This article is part of a series of studies Responsible fashionand innovative efforts to address issues facing the fashion industry.
Who determines what green or greenwashing is? Is it a good thing that more celebrities and reality stars are embracing pre-loved clothes? How much should governments do when it comes to sustainability? What protections do garment workers have?
These are just some of the questions that will dominate the debate in 2022 on how the fashion industry can reduce its impact on the planet and protect its hundreds of thousands of workers in poor countries.
From 2023, there will be rising energy prices in Europe, global supply chain disruptions and spikes in the cost of living in many parts of the world. These factors are all expected to challenge an industry that is under pressure from regulators and consumers to find meaningful solutions quickly.
Here are some of the most memorable moments when it came to responsible fashion in 2022.
Shein continued his fast-paced fashion dominance
Many people don’t know how to pronounce Shein (it’s “she-in”), the Chinese fast-fashion behemoth, but chances are they’ve probably heard of it, shopped for its clothes, or maybe even seen it. have boycotted.
Shein made a lot of headlines in 2022: there were investigations into labor violations and allegations of elevated lead levels in some products. At the Copenhagen Fashion Summit in June, Shein pledged $15 million over three years to the Or Foundation, a charity operating at Kantamanto, the world’s largest second-hand clothing market, in Accra, Ghana. The promise led to greenwashing suggestions as the company continued to make a fortune selling super-cheap clothes.
It is difficult to say whether these negative reports have affected the company. According to Money.co.uk research published in December, Shein was the world’s most popular fashion brand this year. After analyzing a year’s worth of search data on Google, Shein topped the list of most searched brands in 113 countries around the world, beating Zara for the top spot.
Patagonia founder gave away his company to fight climate change
Patagonia has long positioned itself as a brand at the forefront of the war on climate change, donating 1 percent of its sales to environmental causes since 1985. But this year, the founder of the outdoor clothing store, Yvon Chouinard, took a bold step: he gave his company away.
He, his wife and children turned Patagonia over to a non-profit organization to ensure that all of the company’s profits — about $100 million a year — are used to fund conservation efforts around the world. While Bloomberg says it’s a move that could help the Chouinard family avoid a significant tax burden, it could also set a precedent for fashion’s many other mega-wealthy dynasties.
Stars took a different kind of turn on the red carpet
In 2022, the message spread that for the fashion industry to reduce its carbon footprint, more brands need to incorporate repair, resale and rental services into their business models. Spurred on by the rising popularity of rental clothing, which has already been embraced by influencers, a handful of megawatt stars also began renting haute couture for red carpet appearances. The most notable outing this year? A turn earlier this month by the Princess of Wales, who wore a Kermit green off-the-shoulder dress by Emilia Wickstead to the Earthshot Prize Awards ceremony in Boston, which she rented for £74, about $90, from the British website Hurr.
Big questions about how fashion measures progress
The Sustainable Apparel Coalition has been one of the most powerful sustainability-focused trade groups in fashion. The tools, known as the Higg Index, are used by companies such as Walmart, Nike and H&M Group, and have been seen as a de facto industry standard for measuring environmental and social impact. Until it wasn’t.
Regulators in Norway said this spring that Higg data was not enough for environmental marketing claims. An investigation by Quartz found that H&M’s environmental ratings were “misleading” and “outright misleading”. And a DailyExpertNews article said the index strongly favored synthetic materials made from fossil fuels over natural materials like cotton or leather.
Fueled by other controversies, such as India’s fraudulent audit of organic cotton, the debate over how fashion can create a standardized way to measure and substantiate corporate sustainability claims is only heating up, with no clear solution in sight.
New laws aimed at fixing the fashion industry
This year many governments seemed to be waking up to the fact that companies are not reforming themselves at a pace and on a scale that meaningfully counteracts climate change. In January, organizers of the Fashion Act introduced a bill that, if passed, would make New York the first state in the country to pass legislation establishing broad sustainability rules.
In May, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand introduced the federal FABRIC Act, which aims to provide better labor protections for U.S. garment workers and production incentives. In November, the European Commission proposed new rules to reduce packaging waste that would impact things like perfume bottles and e-commerce packaging.
Strengthening government oversight can be a messy and slow process, but its start is being encouraged by climate advocates.
A changing relationship between fast fashion and reality TV
The symbiotic relationship between reality TV shows and fast fashion brands like Fashion Nova, Shein and Boohoo is well established. But in May, “Love Island,” the popular British reality dating show that has turned dozens of contestants into influencers, embraced a new sponsor, eBay UK.
For years, “Love Island” contestants wore the fast-fashion brand I Saw It First, which sells clothes for as little as $3. But this season, contestants wore beloved clothes and accessories to promote responsible shopping.
In September, the internet went into turmoil when Kourtney Kardashian Barker was revealed by Boohoo as its newest employee and sustainability ambassador. But in general, there seems to be more focus on how reality TV and fast fashion both propagate a false egalitarianism, or a way for everyday people to embody an aspirational lifestyle.
Stella McCartney, who invested in Mylo, a mycelial material produced by Bolt Threads, as part of a 2020 consortium with Kering, Adidas and Lululemon, introduced a new venture with Protein Evolution that will process leftover blended nylon and polyesters into new material for use in new clothes. And innovative textiles such as seaweed fabric, mushroom leather and pea silk have also gained momentum, as has Spinnova, a natural fiber that is compostable and recyclable and made without water or harmful chemicals.
Garment workers stood up for their rights
Fashion brands rarely own the factories that make their clothes. The vast majority of clothing and footwear orders are outsourced to suppliers in emerging markets, where overheads are cheap and the cost of human labor is even cheaper. In 2022, hundreds of thousands of garment workers, who power the global garment trade, took to the streets to protest wages and working conditions as inflation and canceled orders took their toll. In Haiti, Thailand, Myanmar, Bangladesh and Pakistan, many have turned to social media to raise the awareness of the world.
The news in December that factory workers in Pakistan would now be protected under the international accord, a legally enforceable health and safety agreement, was an important step. But the uproar at the start of the World Cup over the mistreatment of thousands of workers making football kits for the likes of Adidas and Nike was another stark reminder that there is still a long way to go.
