Is ‘sustainability’ a fashion scam?

In the Lakme Fashion Weeks of yore, one of the days would always be dedicated to textiles. It went through many names – Textile Day, Handloom Day… Now it’s called Sustainable Fashion Day. The producers of the fashion week thought a perfunctory nod to India’s indigenous textiles would be asuperb brand strategy that would set them aside from the customary zardozi-filled lehengas.

Over the years, as textiles, handloom and indigenous yarns came to be the mainstay of Indian fashion – even western clothes are made of locally sourced and grown fabric – textile day blended seamlessly with the other days of fashion week.

But the idea of ‘sustainability’ has arguably more to do with branding one’s event or business, than with ethical and conscious practices. I am still figuring out what it really stands for in fashion, as the efforts are often confusing and contrarian. Let’s just say it is important to call one’s business “sustainable” today, even though one isn’t fully sure if the business is truly sustainable or not.

The Oxford English Dictionary defines sustainability as the ‘property of being sustainable’ or capable of enduring. If one is to believe the esteemed dictionary, sustainability goes against the very grain of fashion. I mean, if clothes are to endure for years and years, why would we need a fashion week every six months to sell them to us?

Sustainability is often consumed with handloom or hand-spun clothing, which it is NOT. Hand-loomed clothing requires so much care and maintenance, designer handlooms especially need to be dry-cleaned only, and dry-cleaning is not only expensive but filled with chemicals harmful to the environment. The ubiquitous cotton, that fills our wardrobes thanks to our tropical climate, is the thirstiest plant. It takes over 2,500 litres of water to make a single cotton t-shirt. Definitely not an environmental-friendly fabric – especially in India, which is already facing its most severe water crisis ever.

Sustainability also means many things. Environmental responsibility, which controls carbon emissions. Economic sustainability means creating constant jobs for skilled labour, and creating reverse migrations, with employment opportunities in rural and semi-rural areas. Circular responsibility deals with recycling and upcycling waste. Human responsibility ensures fair trade, zero bonded labour, keeping the supply chain in mind when creating a business model. Fashion does seem to do the opposite of all these things; bigger companies more so than smaller businesses.

At the recently concluded Lakme Fashion Week, several promotional shows were put together to create more awareness. Handloom pioneer Abraham & Thakore, a label nurtured by the legendary and late textile historian Martand ‘Mapu’ Singh, collaborated with Ecovero, a large producer of wood-based sustainable fibre. Alka Sharma’s Aavaran employs 200 women artisans across four training centres in Debari, Matun, Kanpur and Zawar, making mudresist hand block-printing. The KVIC (the Khadi and Village Industries Commission) collaborated with Gaurav Khanijo, Anuj Bhutani and Pallavi Dhyani of Three Clothing to develop more craft clusters. Karishma Shahani used vegan ivory from Corozo to make buttons and embellishments.

These efforts are commendable but so small in scale that they barely create awareness, leave alone bring out change.

Sustainability has become a great talking point at fashion events these days. In 1992, more than 170 companies came to the Rio Earth Summit to pursue sustainable development, protect biological diversity and prevent interference with climate systems. But almost 30 years later, the world hasn’t become more environmentally sustainable, despite agreements, policies or laws. Our ecological footprint has exceeded the earth’s capacity. The biodiversity index has fallen by 50 per cent as populations of species continue to decline. Greenhouse emissions have doubled. The world has lost more than 48 per cent of its tropical forests. And humanity is quickly pushing several tipping points.

The only reason why we are eating up the planet is because it is financially rewarding to do so. A forest is worth more money when it is cut down in a market-based economy. Fashion is a result of a market-based economy.

To bring about real change, several large-scale apparel companies need to embrace full-fledged conscious roles. The government must provide for better policies other than mandatory CSR, like tax benefits, grants and incentives to switch to eco-efficient production. Water maintenance is the need of the hour. For example, in Maharashtra, the districts of Kolhapur, Sangli and Satara were damaged by severe floods last month, while Marathwada suffered a drought.

Today, sustainability in fashion belongs to the high-technology synthetic clothing industry. Athleisure, or scientifically created clothing, is built to last longer, be worn in hot and cold climates, and requires less or no maintenance. Handloom fashion, so far, has been thriving on guilt. It makes consumers buy something believing they are making an environment-friendly decision. But the real truth of slow fashion is this: buy less or not at all.

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