Ethical Fair Trade fashion is growing up.

“The clean clothes camping for Fair traded clothes made in dignity is gaining ground and many more customers. Exploitation is still the norm but good people are pushing back to end it by demanding fair traded and ethical garments.” – Fr Shay Cullen

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Eco and Ethical fashion has continued to be a growing segment in the apparel market during the financial crisis.

Just as organic food 25 years ago, it is still in its infancy. But as more transparency in the value chain is required, further growth is expected. The demands with respect
to production, quality and compliance standards are the downside to otherwise higher product margins, fewer middlemen and specialized competitors.

 

What is ethical fashion?

The term ‘ethical fashion’ summarises an apparel production approach whereby ‘sourcing and production do not pollute through the process of manufacture [incl. shipping, retail] and do not reduce non-renewable resources, whether those are planetary or human. Ethical fashion refers to apparel [and home furnishings] that can be absorbed back into the environment when it has reached the end of its life.
The term ‘ethical fashion’ therefore refers to responsible, accountable, long-term focused and transparent business ventures.

In this respect, there are four basic requirements, which often also coincide with local legislative as well as buyer requirements: Environmental responsibility: Reducing waste and output, and produce environmentally friendly clothing to the technically best possible standard.
Social responsibility, Equity: Social fairness; paying living wages to workers; safe, working conditions; anti-child labour guarantees and adherence to the International Labour Organisation’s (ILO) published labour standards.

Economic responsibility: Well defined and consistently adhered to corporate governance, not exploiting the markets through monopolies; fair competition among companies. Accountability, Transparency: Being unrestrictedly responsible and owning up to the consequences of all business activities. Being open to (third party) audits and inspections at any given time without prior notice, while giving the auditors access to all data without restrictions. Rejecting corruption and practising complete legal and social compliance.

 

The EU market for ethical fashion

Consumption. The total ‘ ethical fashion’ consumption  (retail sales) is estimated to be worth $10 billion in the USA and ¤ 1billion in the EU. This is only an estimated 1% of the total apparel market. It is unclear whether CBI Market Information Database * URL: www.cbi.eu * Contact: [email protected] * www.cbi.eu/disclaimer Source: Textile Exchange Report 2009CBI News Alert for Apparel: Ethical fashion this encompasses sales from massive retail chains in e.g. organic cotton, although this is very unlikely given the absolute numbers. Production. Organic cotton amounts to an estimated 1% of the global cotton production, of which over 2/3 are produced in India. This is equivalent to an estimated ¤ 3.1 billion in retail sales as per end of 2009.

Market growth. The development of ethical fashion is akin to the one in ‘organic food’ 25 years ago.
Important market drivers are: o Expected higher personal well-being through the absence of noxious chemicals in the end-product. o Higher awarenes sand consequently pressure on DC exporters to comply at a bare minimum with ILO regulations and Human-Rights best practises. o Environmental awareness and conservation efforts.

An October 2008 study by the research company TNS World panel reported that 72% of British consumers thought that ethical production of the clothes they buy is important, up from 59% in 2007. Furthermore, the research company Mintel estimate that the UK market for ethical clothing has more than quadrupled from 2004 to 2008 to £175 million.