Sustainable Fashion Has Several Components

On Friday, I had lunch with Professor Shireen Musa of State University of New York’s Fashion Institute of Technology. Her job is to make sure as many people as possible who are entering the fashion industry understand the basic components of sustainability. As one might expect, there are several ingredients to sustainable fashion, but at the top of the pyramid is this: everyone shares a responsibility to minimize abusive work practices around the world. We need to refuse to buy products or components from organizations that deal in slave or child labor, or that systematically abuse their employees.

“No one who goes through this Institute will be able to claim they never heard of these issues,” Professor Musa told me. “I can’t guarantee they’ll take their responsibility seriously, but I can assure that they’ll be aware of it.”

So whose fault is it that these practices continue to exist in the first place? Government, for not enforcing laws? Corporations, putting profits before people? Consumers, for demanding high quality and low prices, and turning a blind eye to the horrors that go into making that happen? The answer, of course, is all of the above.