'Fast fashion' dumped for rags with conscience
Eco-conscious local designer Craig Jacobs said: "Overseas, the market has been growing for ethical brands, and South Africa has been a bit slower to catch up. But more recently I have noticed a mind shift here, with more people looking into those issues when buying clothes."
He said that if something was made in South Africa, there was "a big carbon emission reduction right there". There was also more awareness of how "fast fashion" (cheaply mass-produced merchandise) was responsible for occupying landfills, and people were starting to understand that quality was better for the environment, he said.
Local radio and TV celebrity Anele Mdoda said her priority was to support local designers.
"It comes full circle. I am on television, and being a designer is deemed different, but we are part of the same industry, so we make each other look good."
She said that if she was going to spend R10,000 on a dress, it should be one designed and produced locally. "I trust the designers I use to be doing things ethically."
Retail author Martin Butler, who presented at the congress, said: "We are moving towards a time when younger customers want to identify with what a brand stands for ethically. After the financial meltdown of the last 10 years, every customer is insisting on knowing the values of a brand before they buy into it."
He said that in the US, "conscious capitalism" was gaining momentum because it tapped into these ideas. But "the newly rich might be more enamoured with pure bling rather than delving into the ethics behind a brand".
Scandal and Black Sails star Louise Barnes said she had recently seen a documentary, The True Cost, and was horrified.
"The whole fast-fashion thing is clearly very seductive as evidenced by the craziness around a European fast-fashion label that recently hit our shores. If the price is too good to be true, then someone is paying - not you but someone somewhere else. So that's a cause I've definitely taken on," she said.
Source: I-Net Bridge
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