Sustainable Fashion

https://www.ft.com/content/f45f87bb-29c7-4629-a7ad-e3a01433e1c1?shareType=nongift

How to save it: the Kashmiri shawl

 

Reading the article about Kashmiri shawl made me think of a Korean brand called Lé Cashmere. As the article indicates, there are a lot of fake pure cashmere made of synthetic fabric, such as acrylic. They are cheap and fast produced making impacts on environment, and fast fashion causes issues on worker’s right too. Even if the fabric is real cashmere, the process of its production can be cruel to animal as most businesses want to make it as much as possible in the shortest period of time. Lé Cashmere againsts to fast fashion and values every life on the planet. The founder of the company met some herders when he travelled Mongolia. They were losing their place to live because of desertification. The company plants trees and helps local producers to rear goats in sustainable way. They graze goats that the land and the grass can afford. Also they provide them high quality grass only. All of their products are made from naturally-shed hair without harming the animals. They also support their local producers to be financially independent. Their cashmere yarn and fabric are certified by global organic fabric standard organizations and the garments are produced by zero-waste technology. The packaging is also made with disposed magazines and they plant 1 tree when you buy 1 product. One of the biggest problems of fast fashion is that you can’t wear them very long and the clothes are thrown away soon after and go to landfill. To change the habits of modern clothing life, each pieces of their products have QR code that you can download their application and scan the codes. The application shows how much of CO2 emission you have not produced by using their products multiple times and they provide some eco-friendly gift when you reach certain times of wearing one product. This idea blew me away as a supporter of sustainable fashion. So I was tempted to buy a cashmere jumper from them but I didn’t. Not only because they are quite pricey but also because I don’t need it now. I think many people these days probably have enough clothes for their whole life. There is a saying that the most sustainable clothes are the ones already in your wardrobe. Although I am not sure when I get to need a new jumper, I fully support small businesses like Lé Cashmere and am willing to pay the high price as I understand that sincere sustainable fashion cost quite a lot to run the business. 

I see a lot of big retailers like H&M, Zara, etc try to make some of their products in sustainable way. It could be a good sign and a start but I sometimes feel that many of them use “sustainability” as their marketing strategies. As sustainability has been like a big trend recently, it gets more difficult for consumers to judge whether it is really sustainable or not. I hope the fashion industry don’t just seek their profit and provide clearer tracing information of their production to the customers.