If you like fashion, you must have followed the “wow” that makeup porcelain doll by Pat McGrath caused on the networks. For those who follow fashion week – or rather, weeks – it is the announcement of the start of trends for the coming seasons. New York, London, Milan, Paris: the main hub cities each have different characteristics. But, among them, there is something that not even the consumerist world of fashion escapes: sustainability. Or, her attempt. Such events seek ways to continue existing, however, stuck in the mold of the last century, they find limits to the necessary changes.
The first fashion week took place in the first half of the 20th century, in 1943, in New York during times of war. Eleanor Lambert, the creator, unable to go to Paris, wanted to see collections from different brands and honor local talent. Since then, a lot has changed, but the molds, in a way, remain the same: designers use the catwalks as a showcase, presenting trends in colors, shapes, textures, which will be followed by companies in the industry for the next six months, until repetition of events.
There are those who say that the digital world cannot put an end to in-person fashion shows, as fashion is not just visual, it is experimental. Proof of this are the London week’s sales: corsets, knitted sweaters, bows and transparency were highlighted. Brazil’s fashion week also attracts a lot of attention. Created in the 1990s, it is considered the largest in Latin America and ranks fifth in importance in the world.
To São Paulo Fashion Week tries to break down the predominance of trends in the Global North weeks and highlight national trends. It is a space that speaks more to microentrepreneurs, the vast majority in Brazil. According to data from the Sebrae87% of the 2.3 million companies active in the fashion segment are formalized as MEI, micro-enterprise or small company.
For Camila Lourenço, stylist and creator of the Camola brand, fashion weeks reflect inspiration and trends. “We need to filter well, understand where they come from and know how to transform this to our regional reality”, he explains. Fashion Week draws her attention to the craftsmanship of haute couture, embroidery details and modeling and reinterpretation of old trends, but Camila confesses to being bothered by the lack of body diversity and more sustainable choices at these events.
She gives as an example the option of less polluting fabrics and materials. “There are numerous techniques for creating materials such as fungus leather, for example, which can be used instead of materials that take time to decompose”, he reports, “bringing these materials to the fashion shows would help to popularize these techniques that could improve the impact environmental fashion”. Within the framework of these major events, is it possible to make them sustainable?
The limits of sustainable
At New York Fashion Week, Stuart Vevers, creative director at Coach, said in an interview with The Guardian that parades have to be about sustainability. “I don’t think it’s right for me, as a designer, to leave sustainability as something that factories and suppliers worry about anymore. Fashion starts with design, so change has to come from designers”, he pointed out.
Vevers’ speech bears the weight of the pollution caused by the fashion industry. Second report from The Quantis International 2018, the top three drivers of global industry pollution impacts are dyeing and finishing (36%), yarn preparation (28%), and fiber production (15%). The technique of Zero Waste (“zero waste”) is essential to contain this pollution.
It is worth remembering that fashion weeks are in the eyes of a more environmentally conscious and critical society. In 2023, the activist group Extinction Rebellion interrupted an event at London Fashion Week to demand the end of sponsorship of cultural events with the largest producer – and polluter – of plastic on the planet, the Coca Cola brand.
It is not right to ignore attempts at less polluting approaches, such as what happened in Copenhagen Fashion Weekin 2023, in which participating designers had to meet 18 specific sustainability requirements to be able to participate. Among them: half of the clothes shown should be made with more sustainable materials and brands should use their platforms to educate and inform customers about their sustainability practices.
However, there are limits to these changes and here are some of the reasons why: one of the reasons is emissions. “Hundreds of shoppers, celebrities and influencers have boarded gas-guzzling flights to catch a fleeting glimpse of new collections, carefully crafted for obsolescence that means everyone will be willing to get back on a plane and do it all over again within six months.” , declares article of Business of Fashion. The private jets of the ultra-rich are in the spotlight due to their high emissions – they pollute 14 times more than commercial flights.
Another is the encouragement of hyperconsumption. “There is no consumer education practice for these big brands. They don’t even want to talk about it, as it will directly impact their sales”, says Mirella Rodrigues, stylist and entrepreneur, “every fashion week, consumers go in search of very expensive trendy pieces, and when it’s over, people don’t want them. wear these clothes.”
One report 2023 from the NGO Wrap points out that, despite the efforts of fashion companies in the United Kingdom to adopt more sustainable practices, they end up being nullified by exacerbated production and consumption. The document points out that 130 participating brands and retailers reduced, between 2019 and 2022, their carbon footprint by 12% and water use by 4%. However, in the same period, there was a 13% increase in the manufacturing and sale of parts, which increased water use by 8% and reduced the carbon footprint by just 2%.
After working solely with her clothing brand, Think Blue, Mirella opened a thrift store and began teaching about the circular economy and, today, declares that her relationship with fashion is different. “Brechó has this environmental responsibility, putting clothes that were discarded in perfect condition back into the cycle”, he explains, “and we provide people with what I call the ‘Dignity of Dressing’, which is people with little purchasing power being able to have cool clothes, with incredible fabric, like linen, with a pattern.”
A practice that does not involve hyperproduction and hyperconsumption also has a social bias. Mirella highlights how the production of fast fashion impacts the lives of seamstresses: “there is a huge demand to produce everything very quickly and this is said very little about those who are actually making our clothes”.
Seamstresses, commonly left out in fashion week shows, are also remembered by Camila: “I don’t know if it’s possible to bring visibility to them at these events, but they should. Visibility for pattern makers and seamstresses, not just for designers and ‘their’ creations.”
The fashion industry still has a lot to change to become more fair to bodies, people and the environment and this discussion invariably involves the parades of the much accepted, and outdated, fashion weeks.
