There has never been so much talk about sustainable fashion as currently, in fact, increasingly aware and demanding consumers are not satisfied with more beautiful to wear, they also want how these garments are produced and are satisfied that the ways, times and places of production do not contribute to deteriorate the environmental conditions of the planet and the working conditions of production personnel.
But what exactly is sustainable fashion? Sustainable fashion is that fashion that respects the environment and society in all its phases: from conception, to production, through distribution to sale.
This fashion proposal seeks to work with less polluting materials, reducing waste in production such as water and electricity costs and producing durable parts, stimulating conscious consumption. Furthermore, this model proposes a more human production, without exploitation of workers and with a more equitable remuneration.

Advantages of sustainable fashion

The concept of sustainability can be applied in many ways in the fashion world and brings with it numerous benefits.

•  First of all undoubtedly the lower environmental impact, an environment that is obviously the basis of the well-being of the world population, if our planet overheats, if its air becomes increasingly polluted and its waters contaminated, the life of many populations is compromised. In some areas of the planet, where the production of clothing is not regulated by specific regulations on environmental protection (or where these regulations are more easily broken) the health of many people has already been compromised.
• The second advantage is the improvement of the conditions of the workers involved in the life cycle of a fashion product. In particular the production which very often in countries where minimum wages or acceptable working conditions are not guaranteed, with recourse to exploitation and abuses of various kinds.
• Thirdly, the development of sustainable fashion can lead to the birth of new technologies and new processes, strengthening a growing sector and generating new opportunities for social and economic growth.

The real cost

The True Cost (the true price of fashion) is a documentary that tells the dark side of Fast Fashion, directed and produced by director Andrew Morgan in 2015 in collaboration with industry activists such as Livia Giuggioli (aka Livia Firth) and a star of an exception like Stella McCartney, the English designer for years engaged in the dissemination of a more sustainable fashion.
The documentary film talks about the different negative aspects of “fast fashion”, from environmental ones such as soil and water pollution, to social ones such as low wages and the daily oppression that occurs in countries where the textile industry is more developed, with Bangladesh at the forefront. The True Cost shows us how GMO cotton plantations in India are creating death and destruction due to the huge amount of toxic substances used for their cultivation (pesticides, fertilizers) that pollute land and water with consequences on local communities. He points out that the companies that produce these chemicals are the same ones that produce the medicines to cure themselves of their effects.
The True Cost also shows the absurd working conditions of the workers who produce our clothes, and the general indifference of us Westerners who think only of “consuming”, easily manipulated by contemporary marketing, by the promises of feeling part of a community in step with the fashion, from the ignorance that covers our eyes (and our brains) like a veil that we prefer not to remove.