Eco-fashion
Europe in the UK
As the Craft Council's exhibition 'Well Fashioned: Eco Style in the UK' begins its nationwide tour, Lucy Lethbridge tells us more about 'green' couture in Europe.
The very idea of environmentally-friendly fashion may seem a contradiction in terms. Clothes that are fairly traded, vegetable-dyed, animal-loving, free of pesticides, harmful chemicals and toxic bleach and made entirely by adults paid a living wage? You must be talking hemp jerkins or homespun cardigans dyed with woad - it's surely not haute couture, or even faintly trendy.
But think again. Fashion designers, boutiques and clothing companies all over Europe are the latest to ride the wave of ethical, environmental, sustainable, ecologically-aware products that currently account for a massive £24 billion of the UK market alone.
The success of eco-friendly designers like the Dutch firm Kuyichi demonstrates that there is increasing interest in where your clothing comes from as well as what it looks like. This business is about more than just shopping and fashion: Kuyichi advertises itself first and foremost by its ethical credentials: the company has been responsible for "5,000,000 metres of organic yarn"; 450 farmers growing our organic cotton in India; 15 per cent of our profits go to the people who help make Kuyichi".
Who wouldn't want to be part of such a beneficent world force - even if it meant paying a lot more for a t-shirt than in Primark or Matalan? The fact is that once you know that cotton growing is so heavy on the use of chemicals that 25 per cent of the world's pesticides are used on cotton alone - well, it rather puts you off that cheap T-shirt in bright, bright white. (Take a look at the Clean Clothes Campaign - ww.cleanclothes.org - supported by Oxfam and other European NGOs for some firsthand information on the truth behind the T-shirt - and don't think that if it was made in an eastern Europe sweatshop it makes it more ethical than one made in an Asian sweatshop.)Environmen
tal NGO Greenpeace are active campaigners in support of textiles that demonstrate an environmentally and socially responsible source. They have compiled a detailed directory, Natural Matters, (http://www.naturalmatters.net/) of organic cotton manufacturers and sustainable clothing producers. As one designer said to me, "You need to be on one of these green directories - it gives credibility".There are jeans made with organic denim; recycled jumpers, saris and evening dresses; clothes and jewellery made in co-operatives that pay fair wages to women in developing countries; a booming industry in pesticide-free baby clothes; shoes made with vegetable-dyed leather from happy cows. What is more, they all look pretty good: sharp, cosmopolitan, fashionable - and not remotely like the smelly, saggy sackcloth of the hippyish past.
Eco-fashion is now attracting the interest of top designers as well as fashion graduates who are setting up businesses allied with organisations, banks and NGOs such as Solidaridad, the Dutch campaigners for organic and fairly-traded cotton, the Soil Association, the British campaign group for organic agriculture, and Triodos (http://www.triodos.com/), the Europe-wide bank, founded in the Netherlands, which lends only to enterprises concerned sustainable and ethical businesses, that makes "positive contributions to the environment and to social projects". James Niven of Triodos in Bristol says that the interest is growing: "Ethical fashion is not just an outside runner but a really good and robust business proposition".
The European Union itself has established an "EU Eco-label" in the shape of a flower logo which is awarded to companies that have been checked by independent experts who will vouch for their eco-credentials. [ http://ec.europa.eu/environment/ecolabel/index_en.htm -
http://www.eco-label.com/default.htm ]
[??? - THESE PEOPLE ARE HARDLY EXPERTS - RATHER THEY ARE SELF-APPOINTED ENVIRO-GURUS WITH DELEGATED GOVERNMENT ENFORCEMENT POWERS THAT IMPOSE THEIR PREFERENCES ON COMPANIES & CONSUMERS!!] who will vouch for their eco-credentials ???].
The Soil Association in Britain has an accredited list of organic textile suppliers including growers of hemp - perhaps the most environmentally friendly and under-used of crops. ["The Soil Association is the UK's leading campaigning and certification organisation for organic food and farming... The Soil Association symbol can be found on over 70% of Britain's organic produce - a guarantee that it has been grown or produced to the highest standards of organic integrity [??]. We also undertake certification of timber and wood products. Soil Association Certification Ltd enforces these standards through certification and regular inspections of producers, processors and suppliers."The imagination and ingenuity of these emerging designers is inspiring. Kate Goldsworthy lectures on sustainable textiles and fashion at Chelsea College of Art in London, one of the only art colleges in Europe to offer a course on sustainability and fashion. She has noticed a "massive" rise in the number of students wanting to apply for the course:
"There is now a much more ingrained ethos about sustainability. People are beginning to react against the speed and profligacy of the fashion cycle". Instead of worrying about quick-change fashion next season, eco-designers are concerned about creating clothing that won't be thrown away, but will be handed down for generations. Take Amy Twigger, of Keep & Share, based in Shropshire, who makes beautiful, hand-made jumpers - only one at a time and to order: Twigger says: "I'm trying to create pieces that people will keep and will rise above trends. They are perennial classics". As fashion historian Jane Mulvagh puts it: "In fact what is happening is that people are beginning to rediscover the make-do and mend ethos of their grandparents - a period when cuffs were turned, stockings were darned and clothes were made to last. If it means paying more, it also means that you take care of these clothes because you respect the craftsmanship that has gone into them".
The ingenuity and imagination of the new generation of designers is dazzling. They have taken recycling out of the thrift shops and converted them into marvels of one-off chic. Edson Raupp, for example, a Brazilian-German designer, based in London, makes bags out of classically tailored English suits that had been consigned to the dustbin or the charity shop. A chalk-striped suit, beautifully tailored of the finest cloth, can make four witty bags. The buttons are then collected, dyed in different colours and sewn onto evening bags in long trailing strands held together by plastic label tags. Finally the suits' labels are cut out and sewn onto other bags in collages. Raupp buys secondhand suits in bulk. He started by purchasing them in charity shops but now finds he needs to go to the organisations that supply the shops to have them delivered in the quantity he now needs.
The Indian Sari is another garment that has undergone a remarkable transformation. Sittal Hari of Sari Couture buys up unwanted or second-hand saris in enormous quantities and has them made into beautiful jackets, skirts and coats. British-born Hari was inspired to start her business when she visited relatives in India bringing with her old saris as presents from her family. She found her relatives didn't want them, and wondering what she could do with these beautiful lengths of fabric she came up with the idea of Sari Couture. All the garments (which start at £200) are made in a factory in London as Hari wants to keep the production local. "We are totally dedicated to recycling" she says, "and we see it as part of our company ethos to go out and talk to schools and give workshops on how to reuse and re-make beautiful things". Hittal set up Sari Couture with a grant of £5000 from London Re-made, an initiative to help recycling projects established by the Mayor of London's office (http://www.londonremade.com/). It has a brief to support what the Office calls "enviro-entrepeneurs", small and medium-sized businesses with a recycling and environmental policy - and it has a fund of £1.8 million from the London Development Agency behind it.
Among the other ethical businesses it has sponsored is Beyond Skin, a vegetarian shoe label.
Lancelot Clark, of the Clark Shoes dynasty, and his son Galahad, have continued the Quaker ideals of their shoemaking forebears with the Worn Again range of their shoe company Terra Plana. Their anti-apathy trainers are made from materials such as old tyres, used coffee-bags, army surplus jackets and scrap car-seat leather. And they look really pretty good. At a different end of the market, in France, Michele and Olivier Chatenet make divine clothing from second-hand haute couture pieces - an Yves St Laurent evening dress remodelled into a two-piece suit perhaps or a silk skirt. In Finland, for the sportier, lumberjacking kind of fashionisti, Globe Hope make heavy-duty utilitarian pieces out of old hospital textiles and army uniforms.
Eco-fashion is not just the concern of a few idealists content to pay over the odds for an unbleached baby-gro. With shoppers more informed now about the real story behind a new T-shirt or a pair of jeans or trainers, it makes good business sense to look for ethical ways to make and market fashion products. Caring, saving, recycling - it's beginning to hit the catwalk. And you don't have to be a vegetarian to get in on the act either. The designers behind Romp, makers of the most luxurious fur, leather and suede coats (all of them the product of happy, free-range, organically-fed animals identified by name and destined for food anyway) puts it like this: "If you don't care at all you are probably quite sad and lonely and I hope that you get some love and learn to smile again soon".
Yes, I know, some of those virtuous "mission statements" can be annoying: but don't let them put you off, this is booming business and makes good sense for everyone from designer to maker to wearer.
The Craft Council's Touring exhibition 'Well Fashioned: Eco Style in the UK' can be seen here:
· The City Gallery, Leicester: 15 July to 26 Aug 2006
· The Design Centre, Barnsley: 7 Sep to 20 Oct 2006
· City Museum & Records Office, Portsmouth: 4 Nov 2006 to 7 Jan 2007
· Bilston Craft Gallery, Wolverhampton: 20 Jan to 3 March 2007
© Lucy Lethbridge. All views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to the European Commission.
The European Commission Representation in the United Kingdom maintains this website to enhance public access to information about its initiatives and European Union policies in general. Our goal is to keep this information timely and accurate. If errors are brought to our attention, we will try to correct them. However the Commission accepts no responsibility or liability whatsoever with regard to the information on this site.
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THE EU ECO-LABEL IS CENTRAL TO EUROPE'S CAMPAIGN TO PROMOTE ENLIGHTENED ENVIRONMENTALISM THROUGHOUT THE WORLD. CONSEQUENTLY, ECO-LABELS ARE A CREATURE OF EU GOVERNMENTAL REGULATION.
The EU Ecolabel (The Flower) is the EU's own high-level award scheme for products which meet very high environmental standards. Businesses which can show that their product meets the demanding criteria set by the scheme can apply to the body running the scheme in their member state (the Competent Body) to use the Ecolabel's Flower logo on the product and in advertising.
The scheme currently covers twenty-four product groups, including tourist accommodation and campsites, and the logo appears on thousands of products across Europe. The Ecolabel was originally established by an EU Regulation in 1992, which was revised in 2000. The Commission, which coordinates the running of the scheme, is currently reviewing and revising it again. The public consultation, which was carried out through an online questionnaire, was the second part of a process which began with an evaluation study in 2005.
The evaluation study concluded that the original ideas behind the voluntary scheme were still valid and desirable from a business perspective: The EU Ecolabel provides EU consumers with an environmental certification they can trust, unlike certain other labels which are 'selfclaims'. Additionally it can give businesses the opportunity to use one label for all their pan- European or global marketing.
In summary the study showed that:
• The Ecolabel has contributed to setting targets for better environmental product
performance;
• It has influenced the demand for suppliers to meet high environmental standards;
• Companies participating in the EU scheme use the Ecolabel in their marketing
campaigns;
• Neither users nor non-users of the Ecolabel want to see the label abolished;
• The concept of the EU Ecolabel is preferred to that of national labels.
However:
• There is still low awareness and uneven geographic take-up of the label;
• There are insufficient product group categories;
• It suffers from cumbersome procedures and organisational structures - i.e. bureaucracy which limit the Scheme's ability to grow and respond to opportunities;
• Fees and cost of getting the label are perceived as barriers;
• There is a lack of perceived public purchasing benefits.
See Report on the Public Consultation Revision of the EU Ecolabel Regulation (EC) No 1980/2000, European Commission (Oct. 2007) at: http://ec.europa.eu/environment/ecolabel/pdf/revision/revision_report2007.pdf .
THE 2007 REPORT FOLLOWED FROM A PRIOR 2005 STUDY PREPARED BY CONSULTANTS ON BEHALF OF THE DIRECTORATE GENERAL ENVIRONMENT, OF THE EU COMMISSION. THE PRIOR STUDY REFLECTS HOW EUROPEAN INDUSTRY LOBBIED FOR EU GOVERNMENTAL INVOLVEMENT TO ENSURE A COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE THROUGH USE OF EU REGIONAL 'ECO-LABEL' & ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
STANDARDS (EMAS). THIS WAS THOUGHT POSSIBLE BY EMBEDDING ECO-LABEL CERTIFICATION, VERIFICATION & PERFORMANCE STANDARDS/REQUIREMENTS WITHIN EU REGULATIONS AND BY INCORPORATING THEM INTO GOVERNMENT PUBLIC PROCUREMENT REQUIREMENTS
B7. Desired incentives and measures for the EU Eco-label revision:
• Information and promotion campaigns and other actions aimed at increasing the knowledge and the demand of the EU Eco-label are perceived as the most effective measures for supporting the scheme and endorsing its success as a marketing opportunity.
• External incentives are also widely requested. Fiscal incentives, such as tax abatement, are thought to be effective, insofar as they enable producers to lower the costs and prices of Eco-labelled products. Another of the ‘most wanted’ incentives is the inclusion of the EU Eco-label as a facilitating condition for public procurement.
• Other desirable measures directly relate to various modifications that can be introduced in the Regulation or in its institutional and applicative framework, such as a higher number of product groups or a further extension of the EU Eco-label to services.
• Outsourcing the EU Eco-label to an entirely private body obtains a low degree of support (but also the idea of making it entirely Commission-managed also raises many objections).
• Lowering the number and/or the stringency of the criteria to make the scheme ‘easier’ is not strongly supported (although on the whole the idea is favoured by the literature).
• Finally, it should be emphasised that the proposal of having a graded label, strongly debated in recent years, has been definitively rejected.
C1. Evidence and desired incentives:
• To some extent, the product dimension is already part of EMAS: the environmental management system influences product performance in other phases of the life-cycle and/or in the supply chain.
• There is a certain awareness of the potential benefits emerging from a stronger link and synergy between EMAS and the EU Eco-label.
• “Synergy” between the two voluntary schemes does not mean merging them, but exploiting all the possible opportunities for mutual reinforcement.
• ISO type III labels can be a synergetic tool for both schemes: many opportunities were identified (both in the desk and in the in-field research) for pursuing integration with ISO type III labels, with reference to operational, marketing and institutional synergies.
• A major issue for the revision of both the schemes is integrating and linking them with existing legislation and environmental policies (to a wider extent).
In particular, a considerable consensus was found during the desk and in-field research on the strong need for integrating and embedding EMAS and the EU Eco-label in other product-related policy and private-certification instruments (other labels and forms of certifications, other IPP tools, etc.).
• A more general request is also being made by stakeholders and organisations taking part in the two schemes for a truly effective and consistent embedding of EMAS and the EU Eco-label in existing and forthcoming legislation, in policy implementation and even in the enforcement of environmental legislation (e.g. regulatory relief and flexibility). Some of the most frequently suggested policy areas for promoting synergy are, for EMAS: the IPPC directive, the Emission trading directive, the Seveso Bis Directive; for the EU Eco-label: EuP, RoHS and, to a minor extent, REACH.
The prior findings was set forth in a 2005 study prepared a group of consultants for the Directorate General Environment, of the EU Commission.
See “EVER: Evaluation of EMAS and Eco-label for their Revision”, Executive Summary (12/26/05) at: http://ec.europa.eu/environment/ecolabel/pdf/revision/executive_summary.pdf .
The full study is available at: http://ec.europa.eu/environment/ecolabel/pdf/revision/final_recommendations.pdfvironment/ecolabel/pdf/revision/final_recommendations.pdf .
See also Using Eco-Labels to Promote Producer & Consumer Behavior Modification May Very Well Give Rise to Disguised Trade Barriers, Admits UN
http://itssdinternationalstandards.blogspot.com/2008/03/using-eco-labels-to-promote-producer.html
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[THE EU HAS ALSO INTERVENED IN THE MARKETPLACE TO ESTABLISH AND MONITOR ECO-FRIENDLY FURNITURE PRODUCTION & PROCESSING, AS REFLECTED WITHIN ENVIRONMENTALLY FRIENDLY FURNITURE ECO-LABELING SCHEMES, AS PART OF THE EUROPEAN UNION'S SUSTAINABLE FOREST MANAGEMENT (SFM) POLICY FRAMEWORK
The EU had shown interest in tying ecolabelling and furniture product branding together with regional sustainable forest management policy as early as 2001.
A 2001 report prepared for the European Commission recommended that SFM certification be included as an indispensable criterion for award of such a label, through official EU involvement, if necessary. ‘[I]f [private] demand does not exist, it can be created through awareness activities or through procurement requirements in the case of public procurements’ (emphasis added).
See Jurgen Barsch, E. Deliege and P.W.J. Luiten, The Feasibility of an EU Eco-Label for Furniture (FRG Umweltbundesamt (Federal Environmental Agency, February 2001), at pp. 31, 35, available at www.ec.europa.eu/environment/ecolabel/pdf/furniture/feas_study.pdf .
See also Discerning the Forest From the Trees: How Governments Use Ostensibly Private and Voluntary Standards to Avoid WTO Culpability
http://itssdinternationalstandards.blogspot.com/2008/01/discerning-forest-from-trees-how.html
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[ONE IMPORTANT QUESTION READERS SHOULD ASK THEMSELVES, GIVEN THE EMOTIONAL AND OBSSESSIVE CAMPAIGN WAGED BY EUROPEAN AND NOW CERTAIN AMERICAN (DEMOCRATIC PARTY) POLITICIANS (INCLUDING FORMER V.P. AL GORE, SENATORS CLINTON & OBAMA, AND THE 110TH CONGRESSIONAL MAJORITY, IS HOW CLOSELY DOES ENVIRONMENTALISM RESEMBLE CLASSICAL FACISM??? TO THIS END, READERS MAY FIND INFORMATIVE THE FOLLOWING WEBSITES. See, e.g. http://www.ecofascism.com/index.html .
READERS SHOULD AT LEAST CONSIDER THE FINDINGS OF THE FOLLOWING BOOK:
Ecofascism: Lessons from the German ExperienceBy Janet Biehl and Peter Staudenmaier© Copyright: 1995
Janet Biehl and Peter StaudenmaierLibrary of Congress Cataloguing-in-Publication DataBiehl, Janet, 1953-- Ecofascism: lessons from the German experience / by Janet Biehl and Peter Staudenmaier p. cm. Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 1-873176 73 2 (paper) 1. Green movement--Germany--History--20th century. 2. Fascism-- Germany. 3. Environmental policy--Germany. 4. Environmentalism. 5. Political policy--Germany--History. 6. Right and left (Political science) 7. Grünen (Political party) I. Staudenmaier, Peter, 1965-- . II. Title HC79.E5B5 1995 304.2'0943'--dc20 95-40752
CIP British Library Cataloguing in Publication DataA catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.First published in 1995 by AK Press AK Press 22 Lutton Place P.O. Box 40682 Edinburgh, Scotland San Francisco, CA EH8 9PE 94140-0682
http://www.spunk.org/texts/places/germany/sp001630/janet.html
