Fashion has a reputation of greenwashing itself into our wardrobes. As the climate crisis rises, now more than ever, it’s important we shift our focus towards the brands driving the system towards a conscious future.
In March 2024, Remake – the organisation addressing the impacts of fashion and the climate and social justice issues that surround it – launched their Fashion Accountability Report of the year. They analyzed 52 global fashion businesses with revenues of over $100 million dollars and scored each brand based on 88 individual metrics measuring traceability of supply chains, wages and wellbeing of workers, commercial practices and raw materials to list a few. The average score was 14 out of 150 points.
Remake reported, “it’s more profitable in the current fashion system to overproduce and trash than to reduce production.” Out of the 52 companies they assessed, none had “committed to reduce or even stabilize the number of garments they produced this year.” As fashion continues to overproduce, Mission speaks to the brands that are slowing down and driving their system towards circularity, mending, renewing and focussing on valued materials.
U.S.based brand, Eileen Fisher started with four pieces in 1984, “simple shapes designed to work together as part of a larger system on dressing” Lilah Horwitz, Director of Eileen Fisher Renew Content and Marketing says. The brand strives to make clothes responsibly, enabled by the mindset that “timeless design means fewer pieces, more wears, less stuff,” Horwitz says. Eileen Fisher connects with the consumer as they change our relationship with what we buy, using high-quality materials and fibers that, with care, extend the clothing’s life.
Lilah Horwitz, Director of Eileen Fisher Renew Content and Marketing“The apparel industry is one of the most taxing on the environment. Many companies grow by producing more items.”
Eileen Fisher Renew was introduced in 2009 to extend the life cycle of the clothes by simply purchasing quality pieces, wearing them for as long as possible and then passing them onto someone else. Horwitz remarks, “the apparel industry is one of the most taxing on the environment. Many companies grow by producing more items, faster, and for less to meet the demand of people buying more and keeping things for less time, which has led to unprecedented levels of extraction and environmental harm.” Their Renew system works with customers bringing back their worn Eileen Fisher garments which the team then sort through, either to resell, mend or transform into something completely new. Breathing a second life into their garments is, “the best way to reduce the environmental and carbon footprint of clothes,” Horwitz suggests.
Image courtesy of Doodlage
In India, fashion brand Doodlage upcycles factory waste into short limited collections, recycles post-consumer waste and post cutting scraps into new fabrics to create season-less garments made for longevity and anything left is converted into accessories, soft furnishings and packaging. Their commitment to conscious practice extends to partnering with small organizations that pay their artisans at least the minimum wage and employing them where they can support their families’ education and upskilling initiatives. “Collaborating with such culturally rich organizations is a cornerstone of Doodlage’s brand ethos,” Kriti Tula, Doodlage’s Co-Founder tells me.
“Collaborating with such culturally rich organizations is a cornerstone of Doodlage’s brand ethos”
Kriti Tula, Co-Founder of Doodlage
For Tula, her upbringing and surrounding environment in India has influenced the brand’s practices. “In my family and many others, we made our own clothes, cherished them for years, and passed them down. My mother’s upbringing in the hills of Uttarakhand, where self-sustainability was paramount, shaped my values.” In India, sustainable fashion values and skills have deep roots but have “waned in importance so there’s a crucial need for revival,” Tula reveals, explaining that effective solutions must be globally accessible and affordable to make a real impact, “the complexity of the fashion industry’s challenges transcends borders and cultures.”
“There is an abundance of existing material waiting to be repurposed for a greater cause.”
Tula, Co-Founder of Doodlage
Doodlage started in 2012 with the same goal they uphold today: upcycling and recycling waste material. In the fashion industry, countless amounts of fabric is discarded, yet the resources invested in creating it cannot be overlooked, “environmental preservation takes precedence over fashion,” Tula states. Collaborating with artisans, Doodlage salvages this waste, adorning it with prints, panels, or embroidery. According to Tula, a factory with a capacity to produce 150,000 pieces a day, also discards approximately 1,500-3,000 garments or fabric, equating to nearly 40,000 meters of daily waste, “there is an abundance of existing material waiting to be repurposed for a greater cause,” she adds.
Eileen Fisher and Doodlage are just two examples of brands determined to bring climate and social justice to the forefront of the fashion industry. Their mission is to ensure that the industry addresses this global discussion and tackles overconsumption as they have. Lilah Horwitz encourages other brands to join their movement by “possessing a deep knowledge of your business and its supply chain, treat your workers, customers, and communities with respect.”
Homepage image and inside top image courtesy of Eileen Fisher, photo by Ben Lindbloom.
