Why We Need To Talk About Transparency In Fashion

“It’s all your fault,” Simon Collins, founder of Fashion Culture Design and self-proclaimed provocateur, told the Copenhagen Fashion Summit of the damage the industry, which is the second most polluting industry after the oil industry, has done to our planet. “Accept that and do something. Don’t have a meeting, don’t have an idea… You don’t win if you feel righteous”. Margrethe Vestager, European commissioner for competition, seconded his call to action, referring to the world’s leading business event on sustainable fashion as a “summit for change, a summit for solutions”. She reminded the industry of its collective responsibility to think about the effects of its choices, because fashion will never be separate to society. One single garment, for example, doesn’t just affect the person who wears it, the choice to purchase that garment affects the workers who earn the right to a fair wage, the workers who don’t want to fear for their lives in factories, the workers who need clean air and water, and everyone around the world whose future depends on cutting carbon dioxide emissions. “Sustainability has to be built in every part of change,” Vestager told the summit. “It has to be fundamental. It’s not for the fainthearted, but I don’t think anyone would accuse fashion of being fainthearted.” Read more at Vogue.