What is sustainable fashion in simple terms?
Sustainable fashion refers to garments and accessories that are produced in an ecologically and socially responsible way.
Every part of the process of making, selling, and wearing clothing matters in sustainable fashion. From paying workers fairly to reducing the amount of waste produced, sustainable fashion strives to improve on every aspect to help reduce its impact on people and the planet.
SKIIM Paris works towards supply chain transparency, environmentally-friendly fair trade, and garment longevity to ensure minimal amounts of waste and maximum garment lifecycle.
Why is sustainable fashion important?
To understand why sustainable fashion is so important, we first need to understand its counterpart - fast fashion. Fast fashion is any trendy, cheap clothing that is produced very rapidly in large quantities. The business model is built on an endless cycle of overproduction and overconsumption.
The fast fashion industry is built on an endless cycle of overproduction and overconsumption, encouraging customers to continuously buy into new trends and encouraging throwaway culture due to poorly made ill-fitting clothing.
It’s one of the most polluting industries on the planet due to the rapid turnaround from design to shop and the consumption of non-renewable resources. Additionally, there has been increasing concern over the last few decades over the low pay and unsafe working conditions of the factory workers for fast fashion brands. The materials are also often cheap and include some percentage of plastic that doesn’t biodegrade and releases micro-plastics into waterways, adding to the global plastic problem.
Due to these factors, it’s vital that people begin to adopt more sustainable shopping practices. Sustainable fashion slows down the production line - focusing on higher quality products, fairly paid staff, and a more responsible buying chain - resulting in products that long outlive their fast fashion counterparts and have a much lighter impact on the environment over time.
Ultimately, sustainable fashion is important because of the much-needed positive impact it has on the planet and people involved in the manufacturing. Check out what makes SKIIM Paris a more sustainable option in our blog all about how we craft
clothing with a conscience.
What are the benefits of sustainable fashion?
You can be unique
As we’ve mentioned already, fast fashion is all about trends. But these brands have been telling us what to wear for so long that many people have forgotten what their personal style looks like. Curating your own style with timeless, high-quality, long-lasting pieces allows you to find your own style again and stop wasting money on pieces that will go out of style as fast as they came in.
Reduces waste
Sustainable brands, such as SKIIM, focus on quality. From the materials we use to the construction of our garments, every design is made to last while still being responsibly sourced.
The designs you find in fast fashion stores are not made to last more than a few wears and often fit badly so that they end up being thrown away and make you buy more. In choosing sustainable clothing that is focused on quality, you can reduce the amount of wasted clothing and wasted money.
Better for the planet
All of that reduced waste is one way to help the planet and keep plastics out of landfill sites, but there are other ways that sustainable fashion can help the environment.
The fast fashion industry consumes huge amounts of water and non-renewable resources such as coal and oil. It’s also responsible for up to 10% of total global carbon emissions, and is estimated to increase by 50% by 2030.
In choosing sustainable fashion you can say no to supporting the negative environmental impact that the fashion industry is causing, and in-turn reduce your own environmental footprint as well.
Better for the people
As we’ve mentioned previously, there have recently been a number of concerns over the working conditions, low pay of the factory workers, and in some cases, child labour. Sustainable fashion takes the pay and living conditions of the workers into account which is why the pricing tends to be higher.
Fast fashion manages to keep the cost of clothing down at the cost of their worker’s welfare, paying extremely low wages and not improving on unsafe working conditions. By switching to ethically made brands you’re ensuring that the clothing you invest in hasn’t taken advantage of workers or used child labour.
To SKIIM, the idea of minimum waste, maximum lifecycle is paramount. We give serious thought to the materials we use, the processes we adopt, and the factories we employ. Check out our values page to find out more about our values and stance on sustainability.
