4 Sustainable and Ethical Clothing Manufacturing Myths
Are sustainable clothes really sustainable?
When it comes to Sustainable and Ethical Fashion, it´s natural to feel overwhelmed and confused. Here are some common myths debunked.
Are you a conscious consumer who tries to do your best to make ethical and more sustainable choices every day, but struggles listening to or reading about arguments for and against ethical and sustainable fashion?
There is a lot of confusion about these matters, some of that confusion is purposefully generated by some brands who stretch the limits of “clever marketing”.
4 Sustainable and Ethical Clothing Manufacturing Myths
1 – It’s Expensive. It’s Too Expensive
That depends on the perspective.
The most expensive piece of cloth you can buy is that $5 T-Shirt.
If only you knew the harm done to the environment when manufacturing that 5-dollar t-shirt. If you were informed that it was probably made using child labor, would you still buy it? Will you buy a 5-dollar t-shirt in the future? Then remember what you are buying, pollution and most likely underpaid workers or child labor.
There are no miracles in fashion manufacturing.
If you’re paying for a sweater made in an environmentally responsible way, with ethically sourced fabrics, fairly paid workers and quality design, then yes, stands to reason that you will pay more for that piece of clothing, than the sweater for 5 euros from a fast fashion company.
However, …
The final price tag of a piece of clothing comprises far more that its manufacturing.
Some ethical and sustainable clothes can often be found in a similar price range as their unethical and harmful alternatives.
Fast fashion companies need a lot of money for marketing and advertising.
The bottom line
Buy more quality, less quantity.
4 Sustainable and Ethical Clothing Manufacturing Myths
2 – Finding Partners is difficult
Nope. Finding The Right Partners is.
You can pretty much close your eyes and point to a place on a world map and chances are you will find fashion manufacturers in that place.
There is no shortage of suppliers, for every stage of clothing manufacturing.
What is harder to find is the right partners.
Create Fashion Brand was created having as core values Ethical and Sustainable Manufacturing.
Despite having in our ranks people with extensive experience in different grounds of textile manufacturing, it was not an easy process and took us some time to settle on a pool of suppliers/partners.
Remember, besides manufacturing in an environmental and ethical way, we still must meet the highest quality standards and comply with our customers deadlines.
Finding the right partners was neither easy nor quick. And maybe that is part of the reason of why we treat them so well (PS: they treat us very well to).
4 Sustainable and Ethical Clothing Manufacturing Myths
3 – Sustainable Clothes Are Uncomfortable or Ugly
This is an easy myth to debunk.
This might have been true 20 or 30 years ago when there was little or no awareness for these matters and only a few brands ventured into sustainable and ethical fashion.
Nowadays there is a growing demand from a more educated and conscious consumer for eco-friendly and ethical fashion.
Fashion Brands know this is the present and the future and they are adapting.
There is no shortage of designer brands clothing done in an ethical and sustainable manner.
Sustainable Fabrics do not limit the creativity of the fashion designer.
As to the myth that sustainable clothes are uncomfortable, this is easily dismissed as well. Silk is a sustainable fabric and arguably of the most luxurious fabrics in the world. Some of the modal fabric qualities1 we at CFB supply to our customers are of so high quality that they can´t tell them apart from silk. And these are industry professionals.
4 – Fair Trade is Low Quality
What is ethical sustainable clothing?
This is a fairly common misconception. For some baffling reason many people believe that fair trade clothing is not of high quality.
All fair trade means is that a brand has been certified and labelled by an independent organization because it meets certain standards.
The main goals of these standards are to support producers from underdeveloped countries through trading, protection of workers’ rights, preservation of the environment, and the promotion of sustainability.
Basically it means deals that do not exploit the producers and that workers were paid fair wages.
It has nothing to do with the quality of a piece of clothing. If anything you should feel good and smile when wearing a fair trade fashion product.
4 Sustainable and Ethical Clothing Manufacturing Myths
How do you know if a sustainable clothing manufacturer is right for you?
What is the difference between ethical and sustainable fashion?
The best way is to go and visit and try to visit regularly once you start working together.
But we know that many emerging fashion brands don´t have the time or the means to travel to supply chain partners.
If this is your case than search and research as much as possible and read what others are saying about the clothing manufacturer you are considering.
Ask them tuff questions and expect transparency from them. If they have nothing to hide, they will be clear and transparent with you.
Also look for standards and certifications.
If you choose CFB – Create Fashion Brand as your clothing manufacturer, rest assured we will answer all your questions and clear any doubts or insecurities you might have.
We already try to do so on our website, blog and social media channels, but if you still have doubts or questions, we are here to answer them and give you full piece of mind.
4 Sustainable and Ethical Clothing Manufacturing Myths
4 Sustainable and Ethical Clothing Manufacturing Myths
There are many other myths regarding Eco-Friendly, Sustainable, Ethical Fashion and other matters. We will visit them in future articles.
Regards,
Vicente Goes
Head of Production at CFB
Click here to read other articles ou our Blog on the subject of Sustainable Fashion.
You can also read the interview about these matters of Margarida Goes, the CEO of CFB, at Influencive.com
4 Sustainable and Ethical Clothing Manufacturing Myths
