The Real Footprint of Fashion Week

The human race is currently facing the biggest threat to our existence. Global climate change is affecting every aspect of our world, from rising temperatures to rises in prices for gasoline. The villains in this scenario are usually big oil corporations, but the fashion industry’s contributions are largely overlooked. The fashion industry is second only to the oil industry in terms of biggest polluters. Consider that the industry contributes 1.2 billion tonnes of carbon emissions to the environment, and that utilization of clothes has dropped leading to a 36% decrease in utilization  of  garments. In the UK alone 1 million tonnes of clothes are discarded a year.  It is evident that the fashion industry is producing clothes at a faster rate, while society as a whole is discarding it.

Although the emissions of the fashion industry are so vast that it is incredibly difficult to be able to pinpoint them as one would have to consider every single aspect of the manufacturing process for each garment, it can be argued that the fashion industry’s culture helps perpetuate this lack of care for sustainability. During the fashion week season fashion houses host runway shows in four major cities: New York, London, Milan, and Paris. Each show is extravagant and can cost hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars.

These costs and components of a show further increase the carbon emissions of the industry during this time and can lead to some debacles in terms of environmental justice. Chanel has been criticized twice for its runway shows. In one case cutting down 30 century old trees to bring to its runway set, and trucking in 18 truckloads of glacial ice from Sweden. Not only would these actions have greatly harmed the ecosystems from which they came but they paint sustainability as a trend and fail to hit the mark in championing the protection of nature. 

Furthermore, the industry is shifting to a see now, buy now concept that further increases the cycle of supply and demand, thus allowing for increased manufacturing speeds which increase carbon emissions. 

However, many entities are taking a stand to these events. Mercedes Benz fashion week has become carbon neutral. Thus making their net carbon emissions zero. They estimate that 1000 tons of carbon emissions were offset, one can only imagine how much bigger the number of carbon emissions is with the larger fashion capitals. Similarly Stockholm fashion week has canceled itself in the name of sustainability. They have decided that the idea of fashion weeks has become outdated and something new must be put in place in order to move towards sustainability.

“We need to put the past to rest and stimulate the development of a platform that is relevant for today’s fashion industry (and) focus on creating tools and platforms in order to support and prepare the industry for the future.”

- Jenni Rosen, CEO of Swedish Fashion Council

They are not alone in this sentiment, Vetements under the direction of Denma Gvasalia did the same thing, and Fenty by Rhianna has also opted out of fashion shows in being aware of their footprint and wanting to move away from traditional fashion standards.

It is not just individual fashion houses campaigning for higher sustainability standards, both Paris and Milan fashion week have created campaigns to promote sustainability. Paris aims to become the first sustainable fashion capital.  They have laid out a roadmap in order to accomplish this goal by 2024. Both LVMH and The Federation de la Haute Couture et de la Mode are on board and support the initiative. Likewise, Milan’s fashion week is pushing designers to be more sustainable by having an awards ceremony to recognize those designers that are going eco-friendly. 

The fashion industry is a guilty culprit in the degradation of the ecosystem, and its culture does nothing to alleviate this. However it is time to take a stand and take initiative in the battle against climate change. With smaller organizations and some of the biggest already taking a step forward, excuses are next to none.