Ethical Fashion Is Beyond Production
Sustainable fashion is a continuous growing movement and process of fostering change to fashion products and the fashion system towards greater ecological integrity and social justice. Most designers are unaware of the immediate negative effect of fast fashion. At most we consider on the pollution and child labor but ignore it due to its farfetched distance and effect on our day to day lives. However, there is more to ethical fashion than this.
Sustainable fashion concerns more than just addressing fashion textiles or products. It comprises addressing the whole system of fashion. This means dealing with interdependent social, cultural, ecological, and financial systems. Some of these areas are long term and some are immediate.
Sustainable fashion also deals with considering fashion from the perspective of many stakeholders - users and producers, all living species, contemporary and future dwellers on earth. Sustainable fashion, therefore, is the responsibility of citizens, the public sector, and the private sector.
A key example of the need for systems thinking in fashion is the benefits of product-level initiatives, such as replacing one fiber type for a less environmentally harmful option. An adjacent term to sustainable fashion is eco-fashion.
Ethical Fashion works as a great tool for African employment
But a very immediate scope to consider is that of employment. Despite the cheap labor executed in fast fashion, the initiative to execute local production, especially in impoverished communities is a great service to the continent. It also lurks the patronage of a growth community of fashion-conscious clients who seek to purchase ethical goods.
Where Africa has a strong stand point in ethical fashion is the low cost of living allowing local production to be that of similar to fast fashion producers. From batik to boutique ethical fashion has made a very strong statement in preserving African culture. Local production in Africa allows creative to pursue their personal foot print in creation of which in result symbolizes the styles, trends and culture of the nation.
Africa can easily open its doors to great revenue in Africa, and even more so lead the world with sustainable ethical fashion, all whilst enriching the impoverished neighborhoods and becoming and strong competitor in the said field of fashion.
