It should be said loud by now: clothes are political!
Our choices, styles, and preferences exist in a context shaped by political and economic decisions. We talked more about this in the previous blog post. If you haven’t already, check it out first, before continuing with this one.
Yet, it took policymakers a long time to take fashion seriously. For a number of reasons, including the idea that fashion is purely a creative domain, to the fact that some fashion companies hold significant economic power. Luckily, things are changing. The EU (along with the US) is now considering new regulations, focused on the sustainable future of fashion.
And by the end of this year, we might have it! If you want to understand better what the strategy is about then keep on reading. We are diving deeper into the EU fashion plans!
The fact that the EU and companies based here play a big role in the fashion industry isn’t anything new. Neither is the fact that the EU contributes, as a producer and consumer of textiles, largely to the environmental and social crisis linked to fashion. For years, citizens, activists, and organisations have been saying this. Organisations like Fashion Revolution have also been lobbying for years for better policies and regulations in the industry.
So, why is the EU interested in sustainable fashion now? What changed?
The upcoming textile strategy is a part of a new generation of European policies and initiatives, known as the EU Green Deal. You might have heard of it but essentially, this is an elaborate plan to get out of the COVID-19 pandemic as a cleaner, more sustainable, and stronger economy. One of the biggest promises of the Green Deal is to achieve no net emissions of greenhouse gases by 2050. In case you aren’t sure, greenhouse gases are the key contributor to climate change, and finding ways to reduce them in every aspect of our life and business is essential for the future. We previously wrote about this topic here, so give it a read if you want to learn more.
Now, the Green Deal is a big and quite ambitious framework, rather than a single plan or legislation. It is composed of different parts, segments, and groups. Getting complicated? A bit but stick with us! One of the important parts of the EU’s new focus is the Circular Economy Action Plan (CEAP). This is a concrete plan to support the EU’s transition towards the circular economy, building on already existing initiatives. The plan involves citizens, governments, and businesses. Among others, the Circular Economy Action Plan aims to make sustainable products, services, and business models the norm and transform our current consumption patterns. This is exactly where fashion comes in!
In this action plan, the EU Commission recognises the textile industry as one of the priority sectors we need to tackle if we want to reach the Green Deal ambitions. They also recognised the environmental and social impact but also the potential of the industry. So, in the document, the Commission announced that it will adopt a comprehensive EU Textile Strategy in 2021.
In March this year, the European Parliament gave a green light and the Textile Strategy is currently scheduled and waiting to be adopted by the end of the year.
Ok, ready to see what it’s about?
Here’s a little overview.
At this moment, we still don’t know the final shape of the Textile Strategy and things can change. However, the big points of the Strategy have been known to the public for the past few months, so we will focus on those.
The EU Textile Strategy’s biggest goals are the following:
- To strengthen the European fashion industry
- Support the innovation in the sector
- Boost the EU market for sustainable and circular textiles, which includes the market for textile reuse
- Address fast fashion
- Drive new business models
To achieve this, the Strategy proposes several sets of measures. Below, we are summing up the key points.
The Strategy proposes focusing on making fashion products more sustainable. This includes adopting circular design ideas, using better raw materials, and minimising the presence of toxic chemicals. It also includes making sustainable textiles more available to businesses and citizens and easier access to re-use and repair services.
Sounds good, doesn’t it? There’s more!
The Strategy takes seriously the lack of regulations when it comes to sustainable and circular textiles. This is why it will look for ways to provide incentives and support for such materials and manufacturing, as well as increasing transparency and cooperation in the industry.
Moreover, the Strategy is tackling textile waste. Concretely, the Commission will provide guidance to achieve high levels of separate collection of textile waste, which individual EU countries have to ensure by 2025. They will also encourage waste sorting, reuse, and recycling. Perhaps the most exciting news here is the plan for stricter regulations such as extended producer responsibility. What this means is that the companies that make products will have legal obligations towards what happens to that product after use. This is likely to cover any large company that does business within the European Union, regardless of where the company is based at. In other words, such regulation could potentially impact the whole world!
In addition, the Commission is also tackling greenwashing in the fashion industry. In particular, there’s a whole initiative to define what “sustainable” or “green” is, also known as The EU taxonomy. This way, consumers could get a reliable way to judge a product, cutting through marketing claims. Of course, how to measure and calculate a product’s footprint is an ongoing debate. Meaning that no regulation can completely eliminate greenwashing. Yet, stricter regulations could make it harder for the companies to do so.
Policymaking plays an important role in the industry. But we need to change how we do our businesses too. While Les Izmoor is by no means perfect, our entire mission is about this precisely: rethinking how we make and consume our clothes.
So, when we talk about the upcoming EU and worldwide regulations in the industry, we don’t see them as the final goal nor the stand-alone solutions. Instead, we see them as tools that can help us navigate the future of the industry. We are choosing to focus on those opportunities.
Finally, what the above tells us is that the biggest problems of the fashion industry have finally been recognised and addressed. And we have to admit, the ambitions proposed by the EU really give us hope. But the challenge now is to make sure they get adopted and implemented, once the Strategy comes to force. As a citizen, you can play a role in this!
If you’re an EU citizen, you have the power over how the legislation is to be adopted, carried, and implemented. The most powerful thing you can do is to use your voice. Reach out to your Parliament representatives (the MEPs) or even your local government representatives, to let them know that you care about the issue. You can also share your ideas directly with the EU, using this platform.
Though policymaking takes time and may seem complex, don’t forget that as a citizen, you can plan an important role!
Are you looking forward to the upcoming regulations? Do you think they will help the industry and your personal fashion choices? We would love to hear your thoughts on this!
Text is written by Tena from Thinking Threads
We usually think of clothes as something personal. After all, as the closest thing to our skin, clothes tie intimately with our identities, ambitions, and mental health. We also like to think of our clothes as a matter of personal choices, creativity, and stories.
Clothes are all of that. Yet, at the same time, they are more than that.
Whether we realise it or not, the clothes on our bodies are also political. They are a result of global powers, economy, and exchange. They also influence and shift those same powers. This is why, when we speak about sustainable fashion, we are always talking about multidimensional change. Today, we want to open the conversation about one of the dimensions: policymaking.
This article is the first in the two-part series, where we will discuss the meaning of policymaking and attempt to understand the current EU-level laws. In part two, we will dive deeper into the new promising regulations that we are hoping to see taking place soon.
Sit comfortably, it’s time for some policy talk!
A lot of responsibility in the fashion industry is put on the businesses and consumers. And for a good reason. Changing the way businesses work and the way we buy and consume clothes is crucial. Yet, for a very long time, governments have been turning a blind eye to fashion. Unlike other industries, such as food, technology, transport, housing, and so on, fashion is largely unregulated.
Why is this an issue?
As mentioned in the introduction, fashion is a multidimensional affair, and a change requires different actors and sides to move. Put in practical terms, fashion also has an impact on other domains of our lives. It impacts our health, economy, and communities. All the things that we usually hold the governments responsible for, at least to some extent.
"For a very long time, governments have been turning a blind eye to fashion."
Moreover, the government’s decisions, even when not directed towards fashion, impact the way we (as citizens) treat and handle clothes. For example, in most countries in the world, it is very hard to repair, reuse or recycle clothes and textiles. There’s no infrastructure and no laws regarding fashion’s waste. The same goes for what businesses can do. The fact that businesses are able to outsource their production without any legal obligations towards what is happening in the factories they work with is a result of economic policies.
In other words, policies (or the lack of them) have an impact on the fashion industry. That is also the core reason why expecting the citizens to simply behave “more sustainably” nor relying on self-regulating initiatives from businesses is not enough. Policies can have a profound and lasting impact too.
Fashion is truly a global business and the policies in one country can influence businesses and laws in other places too. Yet, regardless of where you live, there are some good reasons why the European Union’s regulations matter.
Let’s break that down.
The Textile, Garment, Leather, and Footwear sector (TGLF), as the EU classifies it, accounts for only a small portion of the Union’s economy. According to their own estimation, this sector makes about 3% of the total EU manufacturing (by value). Interestingly, the majority of fashion businesses in the EU are small enterprises with less than 50 employees. So, it may not seem obvious at first why the regulations on the EU level have a big global potential.
That is until we realise that some of the biggest fashion retailers in the world have their headquarters within Europe. Big brands like Inditex (Spain), H&M (Sweden), Adidas (Germany), C&A (Belgium) as well as LVMH, Dior, Chanel, Hermès, and other luxury fashion (France) are some of the leaders in the industry. A change in those companies would drive a change in the whole industry.
But it goes beyond just the possibility of regulating a big business. The EU is also a big buyer of fashion and has strong economic power. Europeans consume on average 26kg and waste about 11kg of textiles per person per year. This alone makes the EU a crucial piece of the puzzle towards the future of fashion we want. Additionally, with laws like GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation), the EU has shown how it’s possible to regulate businesses and practices globally.
The best part is that there are already some great initiatives happening within the EU.
Nowadays, many companies (including the giants mentioned above) disclose their corporate social responsibility reports and even their sustainability strategies. However, these are completely voluntary and, thus, left for the companies to decide what and how they measure and reveal. Two examples of such voluntary commitments are the Dutch Agreement on Sustainable Garments and Textile and the German Partnership for Sustainable Textiles. These are great and important steps but experts are increasingly calling for better and EU-wide laws. These would be mandatory for everyone in the industry.
Luckily, some individual countries have been making some progress in that sense.
Perhaps the biggest example is the French ‘Duty of Vigilance’ law from 2017. This law requires all French companies that have more than 5 000 employees domestically, or employ 10 000+ employees worldwide to address environmental, health and safety, and human rights. That goes both for within their own organisation, as well as their suppliers and subcontractors. Of course, this isn’t a fashion-specific rule but it has a big impact on the industry too. Plus, France is the first country in the world to take legislative steps towards reducing microfiber pollution. As of January 2025, all new washing machines in France will need to have a microfiber filter built in.
Though officially not in the EU anymore, the UK Modern Slavery Act (2015) was an early and big step towards greater transparency in the supply chain. Similarly, the Child Labour Due Diligence law in the Netherlands (2019) requires companies to submit a statement on the child labour-related risks throughout their supply chain. In cases where there’s a risk of child labour, the company has to develop an action plan to avoid it.
Such existing regulations, along with other sustainability initiatives are a basis for the new EU Strategy for Sustainable Fashion. Early this year, the European Commission published a roadmap, aiming to adopt the Strategy by the end of the year. The strategy would propose new and improved legal steps towards making the industry circular, as well as invest in waste reduction and textile recycling.
Want to know what this means and what it could imply for you as a consumer and a part of the fashion industry? We will explain this in the next blog post, stay tuned!
Text is written by Tena from Thinking Threads.
]]>Hanging around the fashion community, we have been hearing a lot about the role of technology in fashion. Particularly, blockchain has been popping up as a hot topic and it looks like everyone wants to talk about it.
Blockchain usually comes up as a technology that could help the fashion industry become more transparent and green. At Les Izmoor, we see transparency as the first step of the sustainability journey. The fashion industry might not be perfect but the more we are open about our practices, the more responsible we are for our actions. Moreover, transparency is the tool that can empower customers in making more informed, educated and ultimately better decisions. Of course, we are certainly interested in this. Which is why, since the beginning, we have partnered with Virgo-Luxochain, a blockchain-powered platform that helps us trace and verify our supply chain.
This collaboration has allowed us to create and attach a unique code to each of our garments. This way, we can trace their journeys.
To find out about this technology, we talked to Viola Andretti from Temera, one of the companies that brought the Virgo project to life. Temara has been working on innovative technology for the fashion and retail industry for over a decade.
Here are the things you need to know about this technology!
We’ll start from the top: What is blockchain anyway?
Blockchain became sort of a buzzword and it may seem complicated at first but the basic idea is simple. It’s a technology that allows you to record information in a way that’s impossible to later change, hack, or cheat. As Viola says: “it’s a bit like delivering a document to the notary and requesting its registration”. The technology started as a way to structure and store data but it grew into far more than this over the past few years. Today, we have different types of blockchain technologies and applications.
Essentially, blockchain is a record (or ledger) of transactions that are distributed through the whole network of computers, which are a part of a blockchain. Each “block” contains a transaction and if there’s a new transaction happening, a record of that transaction is sent through the whole network. As Viola points out, this increases the security and resilience of the information. Plus, it makes the data accessible to more participants or actors, as long as they have the access to it.
So, security and the ability to share is interesting... but there’s another part of the blockchain technology that is promising. Since all the participants can see what’s happening, there’s no need for a central authority to set the rules. Instead, it’s the whole network that validates transactions and has to agree on whether or not to introduce any changes to the records. No central authority is exactly what makes blockchain different from other technologies.
You might start seeing how this can bring more transparency in what we’re doing, from banking, law, to fashion. So let us explore that more closely.
Transparency, or rather the lack of it, is at the core of many problems in the fashion industry. Today, the industry is truly global and mass-producing. It’s a standard to have crops or raw material produced in one place, the fabric made in another, and the garment sewn in in a third place. More often than not, there are steps in between, with the garment sometimes travelling through several factories and locations before reaching the final destination. To “optimise” the mass production and lower the costs, big brands not only outsource their production but there’s a lot of subcontracting going on. In most cases, brands can’t fully trace where their clothes come from. Even more, there’s no proper way to track what happens with the garments after they leave the stores or once they are shipped to the consumer.
According to the transparency index by Fashion Revolution, a majority of the major brands today lack transparency on social and environmental issues. The lack of transparency means the lack of accountability in the industry. When accidents and disasters happen, there’s nobody to take responsibility for. There’s also nobody to take the responsibility for the growing amount of textile waste that we’re facing now. Transparency in itself isn’t enough to answer these issues but it’s a first and fundamental step towards a more just and clean industry.
Now, working towards transparency doesn’t go without changes in the way we manufacture and use clothes. It’s more than a technical change, it’s a cultural and economic change. But that’s a whole topic on its own. However, it’s important to understand that it’s not just a few companies that are not transparent, but rather the whole fashion system. And this is not something easy to alternate… For big companies, it’s hard to suddenly change their whole business, though they should (and to some extent are) work on achieving this. And for smaller companies, who have far less economic power, it’s not easy to control where everything comes from. Many small brands are doing great efforts to source as locally as possible but there are many things they can’t control. Not because they don’t care but because they do not have the means to.
Because the industry changed a lot in the past couple of decades, we need to approach some issues with different tools. When it comes to transparency, new technologies like blockchain could help.
Here’s how.
While technology on its own is never the only solution and is never a replacement for ethics in fashion, it can be a helpful tool if used well. That’s the whole idea behind using blockchain in fashion, Viola explained: “Technology is a tool that can enable a fashion brand to be more transparent towards their consumers. But at the base of everything, there’s always the brand’s desire to be truly transparent and clarify its production methods, the origin of the raw materials, and the chemicals used during the manufacturing”.
Blockchain can help fashion brands trace better their supply chain and possibly the afterlife of a garment. Simply put, thanks to technology, brands can create a unique digital identity for each product they make, which allows them to follow it before and after the product is bought. Blockchain, in particular, allows a company to make sense of the complex networks in garment production, from farms, transportation, storage rooms, factories, to stores. For each product, a brand can get the information where the fibres come from, where they travelled, what was used, and who worked on assembling the garment. Because of how the technology is built, it’s very hard to manipulate or change the records.
Brands are already using blockchain to access and share information about the workers who make their products. Some even see it as a way to assess and take care of the wellbeing of the workers, as sometimes cultural and social barriers prevent the workers from speaking up to their managers. This is one way of having an anonymous conversation, directly with the workers.
Further, if each piece of the garment has a unique identity, we could know what happens to the garment afterwards. We can see if it ends up in second-hand shops, landfill or somewhere else. Viola points out that this is as important as how the garment is made: “Durability and quality are a big part of sustainability in fashion. We need to extend the lifespan of our clothes. Technology could help by allowing the brand to understand exactly what happens to the garment after someone buys it. This would allow them to improve in that aspect too”.
To sum up: what we don’t see, we can’t improve. Thus, knowing the garment’s full lifecycle is the first step towards taking responsibility in fashion.
At the moment, it seems that it’s mostly luxury and big fashion brands that are adopting blockchain technology. The biggest reason for this is because it’s still a new and experimental technology and thus expensive. Yet, the interest is growing and so is the number of companies and start-ups that are developing and offering blockchain. Some smaller brands are already adopting the technology too.
Viola sees this as a part of a wider, global movement towards sustainability. Today, Viola notes, we are talking so much about things like transparency, circularity, emissions, and so on. This is because we came to the point in our society where there’s truly a need to reduce our impact on the planet. “Fashion of the future will have to adapt to this”, Viola is certain.
And we agree, today it’s no longer a question of choice but it became an urgency to rethink how we do business, including fashion. Blockchain alone isn’t going to change the fashion industry but it might as well force it to practice what it preaches.
We want to thank Viola for talking to us. If blockchain is something that you’d like to know about more, check out Temera's website.
In the end, we would love to hear your thoughts on the blockchain! Do you think more brands should adopt this technology?
Let us know!
Text is written by Tena from Thinking Threads
]]>For us, this question goes beyond environmental concern. It has to do with a cultural shift and change. Today, we want to explore that.
]]>
Does this sound familiar to you:
“Oh, it was only a €10 t-shirt, if I wear it twice, it will already pay off!”
Or
“This dress will probably lose shape and colour after a few washes anyway. It’s cheaper and easier to just buy a new one”?
If you ever thought this way about a piece of garment, you’re not the only one. Most of us do. Nowadays, clothes are so cheap and affordable, that caring for them isn’t something we think about much. After all, we can always just buy a new thing, right?
Clothes became almost disposable to us.
And while by no means we intend to shame or impose our vision, this isn’t how we always thought of fashion . Having clothes easily and cheaply available to us is pretty new in our history. Since the sustainable movement is growing in recent years, we are slowly starting to turn our attention to this too: how and why should we care for our clothes?
For us, this question goes beyond environmental concern. It has to do with a cultural shift and change. Today, we want to explore that.
First, let us give you some context.
We, humans, love clothes. We love clothes so much that we have been making and wearing them for functional, decorative, and symbolic purposes for hundreds of thousands of years. We have developed different tools, techniques, narratives, rules, trades, styles, and so on, around fabrics and textiles. Or, that's what we call fashion nowadays.
It’s, of course, impossible to fit in a simple overview of the whole history of fashion in a single article but throughout a large part of our clothes-wearing history, we were making clothes locally, slowly, and in small quantities. The fabrics were intense to make and thus expensive for most people. Those who could afford this would usually have the clothes tailored to them specifically and they would wear them often. Clothes were also passed on within families, often altered to fit the wearer. Most people had pretty small wardrobes and clothes were meant to last.
Historically speaking, it really wasn’t that long ago, that the industry started producing massively and fast, in factories. It was with the arrival of the sewing machine in the 19th century when the modern fashion industry was born. This young industry married well with the early capitalism philosophy of profit gain, which became more and more dominant with time. Through the 20th century, with the constant improvement of sewing technology and the invention of cheap materials (like polyester), the industry was speeding up.
In the second half of the 20th century, we are seeing the arrival of trends: fast-changing styles, championed by the youth of the West. The fashion industry embraced this fully, starting to find a way to speed things up even more. Soon, European and American businesses started to outsource their clothing production. It’s in this context where the fast fashion business model was born. The term first appeared in the 1970s, to refer to trendy, inexpensive clothes. By the late 1990s and early 2000s, fast fashion became the dominant production and marketing model where clothes are made fast and with minimum (financial) costs.
Fast fashion also changed the way we think and consume clothes. About a century ago, the average cost of clothes was much higher than the average cost today. This doesn’t match up with the costs of other daily items (like food and housing) that went up throughout the years. Keep in mind that we’re talking here about the average clothes, not the luxury sector. However, the way we manufacture clothes hasn’t changed significantly during that period. What changed is the business, which now relies on long supply chains, cheap materials and underpaying the labour.
The main point here is that today, we have more clothes than ever (our annual production has doubled in the past 20 years alone) and we can buy them cheaper than ever. We have easily available clothes and the industry is encouraging that. Thus the new trends and collections all the time. Fast fashion created and is perpetuating a culture where we no longer think of clothes as an investment but as a quick thrill. Because the price tag of the clothes is so cheap, they come in and go out of our lives quickly. And they lose their economic value as soon as they’re bought. It’s a culture of disposable clothes.
However, even those cheap clothes required heavy labour and resources. The clothes maybe didn't cost much but they still deserve respect and care because of that. Today, sustainability is more important than ever and, as we wrote before, businesses and the industry will need to figure out their way to produce and sell more sustainably. Yet, even more than being a necessary business change, sustainability is a cultural and social change. This is where our attitudes towards clothes come into the game.
Choosing to love the clothes we already have and take good care of them is crucial. Regardless of the quality or the origin of our garments, when we choose to repair, mend, and care for them properly, we are creating new habits and attitudes. And it’s in those tiny, daily choices and actions where we can create and recreate ways, cultures and systems.
We do believe that all clothes should be made ethically, sustainably and with the highest quality in mind. After all, that’s what Les Izmoor is all about. Yet, that’s just one piece needed for the fashion industry to change. What we do with our clothes is another, perhaps even more important piece, in which we can fight against the ideas of speed and profit of the industry, the system that has proven to be socially and environmentally too expensive for us. Again, we have been making and consuming our clothes in a slow manner most of our history and we can do it again.
The best part?
Everyone can do it.
Finally, here are some of our best clothes caring tips, all of which will help the clothes last longer. As a bonus, some can cut down your eco-footprint as well as your energy bills!
Unless they’re really dirty, there’s no need to wash clothes that frequently. With the exception of underwear and socks, we can wear most of our clothes 5 or more times before washing. If you’d like to freshen up the clothes between the washes, try airing them out for a few hours or overnight!
In most cases, washing clothes at 30°C (or cold wash, depending on your washing machine settings) is enough. This is one of the easiest and most important things you can do to save energy, reduce the amount of microfibers released during the washing cycle, as well as preserve the shape and colour of your clothes.
Dryers can shrink and fade clothes, as well as increase microfiber shedding. Plus, they only add to your footprint and bills.
In case you have a drying machine at home and cannot always avoid it, try reducing how much you use it. And don’t forget that some clothes, like delicates and activewear, should never go into the dryer!
Perhaps our favourite tip of all!
Instead, hang garments immediately after washing to air dry and you’ll see that most of them don’t really need ironing.
Things like shirts should go on a hanger to keep their shape. Yet, the opposite goes for heavier items, like sweaters and knitwear. Those can stretch and lose their shape if hanging for too long, so fold them on shelves.
Also, try storing your clothes with some dry lavender to keep your clothes fresh and chase way moths.
Though they smell nice, clothing or fabric softeners don’t actually help with bad odours. Plus, most commercial ones contain toxic and petroleum-based ingredients. They are pretty much a waste of money and are bad news for the environment.
Instead, you can add a mixture of part water and part white vinegar to soften the fabrics.
Just like softeners, most washing detergents are full of bad chemicals, many of which you are better to avoid, and actually contain plastic!
If you can, go for gentle and natural detergents. In case you have a bulk shop near you, check out if they have some there! Oh, and avoid dry cleaning in general, it’s usually bad for the environment and your health.
Always try repairing your clothes when the damage is new and small. It’s easier to fix a small hole or a loose button than the whole garment! Learn some basic mending skills, which will come in handy and will save you some money. And if you need some bigger repairs or alteration, look for a nearby tailor.
These will always pay off in the long run!
Do you have any other tips? Share them with us!
]]>Nowadays, carbon offsetting seems to be everywhere. Suddenly, carbon became an important business but also a personal consideration.
Of course, carbon emissions, or rather the excess of them, isn’t a new topic. After all, carbon has been fuelling our economies for the past two centuries. And in the past decades, we have seen worrying consequences of adding more carbon to the atmosphere than our planet can handle. Thus, scientists, activists, policymakers, businesses and others started thinking about what we can do to reduce the impact. The conclusion sounds simple but it requires a fundamental change: we need to reach net-zero emissions by 2050.
But what does this mean?
]]>Have you ever offset your carbon emissions?
Nowadays, carbon offsetting seems to be everywhere. Suddenly, carbon became an important business but also a personal consideration.
Of course, carbon emissions, or rather the excess of them, isn’t a new topic. After all, carbon has been fuelling our economies for the past two centuries. And in the past decades, we have seen worrying consequences of adding more carbon to the atmosphere than our planet can handle. Thus, scientists, activists, policymakers, businesses and others started thinking about what we can do to reduce the impact. The conclusion sounds simple but it requires a fundamental change: we need to reach net-zero emissions by 2050.
But what does this mean, and what does it have to do with fashion?
Is it even possible?
Buckle up, we dive deep into carbon emissions, offsetting, and reductions.
Carbon, in the form of carbon dioxide (C02), is a part of greenhouse gases (GHSs), which play an important role in preserving life on our planet. GHSs also include methane, nitrous oxide, water vapour, as well as fluorinated gases (which are synthetic). The reason why they are called greenhouse gases is that they create a greenhouse effect: a naturally occurring warming effect. The problem starts when we have too many GHSs in the atmosphere and the Earth starts to warm too much. The full effects of this are still unknown, but climate change (as a consequence of warming) is already a reality for many parts of the world.
The levels of C02 in the atmosphere have increased roughly 50% since pre-industrial revolution times. Because of this, we have a dangerous increase in average global temperatures, influencing virtually all parts of the Earth’s biosphere (all life on the planet).
In 2015, the world leaders created and adopted a document known as the Paris Agreement, during the COP21 in France. The Paris Agreement is a legally binding international treaty on climate change, intending to limit global warming below 2°C, preferably to 1.5°C, compared to pre-industrial levels. Currently, 196 countries have signed the Agreement. Limiting the warming to 1.5°C is not going to stop climate change but it will slow down the devastating effects it would otherwise have.
Now, such an ambition requires a big cultural, political, and economic change. This is where we get to the ideas like carbon offset, reduction, and net-zero.
Let’s discuss that.
Clearly, we have too much C02. We realise now that the only way forward is in figuring out how to lower down our emissions. In that context, net-zero is an idea where we balance out our emissions with the removal of carbon from the atmosphere. The emissions caused by human activity should be reduced as close to zero as possible, while the remaining GHGs (as they also occur naturally) should be balanced out. Therefore, we often talk about net-zero or climate-neutral businesses, organisations, and actions.
But when should we reach this net-zero state?
According to a report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), published in 2018, the global economy must achieve net-zero emissions by 2050. After this, the economy should go carbon negative: reduce more carbon from the air than emitted. That’s truly not a lot of time. At the moment, we emit between 40-50Gt of C02 every year. This means that we need to reduce our emissions by 7.6% annually for the next 10 years if we want to achieve these goals. In other words, according to the IPCC, we have a yearly “carbon budget” of about 580 GtC02, if we want to reach the 1.5°C goal.
Knowing all of this, we can start understanding why businesses are trying to implement some sustainable changes in their policies. This is something no longer reserved for a handful of companies but is becoming essential to doing a business of any kind. Postponing to adapt to the global carbon goals might actually become a financial risk for companies.
Not surprisingly, the fashion industry is starting to have these conversations too.
You might have heard that fashion accounts for about 10% of global carbon emissions. That is, according to the UN. However, other reports and studies show a different number: from 4.8% to 8%. And one of the latest reports, by McKinsey & Global Fashion Agenda, states that fashion contributes to 4% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions. Confusing?
Sort of.
All of these reports, as journalist Alden Wicker explains, depend on what is measured and how. Fashion is complex, global and overlaps with other industries. The exact carbon footprint isn’t always clear but it doesn’t take long to realise that it’s a highly unsustainable industry. We produce clothes fast, cheap, and inefficiently. If we continue this way, we will not reach the 1.5°C targets. According to McKinsey, fashion might actually miss those targets by 50%, unless we do some drastic changes.
But where do emissions in fashion come from?
A lot of the emissions in fashion come from manufacturing and transport. Polyester, the most popular fabric in fashion, comes from petroleum, aka crude oil. Extracting and processing this fabric is energy intense. Moreover, fashion relies on long supply chains and a garment can travel to several countries and factories, before reaching us. The mentioned McKinsey report calculates that 60% of reduction in emissions could come from the way we manufacture clothes. The report continues by saying that an additional 18% of reduction could come from the way brands design, transport and sell their products. Finally, 21% of reduction could come from how we buy and consume clothes.
In other words, both businesses and individuals play a role.
Now, different studies show a significant shift in consumer’s attitudes, which only accelerated during the COVID-19 pandemic. People now care about the environment more than ever, and might even be more loyal to brands that embrace sustainability.
But what about the fashion businesses?
This is where we’re coming back to the idea of carbon offsetting. More and more brands are offering tree planting or other forms of offsetting to their consumers or are partnering with organisations and NGOs to offset their company’s emissions.
This is a good first step but it’s far from enough. Carbon offsetting means making up for the emissions by reducing them somewhere else. It’s simply not a good solution, in both financial and environmental terms. The so-called carbon credits that businesses are buying are only going to become more expensive (as the demand rises) and they are not going to exactly solve the problem we are facing. In other words, this doesn’t help our current situation where we are simply putting too much GHGs in the air.
And as said earlier, this requires a rethinking of the whole business model and closely looking at what changes we can do at each step.
That’s exactly what Les Izmoor is doing. Here are the things we are currently doing, to reduce our carbon footprint:
Just like the name says, we believe that less is indeed more. Instead of big collections, we are committed to releasing only 4 new designs per year. We also do everything made-to-order, to avoid overproducing.
In line with the previous point, the limited-edition clothes we produce are designed to last. We don’t want you to keep buying new clothes but to invest in those that you will love for a long time. For us, quality is a part of sustainability.
We are using recycled polyester. Though not perfect, recycled polyester uses less water and energy, meaning it emits less C02. And, of course, this means that we don’t use any new resources to produce our clothes.
We are choosing to keep our supply chain as short as possible. We manufacture our garments locally, in Italy. Our factory is located less than 60 km from our warehouse in Milan. This way, we are cutting significant parts of emissions.
Finally, everyone can do something to reduce their own carbon footprint. So, let us end with some quick tips that you can apply in your daily life!
You can find different ways to cut a bit of your own carbon footprint in your daily life. For example:
Don’t store unnecessary data in the cloud, delete junk emails, unsubscribe from unwanted emails and so on
When possible, go by bike or foot for short distances, or use public transport. For longer trips, look for train and bus connections, and generally choose the plane if no other option is available.
As we said, the biggest part of fashion’s footprint comes from the way we make clothes. Yet, buying less is also important. Instead, choose to wear what you already have.
Continuing on the previous point: make sure your clothes last. Learn to mend or find someone who can do repairs for you. A study shows that extending the life of clothes by just 3 months would reduce carbon, water, and waste footprints by 5-10%.
Wash your clothes less often and at 30°C, as well as switch to more gentle detergents. And if possible, avoid the drying machine. These small things will save energy and water (and thus cut your carbon emissions) and will make the clothes last longer.
]]>To make our purpose official, we plan to become a B Corporation certified business in the next 2 years.
This certification, not limited to fashion, is one of the highest certifications a business can get. According to their own website, B Corp certifies the businesses that “meet the highest standards of verified social and environmental performance, public transparency, and legal accountability to balance profit and purpose.”
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Nowadays, we hear companies claiming that they are doing a “business with purpose”. But what does this really mean? For Les Izmoor, this means being thoughtful and responsible in everything we do. Ultimately, we want to create products mindfully, making sure that we are reducing our footprint in the process. After all, beauty is truly in having less. To make our purpose official, we plan to become a B Corporation certified business in the next 2 years.
Have you heard of B Corporation (B Corp) before?
This certification, not limited to fashion, is one of the highest certifications a business can get. According to their own website, B Corp certifies the businesses that “meet the highest standards of verified social and environmental performance, public transparency, and legal accountability to balance profit and purpose.” Unlike some other certifications, B Corp evaluates a business holistically, not just their products. They are paying attention to everyone who’s involved, directly or indirectly, in the business: from the workers, suppliers, to consumers and communities.
But how exactly do they do this?
To find out, we decided to sit down and chat with someone who knows the process very well. We talked to Tiago Fachada, a B Leader and a co-founder of the company Ecofye. As a B Leader, Tiago is trained to understand the B Corporation’s assessment procedure and help companies in the process. In other words, a perfect person to talk to!
Interested in learning about B Corp? Then keep on reading!
Companies that usually apply for B Corp certification do it because they genuinely care about doing business for good, and they see this certification as an opportunity to evolve in a positive direction. For many, B Corporation is both a validation of their good practices but also a motivation to do more and reach their targets. Because B Corp includes a rigorous assessment, this certification signals that there’s no greenwashing taking place. These are just some of the reasons why an increasing number of companies are interested in becoming B Corp certified.
So, how do they achieve this?
B Corp is essentially a grading system for businesses, which is assessing them in five big categories: environment, community, workers, customers, and governance. All of those are important and a company has to answer a detailed questionnaire to explain their current and future business model. Each question brings certain points, which we’ll explain soon.
Globally, an average score companies get on this assessment is around 50. However, a candidate company must get a minimum score of 80 to get certified. That means that everything from 80+ is considered to be a great score, given to companies that actively work on social and environmental good. Currently, there are just under 4 000 certified companies across the world, many of whom have a much higher score than what is required. Some companies, like Patagonia, have a score of over 150! Thus, a score, which is publicly visible for each certified company, indicates the amount of effort a company is putting towards sustainability in the widest sense. The higher the score, the bigger the efforts that a company does.
Tiago explained that the questionnaire is assessing the business from different aspects, and it requires them to go beyond just performative actions. For example, it’s not enough that a company donates to a charity; they need to have a social and environmental impact at the core of what they do. Even more, this impact has to be clearly written in the legal documents of the company. Therefore, a certified company will have a legal obligation to consider social and environmental aspects when making any business decisions.
Let’s take a closer look at the assessment process.
Currently, there aren’t that many B Corporations certified companies in the world. Yet, especially since the pandemic started, the interest is visibly growing. The whole reviewing process used to last three months but lately, it can easily take up to six months, because of the high demand. Soon, we might start seeing more companies carrying the B Corp logo!
Tiago shared with us that the questionnaire itself is quite heavy. Usually, companies are preparing for months and are often working with consultants and B Leaders, before applying. Moreover, many questions are gating questions, meaning that they open up other sets of questions. Thus, the questionnaire will look different for every company. As mentioned, there are 5 sections of the questionnaire and a company is collecting points across those. While they have to score at least 80 to get certified, there’s no minimum requirement per questionnaire section. In other words, a company can have a high score in, let’s say, the environment, and a much lower score in governance.
That being said, not all questions are worth equally. Each question brings some points, ranging from less than 1, all the way to 10. It’s quite easy to get some points in each section but the further you go, it gets more difficult. It would be quite impossible for a company to have all points in one section of the questionnaire, and none in others.
To give an example, Tiago told us that a question about carbon neutrality brings only around 0.5 points because it’s considered important but companies that can demonstrate reducing their emissions instead of offsetting them will be more rewarded. For these reasons, questions about the supply chain are some of the hardest and most worthy questions, in terms of points. The questionnaire’s design prevents greenwashing and performative actions and rewards companies that are truly sustainable. As Tiago puts it, a company can easily get some points but they can’t get to 80 by just doing small things.
B Corporation cares a lot about the actual social and ecological impact but also how a company is improving over time. Virtually, any company can apply for the certification, regardless of their size. Both newly founded and well-established companies can take the questionnaire, which will adapt according to their current situation.
Yet, the assessment gets updated annually and, every 3 years, a certified B Corp company has to redo the whole process. Though the annual update isn’t required and is not a reason for a company to lose the certificate, it’s generally a good idea. This is an opportunity to see how the company has evolved and where they are in reaching their goals. So, it’s not enough for companies just to reach the needed threshold and get the certification. Rather, B Corp is encouraging them to actively improve. Additionally, every year, it gets harder and harder for a company to get to those 80 points, which pushes them to work harder. Tiago told us that a company that was perhaps sustainable 10 years ago, wouldn’t necessarily pass the assessment now. Unless, of course, their efforts grew too.
The main reason for these re-assessments is that most companies take on long-term social and environmental goals. There might be no immediate results but the companies are rather thinking of how their business makes changes down the line.
Nevertheless, Tiago emphasises that certifications like B Crop are good and useful, but we shouldn’t rely only on them. When making our shopping decisions, we should always ask questions and look beyond the brand’s claims.
Finally, Tiago shared with us his top 3 tips, to guide you whenever shopping for something new. They will help you to cut through greenwashing, make an informed decision and reduce your own footprint.
Here they are:
Everything is in the details! Things like where something was made are important because transportation accounts for a large part of emissions. The same goes for the fabric a brand is using (is it a sustainable or recycled fabric), as well as what certificates the company claims to have. Sustainability is complex and a lot of elements play a part!
Today, we can reach out to brands more easily than ever. Use this to your advantage! If you’re unsure about how a brand is manufacturing or what they are doing to improve their business models, reach out to them. Social media and email are great channels that are available to almost anyone.
Transparency is key here. The more a brand is willing to publicly share about their practices and business, the more likely it is that they are sustainable. If a brand is hiding things, it’s usually a sign that something is going on or that they don’t know their full supply chain.
However, some claims can be misleading, and even greenwashing. A good way to identify this is by checking the brand’s short-term targets. While it’s good to think long-term, targets that will take 10 or more years aren’t ambitious nor clear enough. We need to know what a brand will do in the next couple of years . A truly sustainable brand will aim to reduce (and not just offset) their emissions, as well as demonstrate how they are improving their social impact right now. Always ask for proof!
We want to thank Tiago for sharing his great knowledge about B Corp and certifications with us. If this is something you’d like to know more about, you can check out his company’s website here. And if you want to see all the companies currently certified as B Corp, check out the official directory here.
Have you ever bought something from a B Corp certified company? Let us know!
Text is written by Tena from Thinking Threads.
]]>Isn’t it incredible how wearing a particular look can make us feel much more self-assured ?
Fashion is more than just functional, it’s a way of expression and empowerment that can trigger our emotions in a positive way. But what happens when it goes the other way around?
]]>Isn’t it incredible how wearing a particular look can make us feel much more self-assured ?
You might now be asking: How do you know you feel like yourself? It’s when you walk on the street and a feeling of confidence reverberates through your body. That’s you. The real you. And it feels amazing!
Fashion is more than just functional, it’s a way of expression and empowerment that can trigger our emotions in a positive way. But what happens when it goes the other way around?
At Les Izmoor, we stand for the promotion of reflective purchases that can help reduce waste and change an established system that harms the environment. Today, we wanted to examine the impact that a conscious approach can have not only on the planet but also on the human mind. To explore this topic, we connected with Tena, a cultural anthropologist who recently published a research about the connection between fashion and mental health. We asked her to share with us her story and her most important findings.
Without any further ado, here’s what Tena shared with us!
My interest in mental health and fashion is largely a result of my own experience. When I got my first proper job after graduating, I felt the need to suddenly invest in my wardrobe and buy clothes that would present me as a serious person. I started attending a lot of business meetings and conferences, and I thought that matching blazers and pants would make me feel confident. But they didn’t. I always felt out of place. Also, they just looked awkward on my body, making me feel very self-conscious, to the point where I’d rather be in the back seat than in front of an audience.
Until one day, when I decided to attend a meeting with a big client in jeans, high-heel boots, and a blazer with pins. I felt fantastic! And guess what: the client still took me seriously and listened carefully to my presentation. Not long after this, I started to learn about sustainability and ethics in fashion. And the more I embraced slow fashion, the more confident I felt in my clothes. I shopped less but I started curating my wardrobe carefully.
This is because clothes are much more than functional objects on our bodies. They can be an extension of our identities, they can help us express, communicate, and connect. Learning this opened a whole new world for me.
With time, I met other people who went through a similar journey. So, I got interested in how clothes connect to our mental health and started reading about it everywhere. After months of research, discussions, and connecting with other slow fashion enthusiasts, I decided to sum everything up. And, trust me, this is just a start!
Possibly the most important thing I learned is that there’s no universal way clothes affect us and our mental states. Some ideas, like colour psychology, might be popular. In particular, it’s an idea that certain colours affect or encourage moods: blue is calming, red is passionate, and orange is energising, and so on. Well, the thing is that our perception of colours depends on the context. This is why psychology developed the colour-in-context theory, which speaks exactly about that. In other words, how we experience clothes is a result of a complex interaction between our own inner selves and the cultural and social context around us. The clothes can mediate between those two, which is a reason why they are so powerful and why many of us feel attached to them.
Yet, the attachment to our clothes isn’t a bad thing. On the contrary, it’s very human, and if we better understand this, we can find ways to use it to our advantage. Sometimes, we like to call this finding our own style.
A great way to start understanding how clothes affect us is by learning about enclothed cognition. This term describes how an experience of wearing clothes has psychological and behavioural consequences. In the original series of experiments, psychologists Hajo Adam and Adam Galinsky found out that a white coat, associated with doctors, increases the attention of the person wearing it. However, the same coat, when associated with another type of profession, like a painter, doesn’t have such an effect.
That is to say that enclothed cognition depends on two factors: the symbolic meaning of the clothes and the physical experience of wearing them. So, the same clothing item, say a long beach dress, can feel comfortable on holidays but not so good on a formal occasion. Unless perhaps that formal occasion is a beach wedding, and everyone is wearing a similar thing. I’m sure you get the point!
What enclothed cognition and other research from psychology, sociology, anthropology, and similar disciplines, shows is that we feel the clothes very intimately. We may not always be aware of that, but clothes tie deep with who we are or who we want to be.
Now, when the industry that makes and sells clothes speeds up, our connection with clothes becomes fragile. Keep in mind that through most of human history, fashion has been about slow, small-scale, and (mainly) local business and trade. Historically speaking, it wasn’t that long ago that clothes making turned into a massive industry, led by profit over craftsmanship. In the past couple of decades, fast fashion started dominating the industry, making overproduction and overconsumption the main characteristic of fashion. Because for fast fashion to be profitable (and make sense), we need to keep buying. Thus all the trends, ads, offers, and discounts.
The trouble is that keeping up with the constant newness in the industry and chasing the trends, can be stressful. You might have experienced it too: you can never quite catch up with it all. And yet, our brains are constantly stimulated and we are encouraged to always look for the next item to buy.
While buying something new can bring short-term satisfaction, in the long term it can increase the levels of stress and anxiety because it puts us in a constant state of an emergency. Sometimes, this can lead to shopping addictions or compulsive disorders. Moreover, participating in fast fashion can make us overlook the value of our clothes and focus on what’s in trend, rather than what we like. It might seem like a minor thing until we realise that we can end up with closets full of clothes and still feel empty. If that anyhow sounds familiar to you, you’ll know how alienating fast fashion can be. Slowing this down is not only good for the environment but it may help you reconnect with your style and clothes.
We cannot ignore the fact that social media (and especially Instagram as a visually oriented platform) had a big role in promoting fast fashion and consumption. Here’s how I see this.
Apart from having an influence on us, as individuals, fashion is also a visual and aesthetic representation of society, history, and geography. Fashion projects images of lifestyles and aspirations. While there’s no one lifestyle or uniform image it creates and sends, fashion is largely about what we imagine to achieve. Unfortunately, for decades, fashion has been projecting an image that excludes large parts of the population. We can see this the best in an image of a perfect body. Though things are definitely changing in recent years, we still largely see the same type of body in fashion: thin, tall, white, and young.
Of course, this isn’t anything new. However, with the rise of social media, we entered an era when we constantly compare ourselves to others. In many ways, social media is a perfect platform for fast fashion: they are both based on constant novelty, speed, and trends. A good example of this is the growth of #OOTD (Outfit of the Day) on Instagram: a trend of wearing an outfit only once. Moreover, many feel a mental burden of being on social media (even when they are perceived as successful).
However, this doesn’t mean that social media is bad for our mental health. In fact, research shows that our connection to social media is far more complex than this. This is because people aren’t just passive users of technology. Many are using social media not only to create meaningful connections or keep relationships alive but also as a platform to advocate for things they care about. We have witnessed many social movements that grew thanks to social media. Even when it comes to fashion, the growth of slow and sustainable fashion is, at least partly, thanks to social media. In my view, social media is a tool that can be powerful when used well.
To stay on the topic of social media, one thing that helped me a lot is curating my online space. What I mean by this is that I unfollowed many accounts that encouraged me to compare myself with others or to shop more. Instead, I looked for those who can teach me something or help me work on myself. Most of us spend large parts of our day on social media, so it’s important to make it a safe space, focused on what’s good for us.
I also made sure to unsubscribe from big brand’s emails, and overall started avoiding the situations in which I knew I’ll be exposed to constant ads and pressure to buy. Once again, ads aren’t essentially a negative thing but I decided to limit the amounts that get to me daily. This way, I got less discarded and I started having more time for things that matter to me.
I suggest you try the same. Unfollow people and accounts that make you feel unease in any way. They aren’t worth your time nor mental energy. I guarantee: you’ll feel much better!
Slowing down our fashion consumption can have great benefits for our mental well-being. Largely, this is because, once we stop focusing on trends and ads, we can focus on our style. When I say “style” I don’t mean any particular aesthetic. Rather, I mean figuring out the colours, cuts, pieces, patterns, etc. that fit our needs, lifestyles, and personal taste.
Even after years of being into slow fashion, this is an ongoing process for me. And that’s fine, remember: it’s not about rushing but slowing down. Still, there are ways you can figure out your style and stay true to yourself when shopping. Here are 3 tips I have for you:
A couple of years ago, I created a Pinterest board with clothes I like. I started by just freely pinning pieces I’d find on the internet, and I’m regularly updating and checking my board. It’s a visual representation and a reminder of what I like. And as my needs change, my board changes slightly too. For example, I’ve been pinning a lot more dresses and flowy tops than before, probably because I started working from home. I even refer to my board when considering a new purchase. It helps me see if a new item would fit my ideal wardrobe.
Another thing that is essential when shopping for clothes is taking the time and resisting to buy something immediately. I usually give it about a week before I buy something. If I still want an item after this period, I know that I’m more likely to actually wear it. This time also allows me to think of all the combinations and uses I can get out of an item, which is important. Clothes are an investment and as such, we should be able to make the most out of them!
I organise and re-arrange my closet at least every couple of months. I make sure that every piece has its place and is properly stored. Not only that this helps clothes last longer but it allows me to know what exactly I have in there. It helps a lot when shopping for something new because I’m less likely to buy something that doesn’t go with anything else I own. It definitely helps me be more mindful of my clothes.
Of course, there’s no magical formula. After all, as I mentioned earlier, the way clothes impact us is very personal and context-depending. Yet, hope the above tips give you at least some inspiration to start with.
We at Les Izmoor certainly learned a lot from Tena! If you’d like to learn even more, you can check out her research or visit her website. In the meantime, we are always interested in hearing about anyone’s experience with fashion and mental health. Have a story or tips to share on the topic? If yes, we’d love to hear about it!
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Welcome to Our Journal! If you are here it means that you are at least a bit curious about sustainable transformation. We are proud to have you in the community, as being inquisitive is the first step into a more conscious living.
Les Izmoor is more than a brand. It is more than fashion. It is a movement driven by individuals who aspire to produce and also consume in a more sustainable way. But we have been facing quite a few challenges when trying to find correct and clear information to do so...
The status of sustainability is a complicated one, to put it in a nice way. There is a lot of confusion and misinformation from all sides of the conversation. From the companies’ side, most of them are still trying to figure how to do it better, tackling issues that go all the way from the materials they use to their operating models. From the consumers' side, there is the struggling task to understand a subject which is demanding for action but isn’t being explained properly.
As a brand, we believe that producing in a responsible way and communicating our processes is as essential as creating beautiful quality pieces. To do so, we are constantly researching and learning how to implement small positive changes. Are we sustainable? Probably not! We are trying to make a change for the planet but let’s not forget that we are a company that creates garments. Our main activities involve production as opposed to reduction and even though we are trying to do so in the most responsible way that we can, our existence and our actions are still not adding up value for the environment. We might be more sustainable than others but presenting ourselves as a sustainable brand is a statement that we are struggling with as the term itself can be misleading.
This is why we have decided to share as much as we can about our practices, our investigations on how to improve them as a company and also our tips on how to take more mindful decisions as individuals. This journal will serve as an informative tool, keeping track of our research and our active work towards the reduction of our footprint both as a brand and as consumers. We do not wish to misinform you or put “sustainability” tags that might be confusing. We also don’t want to limit our discussion to what we are doing as a brand only. There are so many actors playing a crucial role in the change of the industry worth discussing (suppliers, platforms, influencers, organizations, other brands…) and we want to include them in the conversation to get the most complete view on this complicated topic and to make our analysis as clear and accurate as possible.
We are excited to be on this journey. Are you onboard?
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