Hermes, Celine, Marc Jacobs, Valentino, Dolce & Gabbana, and Louis Vuitton, rank as poorly as fast-fashion giants like Shein, Fashion Nova, and Romwe. Shockingly, less than 50% of these brands disclose how their policies regarding child labor are implemented, indicating a further lack of accountability. Rei Kawakubo's iconic label, Comme Des Garcons, and her colleague Junya Watanabe, renowned for pushing artistic boundaries, each garnered a concerning 1 out of 5 "We Avoid" score on Good On You. This rating indicates a lack of transparency regarding their production supply chains, casting doubt on the ethical integrity of their production processes despite their undeniable artistic brilliance. In the case of fashion as art, less unsustainable does not equal sustainable.
Brands Who Maintain Artistic Integrity While Doing Ethical Business
Amid these challenges, high-sustainability-scoring industry favorites like ACNE, GUCCI, and Stella McCartney have made commendable strides. These brands are successful in their sustainability efforts and maintain distinctive creative voices that remain uncompromised. For instance, ACNE's "Re-purposed" line utilizes a fair amount of recycled materials, and some of its overall supply chain is certified by the Fair Wear Foundation, ensuring that ethical labor practices are being traced and implemented. Gucci, the only luxury label to score 80% on the 2023 Fashion Transparency Index, utilizes lower-impact materials, setting science-based targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in its operations and supply chain. Gucci also employs low-waste cutting techniques to maximize fabric utilization.
Stigma #2: "The fashion climate crisis is beyond me and is just too massive of a problem. I'm just an underdog compared to big corporations and fast-fashion brands."
In confronting the daunting reality of the fashion climate crisis, Rick Owens reflects—"the cynic in me suspects that we might be too late and that the human urge to procreate is just going to overwhelm any features of restraint, but maybe we can find a way to divert the evolution." Many luxury and high-fashion designers grapple with a similar sense of helplessness. The sheer magnitude of the crisis, compounded by the relentless churn of fast fashion and societal overconsumption, can leave independent labels feeling like their efforts are a drop in the ocean. Additionally, concerns about affordability and a lack of immediate practical value for consumers grappling with high inflation further complicate this shift. Despite these obstacles, a societal pivot toward conscious clothing consumption is imperative, even if it is gradual. While it may seem overwhelming for independent high-end fashion brands to effect meaningful change, every small step matters.
Brands Committed to Slow, Gradual Progress
Fueled by a desire to leave a better world for future generations after the birth of her son, Mara Hoffman underwent a drastic re-haul in 2014 to adopt a holistic, sustainable business model. Though she closed her namesake brand in 2024, Hoffman's influence continues to shape the conversation around sustainability in fashion. Mara's shift to using eco-friendly materials and advocating for animal welfare while maintaining her bold aesthetic showcases the potential for change. Beyond her brand, Hoffman advocates for systemic change through support for legislative initiatives like New York's Fashion Sustainability and Social Accountability Act and engages in community partnerships to advance social justice movements. Similarly, fine artist and designer Bethany Williams collaborates with human rights groups and sustainable artisans to use fashion as a platform for vital social issues while focusing on eco-friendly practices. Beyond seeking creative inspiration from these collaborations, she allocates 20% of sales proceeds to bolster the initiatives, aiding marginalized groups such as formerly incarcerated women and immigrant families in the UK who lack government support. While the road to whole-hearted sustainability may be arduous, brands like Bethany Williams are shining examples of what could be.
When pursuing artistic expression collides with the call to healthier practices, each designer must grapple with the question: Is creating a better world through fashion worth the effort, or am I satisfied with making art for art's sake? As Mara Hoffman aptly puts it, sustainability is an ongoing journey, a continuous endeavor to minimize harm and tread lightly on our planet. Ultimately, it's not about achieving perfection but about consistently taking steps in the right direction, no matter how small. Although more challenging, hopefully, we will see more brands take the narrow path toward a more responsible and regenerative fashion industry.