47% of consumers are confused about what makes fashion sustainable.

Do you remember the last time you bought a new piece of clothing? Did you think about whether the garment was sustainable while you were buying it? And if so, what were your criteria that helped you to assess whether it was sustainable or not? Did you find it particularly important that the garment was produced by a company close to you? Or did you make sure that the garment was made of natural materials? Did you want some recycled fibres in your new garment or did you buy second-hand to not produce any waste? 

As you can see, it's not easy to say what constitutes sustainable fashion. Sustainable fashion can focus on recycling, social justice, resource conservation or climate neutrality and the most sustainable garment is still the one we already have in our wardrobe for a long time. A study by the U.S. company Genomatica looked into this topic and found out that almost half of the respondents were not sure what makes fashion sustainable. 

In the study, a total of 2000 US teenagers and adults were asked about sustainable clothing and their consumer behaviour at the beginning of this April. It found that U.S. consumers want to make more environmentally friendly purchasing decisions when buying new clothes. In fact, 86% said they believe sustainability is a worthy goal in the fashion industry. 

But there's a problem - sustainable fashion is not easy to find. 1 in 3 U.S consumers would do all their shopping at a sustainable clothing store, if only one existed. One respondent said "It's somewhat difficult to make sustainable choices because I'm never really sure what sustainable means, particularly with clothing." Almost half (48%) of the respondents are unsure where to find sustainable clothing at all. 

Many respondents also do not want to be fooled by greenwashing when buying new clothes. Nearly 9 in 10 consumers don't immediately trust brands that say they're sustainable. 55% even believe that greenwashing has become commonplace in the fashion industry.

42% are confused about what makes clothing sustainable. Nearly half (47%) rank clothing made with renewable-sourced or natural materials as a top sustainability characteristic. 46% think that not using toxic chemicals in the manufacturing process makes textiles sustainable.  

The study also examined the influence of COVID-19 on consuming behaviour. It was found that the pandemic has helped to make consumers aware of the problems of the fashion industry. 38% of the respondents had only started to look at sustainable clothing in the past year. And 44% have bought less during the pandemic than before. Half of the respondents even said that the pandemic had made them feel less stressed about having to wear different outfits every day. 

So what is sustainable fashion? 

Currently, there is no universal definition of what constitutes sustainable fashion. However, Dr. Anna Brismar from Green Strategy has developed a definition that can be used as a guideline: “[...] sustainable fashion can be defined as clothing, shoes and accessories that are manufactured, marketed and used in the most sustainable manner possible, taking into account both environmental and socio-economic aspects. In practice, this implies continuous work to improve all stages of the product's life cycle, from design, raw material production, manufacturing, transport, storage, marketing and final sale, to use, reuse, repair, remake and recycling of the product and its components."

How does Kleiderly contribute? 

At Kleiderly, we make the fashion industry more sustainable by solving the waste problem and recycling old clothes. Because our products are also recyclable, our products do not produce new waste. Since we work with an Italian family-owned business, we make sure to keep the supply chain as small as possible and to produce under fair conditions. 

Sources: 
https://www.genomatica.com/survey-consumers-want-sustainable-clothing-need-more-info/
https://www.thefashionlaw.com/consumers-are-confused-about-what-sustainability-means-in-fashion-per-new-survey/
https://www.greenstrategy.se/sustainable-fashion/what-is-sustainable-fashion/