What is Ethical Fashion?
Consumers have become increasingly conscious about their purchases, making a positive difference for the people involved in the making of their clothes. Customers are understanding that they can vote with their dollar and we, at The Love of Grace, are sitting up and listening. The future of fashion (and quite possibly the planet) relies on it.
So what is Ethical Fashion?
- Made using high quality, vintage, biodegradable or sustainable fabrics
- Made to order, so stock levels aren’t wasted
- Locally designed and manufactured, reducing fashion miles and carbon emissions
- An intentionally timeless design, to last a lifetime
- Cut, sewn and QC’d meticulously to ensure longevity
- Made in ethical working conditions for all staff members
- Made in environmentally sustainable workplace practices
So how do you know whether a brand is sustainable? Throw a few questions out there: Who made my clothes? Is the brand being transparent? Are they showing footage of their factory? Are they adopting ethical practices, both socially and environmentally?
When clothes are manufactured in developing countries, employees often work in unhealthy and unsafe conditions, whilst being exploited through unfair wages. Their working hours are unimaginable and at times their children are helping them to achieve quotas. Conscious Fashion is changing the game by bringing fair wages and safe working environments to a local community of artisans, often bringing empowerment to women with traditional skills.
Another principle behind sustainable fashion is “Made to last” and gone are the days when you could be seen wearing a dress one-time-only. At The Love of Grace, we are throwing it back to the early 20th century, when a dress was a bespoke experience and a lifetime treasure. There is a clear shift in consumer behaviour. We all yearn for the time prior to the industrial revolution, when craft was celebrated, and the people who crafted were celebrated too. But all is not lost to bygone days. We, as a brand, are making garments that last a lifetime, both in quality and aesthetics.
And finally, the fast fashion wheel has a tendency to spin out carbon copies of the same garment, and frankly, we’re a little bit bored. At The Love of Grace, our designers create from the heart, are inspired by limited fabrics, and build a dress from sketch to pattern to mannequin to model, until it meets perfection in styling and fit. Let’s cherish the artists who make this world a beautiful place.
If environment, quality, originality and ethics aren’t enough to spark a movement, then the wallet will. The long term investment in timelessness and quality of one hand-crafted dress will always outlast ten throw-aways.
If we can all get this right, the positive effects will be intergenerational. We can fix this, one person at a time with every purchase we make.
“As consumers, we have so much power to change the world by just being careful in what we buy.” – Emma Watson, Actress and Ethical Fashion Advocate