Why the emperor of sustainable fashion is as naked as ever
And what the apparel industry needs to do now if they are serious about sustainability
Behold your emperor and his sustainable vestments!
Imagine a world where creators of cloth live in harmony with all creatures big and small; where every garment comes from a community that benefits from its very existence, just as you benefit from wearing it.
In this world, no one suffers to clothe you. All the riches of these traceable textile treasures are shared fairly among growers, makers, and designers. Clothing—ever more beautiful, comfortable, and durable—is the stuff of legends passed through the generations.
Behold, loyal consumers, the majesty of your emperor, Sustainable Fashion [trumpets blaring] reigning proud across the land!
That dude is naked, and he’s not our emperor
By now you’re likely cringing with cynicism. You and I both know that world is the stuff of make-believe fairy tales. Oh, and of apparel sector sustainability reports, too.
The human and more-than-human suffering at the hands of industrialized fashion and apparel has been well documented for centuries and has only grown worse as the sector grows—by about 186 billion new garments a year1.
I won’t rehash those issues—others do a fine job of that. For example, The Crisps do yeoman’s work on the technical and regulatory pitfalls of greenwash in fashion; and Pluriversal Planet exposes the intergenerational root causes of issues plaguing industry more broadly.
These issues are so well worn that the Sustainable Apparel Coalition (SAC) is quoted in a piece examining them, The Emperor is Naked… in 2012!
It is not for lack of recycling the issues that we are where we are.
Sustainable transformation is not a tweak
Instead of reupholstering the problem, I’ll do a reality check, or rather a Matereality-check2. You’ll see an apparel company’s stated purpose, how they earn revenue, and what is required instead for the industry to serve life, versus serving that naked, soul-sucking, and sorely unsustainable emperor.
And I’ll offer guidance about what companies and individuals can do about it, now.
The transformation required is not a tweak, it is a fundamental retooling of the business model. Although leading apparel companies are using the words “business model transformation”, as you’ll see, things are still stuck in the tweak phase. “Transformation” that makes the lion’s share of revenue from the same harmful business practices as 20 years ago is not transformation. “Transformation” that doesn’t touch shareholder primacy is also not transformation.
To illustrate the challenges and possibilities, I’ll use the public disclosures of global apparel giant H&M. I could pick on any one of their sector peers, but since they put themselves forward as leaders—signalling circularity and even regeneration—and since I already did a benchmarking on them back in March 2020 for a letter I wrote to BlackRock’s Larry Fink (he still hasn’t replied but I suppose things got hectic around then…), I thought I’d take a fresh look at them.
To be clear, I’m not here to promote hair shirts and sack cloth. I get that we need stuff, that clothing is essential, that fashion can be inspiring, and that there is no one way to get dressed in the morning, or get comfy under the covers at night. But I also believe that industry needs to serve life, not the other way around.
The real transformational options may seem crazy at first, but the alternative—sustainability as usual—is by far the crazier choice, as will become clear with the company’s own data, in the context of reality.
The concept of Matereality is about asking:
What needs to be true for the apparel industry to serve life?
How is the industry undermining life today?
What changes can the industry make right now to transform in service of life?
Seasoned industry sojourner/real life spinster at your service
Having convened the first live conversation between one of the most feared anti-sweatshop activists and a global retail giant nearly 20 years ago; having witnessed the birth (and now palliative rebranded state of) the SAC’s Higg Index3 which started measuring new clothes for the naked emperor back in 2012; having seen industrial sock knitting factories on the heels of touring monoculture plantations; in other words, having had more than a few fashion industry adventures during two decades in mainstream ESG consulting with some of the world’s largest manufacturers and retailers, I’ve seen behind the curtain.
More importantly, as a craftsperson I have deep respect for the soul of cloth, which feels absent from industry, at our peril. Designing, spinning, knitting, weaving, and creating garments from scratch since the 1970s, using diverse materials ranging from local wool that I met “on-the-hoof” to imported silk, from recycled PET to pet fur, I know my warp from my weft.
I have felt the power of intergenerational and intercultural cloth-making up close and personal, extending far beyond the maker’s hands and the wearer’s closet. And I’ve seen that power marginalized, commoditized, co-opted, and rebranded.
It’s these industry and grassroots level perspectives that bring me to do this work in service of something that truly serves life.
Not a “gotcha” — an “I got ya”
I’m not aiming to take anyone down here. Rather I’m recommending we lift ourselves up so we can get on with the business of thriving. We’ve been so swaddled in extraction and distraction, making light of retail therapy while wondering how come we’re fraying at the edges and need so much therapy in the first place.
In some ways what follows is run-of-the-mill sustainability myth busting. As noted, it’s no great secret that systemic issues persist in spite of corporate claims to the contrary.
I’ll offer an added twist: strategic recommendations for the needed transformation. I propose specific choices and metrics that apparel industry players can apply now to create real change.
It’s easy to say “Transformation!”, but it’s not easy to leave behind the known structures and norms and chart a truly transformational course. To help with this, I’ll provide touchstones of reality—real-world industry data points—to help you gather your courage for those moments when you wonder if it’s maybe better to let things keep going as they are.
With the industry data and disclosures below, you will see for yourself how even “leadership” in sustainable apparel is nowhere close to serving life. It’s still firmly pointed in the wrong direction, and proudly so.
And you can see choices to transform towards a life-affirming approach. It is a big leap. But if you are ready, I got ya!
On that note, let’s head on into the Matereal World and see what H&M is made of, and what needs to be true to clothe us like our life depends on it. Since it does.
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