Sustainability!…what is it??
As I tell my clients…friends, family, pretty much anyone who will listen; there is no industry containing more smoke and mirrors than the fashion industry. There are a million ways to trick consumers with words because the fashion industry is global, therefore it is impossible to create a legal standard.
The word “Sustainable”, is thrown around and crammed down our throats. But what actually is it?? Is the material sustainable? Is the production sustainable? Is the business model sustainable? Is it all sustainable? WHICH PART SHOULD WE CARE ABOUT!?!? H&M claims sustainable production and yet we know it’s not. Some of the bigger brands claim the material they use is obtained sustainably, yet the products are made in China, the biggest carbon machine on the planet, and sent around the world via plane train and automobile. It seems like we take one step forward and 5 steps back.
A few of the ways companies lie/bamboozle you
“Made in____” as a selling point. Legally, the last country of production is the country of origin. Many of the top brands, Tom Ford, Gucci, Ralph Lauren, sell you a suit “Made in Italy”. These companies make the majority of the product in China or Bangladesh, then fly it to Italy to sew the buttons sewn on and boom... Made in Italy (again, this is completely legal). Many others promote being an “American Based” company, or something being “designed” in America. It’s all just fancy jargon, the product is completely made overseas.
Tags: Some fast fashion brands, H&M/Zara, will sell you a T shirt and the tag will say “ethically made using sustainable products”…the TAG was made that way. The T shirt is straight plastic, but they never said the shirt was so its okay.
Labor: this is sadly the “thoughts and prayers” of fashion. No matter how many times we jump and scream about sweat shops, people don’t care or they feign ignorance and support fast fashion either way. Cheap isn’t cheap, there are human costs, there are environmental costs, if something is cheap from a billion dollar organization, some human beings are being ripped off.
But…again…what the hell does that word, “sustainable” actually mean?
The goal of a company promoting sustainability: is to show you to make and sell the product, using the fewest amount of steps, without cutting corners, using materials obtained from ethical sources, and distributed in a way that do not destroy the environment. Below is a general guide to sustainability. Click the image for more information.
Credit: Sanvt.com
What is Bards doing that’s sooooo sustainable?
Production: We were determined to utilize American manufacturing from the beginning. We didn’t do this out of a sense of “rah rah America is the best”, we did it for a few reasons: there is very real talent here and we can lead the charge on branding “Made in America”, as a luxury garment again. The carbon foot print is so small when it comes to garment production. Our clothing is manufactured in NY and our shirts are made in NJ.
Inventory: Our model is known as On-Demand clothing, nothing exists until you order it. We do not have an agenda of selling you this season’s hottest trends, aka, a crap load of stuff we paid for months ago and need to offload at whatever discount we can. There is enough STUFF in this world, we want you to buy with intention, and we knew we could build you a wardrobe piece by piece. Also the pieces are made for you, which reduces any wasted fabric.
Fabric: Our number one source of fabric is milled in Connecticut. Which means the fabric only travels a few miles between Mill > Tailor > Client. We are extremely particular with the European mills we work with and they are some of best fabric houses around the world; Dormeuil. Drago, Gladson, Scabal. Check out this clip from Dormeuil.
Cut & Design: People like to romanticize the world of custom clothing, they picture an old Italian man with giant scissors cutting fabric. That is great and all but I guarantee you won’t want to pay for all of that handwork (if you do, message me). Embodying the American spirit, we embrace innovation. Our factories use a state-of-the-art cut and design machine that transforms the labor intensive act of cutting fabric and pattern making into a 3 second job. Cutting down on cost and increasing accuracy of ordering fabric, all while maintaining the integrity of the garment.
The point being, as consumers, and we are guilty of it too, we just want lazy shopping. We want to be told its okay and just buy it. But a slight inconvenience of doing some fact checking can save the planet in the long run, especially when we are talking about one of the most wasteful, destructive, and profitable industries on the planet.
Below is an episode of Hasan Minhaj’s show “Patriot Act”. He brilliantly displays almost all the atrocities of fast fashion. Rather than binging 5 episodes of your favorite show, just watch this one episode and tell me how you feel afterward.
