Let's be honest, climate change is real to a point where we have already started seeing changes in our local climate. Summers are hotter, winters are colder, the sea level is rising and so is the frequency of fashion brands using the term 'sustainable'. So is sustainability just a trend now or is the industry actually being conscious?
The fashion industry is one of the most polluting industries. After the industrial age came the dawn of fast fashion. Some brands saw a golden opportunity in sourcing apparels from overseas at cheaper prices and hence making fatter profits. Just what our class 6 economics taught us, with the fall in prices, the demand shot up.
Meeting the demand at the contrain of the prices were impossible for the industries. But the lack of local environmental laws worked in their favor and there was no stopping it.
Fast forward to 2021: The local environmental laws in the manufacturing countries are almost the same but the brands have started to realise that their cleaner sourcing would not just be good for the environment but is also a welcoming aspect by the consumers.
We have seen brands genuinely trying to map the supply chain and eliminate materials and vendors that don't comply to newer cleaner policies. In the leather industry, we have seen a rise in demand for Chrome-Free leather. Brands are looking for suppliers that use leather from LGW certified tanneries. Brands are also looking for suppliers that are making their overall production and operations greener. Here is how Popular Styles, a leading leather accessories manufacturer from India doing this.
Conclusion
The answer is YES! a change is surely coming and we are welcoming it. But this does not mean that there aren't brands that are pretending to be sustainable to leverage this. But hey, we'll always have pretenders in the industry and it's on the consumer part to verify their claims. Most pretending brands are extremely shallow with their claims and as the Russian proverb goes- "trust but verify".