At the current rate of growth, by 2030 annual global apparel consumption could rise by 63% - the equivalent to more than 500 billion additional t-shirts.
Environmentally, this is unwelcome growth from an industry that already has "a far-reaching impact on the natural environment, from the extraction of raw materials to the production, distribution, wear and disposal of clothes" according to the British Fashion Council's white paper on Fashion and the Environment.
With the stakes, and the environmental impact, growing ever higher, a group of independent brands across the fashion, rental and vintage market have come together on Earth Day 2021 to raise awareness of sustainability issues in fashion.
Independent brands lead the way
Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) make up half of the businesses in the fashion eco-system. While individually they lack the impact of larger players, the goal of the group behind the Earth Day initiative is that through collective action they can grow their voice and impact.
The group has an aim to "raise awareness of what can be done, and to change the message by creating more transparency around a complex issue" said Annie Holt in a statement. Ms Holt is the founder and CEO of fashion brand Ethereal London, and was named by Drapers' Sustainability "One To Watch 2021" .
Collectively, they aim to leverage a joint social media audience of over 250 thousand. The campaign encourages consumers to actively reduce their individual consumption (especially of new garments), educate themselves around the sustainability impact of their choices and prolong the life of their existing garments by repairing and renewing them.
Geoff van Sonsbeeck, Co-Founder and CEO of House of Baukjen is backing the collaboration as he believes many mainstream fashion brands are deliberately confusing the customer and hampering positive change.
"Consumers don't understand how bad the fashion sector really is due to an era of constant greenwashing" he said. "They also don't know just how easy it is to get it right."
The answer? What Mr van Sonsbeeck calls "radical transparency". "By being transparent, the customer can follow a product's full history - where it was dyed, which mill it was made at and how much the workers got paid" he explained.
The stakes could not be higher
Why is this campaign so important? According to Marie Jones, Lecturer in Fashion & Sustainability at the London College of Fashion, raising awareness with consumers is critical to creating real change.
"Once you ‘know’, you ‘know’" she said. "Once you have found out what our fashion buying habits have done to our planet it’s impossible to keep consuming in the same way!"
Change cannot come fast enough - by 2050 the UN estimates that the equivalent of almost 3 planets will be required to sustain our contemporary lifestyle including our fashion-buying habits. As the British Fashion Council stated "our biggest risk is to carry on as we currently operate."
Mr van Sonsbeeck puts it another way; "for the sake of the planet and people, we urge other businesses to join us."
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