At present, designers like Stella McCatney, who are vegetarian, and brands such as MUJI Muji, which focus on pollution-free images, are vigorously practicing environmental protection in the fashion industry. For fashion consumers who don’t like them, this kind of brand with minimalist design looks a bit out of touch, which makes people feel cold and distant.
What kind of environmentally friendly fashion do you prefer to buy?
This spring, H&M released a new season’s limited series of environmental conscious actions-this is not a big news. Many people once took a bag of old clothes to H&M’s store, threw them into their white recycling bins, and then exchanged them for a "encouragement" discount coupon, or "accidentally" bought several clothes with green labels at H&M-the reason why this series attracted people’s attention was that. Zhou Xun, Wang Luodan and Eileen were all photographed wearing them to attend activities or even walk the red carpet. They looked very different from the previous "plain-faced" environmentally-friendly fashions. In addition, they were limited series, and many "stars with the same style" were sold out on the day of listing. In fact, the red carpet dress has always been synonymous with "no environmental protection". Those gorgeous and luxurious evening dresses usually exist only for a stunning appearance, and the possibility of being repeatedly worn is almost zero. Fashionable women other than stars will also find that once they wear those party dresses in their closets on major occasions, they will basically be put in the cold. It is imperative for H&M to classify this kind of "disposable" fashion as "environmental conscious action".
Prior to this, the well-known environmentally-friendly fashions were basically made of natural fiber fabrics, such as cotton, hemp and Tencel. This season, H&M added recycled sequins and beadwork for the first time, which told everyone that environmentally-friendly fashions can also grow secular and lovely. Veronique, the regional sustainable development manager of H&M, told the author that the public has a misunderstanding about environmentally friendly fabrics, thinking that only natural fabrics are environmentally friendly. In fact, things that can be recycled are also true. For example, we started to use recycled polyester fibers to make fluffy skirts last year, like this kind of clothes that need some hardness to support the shape, natural fibers are difficult to do. She also revealed that the brand’s next goal is to gradually dilute the boundary between the "environmental conscious series" and other product lines, and hope to adopt sustainable cotton for clothing in five years, that is to say, any cotton clothing (including jeans) you can buy at H&M at that time will be environmentally friendly fashion. I’m afraid that only brands like H&M can say such a big talk, and Swedish enterprises are indeed in the forefront of the world in environmental protection. Mary Turk, the clothing director of Stadsmission Stockholm, one of the largest second-hand chain retail stores in Stockholm, once expressed her wish to the media: "The so-called sustainable fashion should become a natural and ordinary part of life. When we no longer emphasize this concept, when it is truly integrated into our lives, it is truly recognized. "
Who should pay for environmental fashion?
In China, when it comes to environmental protection fashion, the most easily associated brand should be "useless". The founder Ma can promote coarse clothes made of cotton and linen and low-carbon handicrafts from the people with an image similar to that of an ascetic, and advocate "luxury poverty". What is somewhat incompatible with the "useless" simple, natural and original ecological style is its high price. Although it claims to be not a commercial brand, but a "non-profit organization dedicated to the protection of tradition and innovation of traditional folk handicrafts", it makes people wonder whether it intends to persuade everyone to make money to support a "sustainable" brand. Why should buying fashion be equated with doing charity? MUJI, who also advocates high-quality simple living, is obviously much more close to the people in terms of price. Consumers are keen to buy its products, not to show off how rich or tasteful they are (MUJI insisted on not marking the brand LOGO on the products from the beginning), but to figure out its humanized design and soft and comfortable texture, especially cotton and linen products. MUJI claims that he will go to the farm in person to communicate with the producers and use the safe and healthy cotton cultivated in the soil without pesticides and chemical fertilizers for more than three years, but it will not increase the price of the products. As one of the earliest brands that started to use organic cotton, MUJI started with baby products, and then went to underwear. Since 2010, it has been fully promoted to all product lines, and consumers may not know these things unless they ask the shop assistants or land in official website.Because MUJI did not pass on these organic cotton from India, Turkey and Tanzania as extra costs to consumers.
It is even more impossible for brands like H&M to use eco-fashion as a marketing gimmick to raise the price (their eco-conscious action series is priced the same as other series), because their consumers are particularly sensitive to the price. Then, how are these increased costs from recycling old clothes, recycling materials, treating polluted water, and researching and developing environmental protection materials digested? Julian, the sustainable supply chain manager of H&M, said that as pioneers of cheap and fast fashion brands, they always know how to control costs. Although the income and expenditure are not balanced at present, environmental protection is a must, so they can only find ways to make environmental protection less boring. The more people are willing to consume environmental fashion in the future, the more motivated they will be to increase investment and drive the whole industry to become sustainable.
