Ethical Fashion and Ecofashion

This chapter discusses Issues within the Fashion Supply Chain, Globalization and International Sourcing, The Ethics of Textile Production and the Evolution of Ecofashion, and Ecofashion Strategies, Standards, and Labeling Consumer Behaviour.

Abstract: Although the fashion industry is fast-moving and often dismissed as frivolous, it represents one of the major global economic players. Fashion is one of the few remaining craft-based industries, relying on skilled manual labour for manufacturing across its wide spectrum of levels, which raises particular issues for production. There is an urgent need to reconcile ethical, environmental, social, and personal agendas through future product development and manufacturing cycles in the fashion industry, with an increasingly important role for the designer in making and influencing choices. Systemic environmental and ethical issues arise at each stage of the complex textile- and fashion-production process, including: constantly shifting global sourcing of manufacturing, working conditions and employment practices in garment factories, environmental impact of textile raw materials and processing, garment recycling and disposal, and pay and conditions for retail staff. Campaigns by nongovernmental organizations such as War on Want, and investigative journalists, have exposed iniquitous working conditions endured by garment factory workers in developing countries. However, for those living below the poverty line in such countries, jobs in clothing factories often offer a better alternative than subsistence farming. The early years of the twenty-first century saw a convergence of various high-profile initiatives in the United Kingdom and Europe, on ethical and environmental issues, such as Make Poverty History, The Clean Clothes Campaign, and Labour Behind the Label. Increased environmental awareness has stimulated closer consumer scrutiny of manufacturing and service industries, from transportation and electrical goods to food and fashion.