{"id":55205,"date":"2020-05-01T23:37:01","date_gmt":"2020-05-01T21:37:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.csregypt.com\/?p=55205"},"modified":"2020-05-01T23:37:01","modified_gmt":"2020-05-01T21:37:01","slug":"green-brands-have-a-head-start-on-fashions-post-virus-recovery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/csregypt.com\/en\/green-brands-have-a-head-start-on-fashions-post-virus-recovery\/","title":{"rendered":"Green Brands Have a Head Start on Fashion\u2019s Post-Virus Recovery"},"content":{"rendered":"

Coronavirus lockdowns have forced giants such as Primark, H&M, and Zara-owner Inditex to shut down thousands of shops and cancel orders worth millions of dollars. In the coming months, the fashion industry will face a \u201cDarwinian shakeout\u201d that will put 80% of companies in Europe and the U.S. in financial distress, according to a Mckinsey\u00a0report<\/a>\u00a0from April. Yet one corner of the market is thriving.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are doing better this month than we did during Christmas,\u201d says Cora Hilts, founder and chief executive officer at Reve en Vert, a platform selling luxury fashion focused on sustainability. \u201cPeople are shopping more online and have\u00a0more time to make conscious decisions. Our designers have greater control over the supply chain because it\u2019s\u00a0very difficult to produce abroad and be sustainable.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Higher prices and smaller scale have traditionally kept sustainable fashion brands outside the mainstream. Now these same attributes might save them from the wave of consolidation and insolvencies that\u2019s coming for fast fashion behemoths and luxury household brands.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Large retailers source textiles to third parties in developing nations such as China, Vietnam or Bangladesh, says Kirsi\u00a0Niinimaki, a design professor at Aalto University in Finland. These elements are often made by under-paid workers operating old, energy-intensive machinery, treated with polluting chemicals banned in developed countries.<\/p>\n

\u201cShorter supply chains allow for more transparency,\u201d Niinimaki says. \u201cFor most brands we still don\u2019t know where things are produced, using which chemicals and what waste comes out. That\u2019s quite problematic.\u201d<\/p>\n

Niinimaki co-authored a scientific review published in Nature earlier this year showing that the sector produces around 20% of the world\u2019s wastewater\u2014mainly through treating or dyeing fabric\u2014and the plastic microfibers used in many garments release the equivalent of 50 billion plastic bottles into the oceans each year. The rise of fast fashion, which depends on shoppers buying cheap items frequently, only makes things worse. At a time when even oil majors are trying to cut greenhouse gas emissions, those from the fashion industry are expected to surge by more than 50% by 2030. The solution is to transition to a \u201cslow fashion\u201d model, the review concluded.<\/p>\n

The European Union is still drafting its economic recovery plan, but policymakers in several nations are already calling for measures that push for shorter supply chains to ensure manufacturing of critical components in the region. Stimulus packages targeting local small and medium companies could disproportionately affect green fashion businesses, Niinimaki says, giving them a further leg up in the future economic recovery.<\/p>\n

\u201cStimulus packages should be going to small companies who are operating\u00a0in an ethical way,\u201d\u00a0Hilts says. \u201cIt would be good to assign funds to companies who are producing sustainably, employing teams of conscious and skilled workers, and are operating\u00a0locally.\u201d<\/p>\n