Sustainable Fashion Perspectives

This week, Sustainable Campus and Thrift Club of FSU partnered up to celebrate fashion week with a sustainable twist. To wrap up this week, some members of Sustainable Campus staff, as well as some of our friends in Thrift Club, sat down with sustainability leaders on campus to chat about sustainable fashion.

Professor Luke Hopkins from the fsu Marketing Department

Q: How has the presentation of Sustainable Fashion in social media differentiated from other movements in the apparel industry for marketing? 

A: I believe the concept of sustainable fashion has always been in the conversation within the apparel industry. The most significant difference between the conversation now and, say, 20 years ago, is that today’s consumers expect brands to do more than talk about sustainability.   

Q: Is there a difference at all? 

A: A recent CNN article stated that the fashion search engine Lyst reported a 75% increase in sustainable-related search terms. I believe this is significant as it shows consumers are now behaving in a manner that supports sustainable fashion, as opposed to previous studies that have relied on self-reported survey data. In other words, merely saying you’d support a brand based on their sustainability efforts is one thing, but showing that you’ll help a sustainable brand by making a purchase is much more convincing. Talk is cheap.

Q: How might the relationship between sustainable brands and local second hand stores, and the consumer differ from traditional apparel companies and their customer relationships?

A: This is a complicated question because we can’t assume these two customers are mutually exclusive. If we had complete information on how people spend their money (i.e., credit card bills, bank account transactions, cash transactions), I’m confident we’d see that the vast majority of customers who buy apparel from sustainable brands and secondhand stores, also purchase from traditional apparel companies. This is important to note because it prevents us from thinking about managing these customer relationships in absolute terms.

 In my opinion, sustainable brands and secondhand stores must identify the value they offer to potential customers. I’m not talking about value as only low price, but what other benefits can be provided that would be considered greater than the cost. This is not only the $1,000,000 question for the sustainability sector of apparel but also probably the biggest hurdle thus far. Once this segment of the apparel market understands what their customer is truly buying (vintage clothing, a unique shirt, the feeling that they are saving the planet, something to repurpose) the sustainability-focused brands can begin to refine their approach to customer relationship management.

Dr. Jeff Chanton, Professor in the Department of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences. 

Q: The degradation of forests for the manufacturing of fabrics like rayon and other pulp derived textiles , in conjunction with cotton farming has amounted to a great loss in longstanding natural environments. This is especially true for Sumatra's rainforests in Indonesia, where there is nearly 50% national deforestation. What about this is concerning for progress in alleviating the stresses of climate change?

A: Tropical forests are being lost at alarming rates as they are harvested both for pulp and textile production but particularly to make way for palm oil plantations.  In the latter case, the trees and peat soils are burned causing a tremendous transfer of carbon from the organic soil and biomass pool to the atmosphere as carbon dioxide.  The landscape is then drained, which causes further peat soil loss to from additional carbon dioxide.  Palm oil is then produced at these former peatlands.  These carbon transfers to the atmosphere contribute to a warming-changing world which results in hotter conditions, more extreme weather, higher seas and shifting/loss of biological habitat.  All of these results will make the earth a less hospitable planet and worsen the conditions for human beings and wildlife.

Madeline Dorothy Brik, Stitch Club, FSU Student

Q: Have you noticed an emphasis or movement towards Sustainable Fashion in terms of classroom content or your RSO's interests? If so, what does this look like?

A: Yes! Especially because alongside the stitch club there is also thrift club, and many other organizations on Campus. As someone who does pay attention, going through twitter and headlines I’ve noticed a huge trend in sustainability, thrifting, or upcycled fashion  where little boutiques will sell upcycled fashion. At Stitch club we’re all about saving scraps, collecting clothing from different people and using that clothing to work with at the sewing workshops. So many stores are moving towards sustainability because it’s become such a big problem [Fast fashion] that you can’t ignore it anymore. The fashion industry loves to address it. It’s great to see this trickle down to a local level on campus. 

Stitch club is about making the actual pieces by reusing fabric. A big trend I’m seeing right now is patch work, with different pieces of fabric being put together to make something. We don’t go out and buy huge pieces of fabric, we have a collection. We run a depop which follows sustainability where I consider it an online thrift store.  I’m going more into the editorial direction of fashion, and am looking into pursuing fashion as a masters degree. I saw a lot of graduate programs around the world specifically talking about sustainability and upcycling. I think the fashion industry and the education is changing a lot.

Sustainable Campus & Thrift Club would like to thank our colleagues and friends for having the conversations about sustainable fashion this week!