Throughout the past couple of years, talk of reusing and recycling clothing as well as decreasing the carbon footprint of the fashion industry has gained serious momentum. As the climate crisis continues to hurdle forwards, consumers as well as owners have begun to ask, “What can I do to help?” With the entrance of the COVID-19 pandemic and time to reassess how we are living, working, and shopping, one thing is for sure—the push for sustainability in the fashion industry is here to stay.

July of 2019, Vogue writer Emily Farra published an article entitled “Sustainability Is the Most Pressing Issue Facing Fashion—And It’s Only Getting Harder” where she discusses the growing fast fashion industry and the cheap mindset of the typical clothing consumer. These two phenomena are intertwined and continue to push the clothing manufacturing industry further and further from sustainability. Farra describes the problematic mindset of consumers through this example, “I have friends in the fashion industry who will gladly spend $17 on a glass of wine, or $75 on a single dinner, but scoff at a $250 organic silk dress they’d keep for years, getting its cost-per-wear down to dollars and cents.” Herein lies the problem: the majority of consumers would rather purchase a low-quality, trendy piece they can wear once and get something new after, rather than a well-made piece they can restyle and repurpose for years to come. This is a great idea if you are on a low budget and attempting to keep a trendy front for social media, but for the waste management and sustainability efforts, this concept is destructive. Waste continues to grow and the consumer’s addiction to newness and cheaply made only encourages it. This is further compounded by the fast fashion companies who continue to crank out $5 tee shirts and create heaps of waste through this vicious cycle.

However, there is hope to end this cycle. Farra points out that designers such as Stella McCartney and Alexander McQueen are working towards more sustainable practices that hope to have a trickle-down effect to the brands who are not as large. This is how the environmental movement will continue to influence the fashion industry—by larger industry names implementing more sustainable practices and thus smaller and fast fashion brands beginning to follow suit. This movement has also worked its way into the minds of consumers who will establish a backwards movement through the supply chain if it is successful. Consumers have the power to research brands, understand their practices, and chose if they want to purchase or support them. Because the sustainability push is now coming from the multimillion-dollar companies on the top as well as the consumers on the bottom, the environmental movement will inevitably continue to influence the textile industry through the implementation of new practices which produce less waste and carbon footprint.

In conclusion, the sustainability movement is here to stay and will continue to impact the fashion industry as push is coming from the top and bottom of the supply chain to rethink the way we manufacture and purchase our clothing. However, this movement will most likely stretch over a long period of time due to the problematic mindset still held by a large majority of consumers in today’s economy.