Can Swedish fashion save the planet?

Eco-friendly fashion is making a strong statement.

Yesterday's fashions are tomorrow's toxins: around the world, an estimated 1 million tons of textiles end up in landfills each year.

Fashion manufacturers use bleaching, dying and printing processes that place clothing fabrication on par with petrochemical production.

Clothing can take decades to decompose, all the while leaching deadly chemicals and harmful gases.

Ecological awareness

Against this background, fashion designer Johanna Hofring began searching for organic fabrics and selling ecological clothing. When she established the Ekovaruhuset boutiques, first in Stockholm in 2004 and then in New York in 2006, Hofring created the first fashion outlets to specialise in eco-garments, and opened a market for green clothing in Sweden.

"When I found out what goes on in the clothing production cycle, I started to move away from it," says Hofring. "Live animals are subjected to chemical baths to soften their wool and clean it. When their fibres are spun and woven into fabric, textile mills vent pollution into the air and pump poisons into the water table. The textiles get sent to Third-World sweatshops where workers endure human rights violations."

To make matters worse, Hofring also realised how the short-lived trend cycle driving the fashion industry makes sure that most garments end up in waste bins a season or two later — some without even having been worn at all.

High importance

Sweden's eco-friendly fashion movement has continued to grow, promising to put an end to destructive practices. As a result, many Swedes now place sustainable clothing on the same agenda as organic food, recycled waste products and environmentally-friendly transport.

A young generation of fashion designers have opted for organic fabrics and ethical manufacturing, and, if their success is anything to go by, eco-fashion is here to stay.

Hjördís Agústsdóttír who set up the fashion label Vond together with Sarah Isaksson, says: "It has to happen now if we want to continue to live on this planet as we do today. Time is running out and so are natural resources."

Les Couleurs Nationales is the creation of Maxjenny Forslund. Even before she launched this fashion label, she had been working with recycled materials and eco-friendly fabrics. Having worked previously as a product designer, Forslund noticed that the strict manufacturing standards enforced in Swedish design weren't always on the agenda in other countries.

Guidelines needed

"In Sweden there are guidelines," Forslund says. "We need certificates from the fabric manufacturer to say that it's ecological, and clothing must be produced in good conditions where the workers get good salaries."

Lovisa Burfitt, who bases her label in Paris, agrees: "Certification is important. Each garment is stamped with information that certifies it is fair-trade. This guarantees that I adhere to the guidelines prohibiting bleaching or chemical treatments. My washed-out finish is created by washing the garments with plastic balls instead of stones, and by using salt and savon de Marseille instead of chemicals.'

In an industry characterised by style over content and image over substance, the movement to infuse fashion with social responsibility is one of the most radical changes in fashion's history.

"The industry could reduce waste and find ways to make sustainable fashion easier," says Hofring. "But it can't happen overnight."

Hofring notes that stylish eco-fabrics are sometimes hard to come by, and points out that fashion designers need to have a stable supply of eco-materials to work with.

Expensive affair

Burfitt fears that most eco-fabrics are too expensive to yield a sufficient profit margin. "This needs to be regulated at the governmental level," she says. "This is where it has to start, by subventions to smaller companies to allow them to compete with mainstream fashion labels."

"Many of the designers who decided to go into the eco-fashion industry were worried that it would be hard to make garments sexy and luxurious," says Hofring. "But the real challenge is making them at a price that can compete with mainstream labels."

Forslund agrees: "Eco-fashions cost the consumer a little bit more, but that's okay. In Sweden, we're willing to pay more if it can help save the planet."

— Courtesy: www.sweden.se.