Reading Between the Threads: The Illusion of Sustainable and Ethical Fashion
A concept of a second-hand shirt collection that explores the misconception of sustainable fashion and applies design methods that help to reveal the fashion industry brands undermining consumers’ trust and disguising the actual environmental consequences through green-washing and misleading sustainability claims. The project aims to suggest an alternative way of learning and thinking about fashion consumption, as well as encouraging critical awareness and internal reflection by placing the young fashion consumers in a position, where they begin to critically evaluate and question the system and visual narratives they are being constantly exposed to. In response to this matter, the project transforms second-hand clothing into a surface for reading, using typography and text to reveal the hidden environmental cost and the reality that lies beneath the surface of the fashion industry.
How can specific graphic design methods encourage young fashion consumers to critically evaluate and question misleading sustainability claims?
For many years, the concept of sustainable fashion has been a widely discussed term in the fashion industry, advocating for a better future and a more eco-friendly approach. According to the Cambridge Dictionary, fashion is defined as a style that is popular at a particular time, meaning it is admired, trendy, and ever-changing. Precisely, this definition proves as to why even sustainable fashion remains a major cause of environmental impact, since such a contemporary, eternal, and consumerism-promoting thing can never be sustainable, regardless of whether it was organically and ethically made.
However, the green-washing practice has gained attention and popularity among the fashion industry, as companies increasingly recognized their obligation of being socially responsible. The majority of fast-fashion companies are trying to gain a competitive advantage, communicating positive information about their environmental performance, meanwhile, the reality is far from the truth (Lyon and Maxwell, 2011). Many fashion brands engage in advertising of eco-friendly materials and presentation of an overly positive, corporate image, as a tactic for recognition and approval from the society, meaning that the term of sustainable fashion is often being used more as a marketing and promotion tool, rather than an authentic commitment towards a significant change within the fashion industry system.
More importantly, green-washing practice becomes problematic, because it undermines credible efforts to reduce emissions and address the climate crisis. Through deceptive marketing and false claims of sustainability, this practice diminishes the consumers’ ability to trust the communication of companies presenting green claims, and hampering the ambitions and actions that need to be brought up about global change in order to secure a sustainable planet (United Nations, 2022).
I believe that addressing this issue through a creative and research-based medium can contribute to a broader discussion and concern, suggesting an alternative way of learning about fashion consumption. Therefore, as an agent for this change I used graphic design methods and material experimentation to translate the complex sustainability issues into an accessible and readable format for consumers by transforming a second-hand shirt function from a commodity to a communicative surface that works as an informative tool and leads to internal reflection.
References
Lyon, T. & Maxwell, J., 2011. Greenwash: Corporate Environmental Disclosure Under Threat of Audit.
United Nations, 2022. Greenwashing – the Deceptive Tactics Behind Environmental Claims.
https://www.un.org/en/climatechange/science/climate-issues/greenwashing
