SAVING FASHION FROM ITSELF

The fashion world is no stranger to paradoxes. We deplore its distressing impact on the climate and biodiversity, yet we rush online to buy the latest dress at an impossible price. Between traceability and ultra-fast fashion, the compass seems to be out of whack.?For most consumers, the contradictory nature of our behaviour is of our own making. It's as if we were worshipping Greta one day and buying Shein or Temu the next, with scant concern for the Ouyghurs, the farmers of the Punjab or the slaves in the secondhand markets of Ghana. The coming tsunami of regulation may well put things in order - but the standards still need to be enforceable, and there needs to be a minimum of alignment between the stakeholders to make them effective. The tribulations of Higg and PEF leave little room for optimism.

However, things are moving on and it seems that the fashion world is starting to put its house in order.

This starts with more responsible production:

- Producing better, both from an environmental point of view and in terms of universal social justice. Insofar as the carbon impact of a garment comes mainly from the materials it is made from, it is through progress in the use of sustainable, organically grown, bio-sourced or recycled materials that the most significant improvements will come. Progress in this area is slow but real. Demands for traceability and transparency, supported by the public authorities and meeting the expectations of large group of consumers, should encourage a more responsible production, more respectful of human rights. Progress here is slow, too slow - and that it cannot be made at the expense of virtuous producers based in countries with a bad reputation.

- Producing fairly: industry is rightly chastised for its spectacular waste. The rapid succession of seasons and trends is one of the main causes. Sales cheapening the clothes, mountains of unsold garments that, when they are not burnt or buried, end up in countries like Ghana or Chile where they are resold in appalling conditions.?And yet, the holy grail for the industry is to sell its entire production at full price. Hopefully, matching production to demand is becoming a real possibility, thanks in particular to the predictive capabilities of algorithms and the digitalisation of the design chain. But like any technology, this adjustment is double-edged: it can speed up sales, at the risk of accumulating unused or disposable garments at the consumer's end (the ultrafast fashion model), or on the contrary, facilitate relocation thanks to an increase in real margins at a constant price.

- Producing less. A new model is taking shape: a more restrained supply, but more profitable, through products that have a longer life, that can be repaired, resold, reused or upcycled. To support these multiple uses, basic quality has to improve, production costs will nudge up and selling prices have to rise. The only way to reconcile this rise in price with the desire for an increasingly democratic fashion is to find ways of spreading the initial investment over time. This is not so simple for very fashionable, very dated products, even if we can see the transition towards greater sustainability and circularity for more utilitarian categories. After all, this part of the luxury model: your Birkin bag costs way more but lasts longer and doesn’t lose value over time, contrary to an affordable luxury imitation.

But producing less cannot be limited to this improved adjustment of production quantities to demand. It is by consuming less that we will really see a reduction in the impact of fashion. My conviction is that we need to find the keys to this reduction within the fashion system itself.

The quantitative explosion in fashion that we have seen over the last two decades is partly due to its democratisation - in rich countries as well as in countries like China, where lifestyles have metamorphosed in the space of a generation. It will be difficult to turn back the clock.

It is also due to the very nature of fashion, to its perpetual interplay between identification and differentiation, to the constant appetite for novelty, be it for joining a new tribe or to separate from older ones. In an age of accelerated change and hyper-connection, it's hardly surprising that this dynamic has intensified. There are no longer seasons but drops; there are no longer trends but fragmented micro-trends appearing and disappearing in the space-time of social networks like shooting stars on a summer's night.

It is this emotional power that drives fashion, whether we like it or not. Only in harnessing this power will fashion be able to move towards a more sustainable and responsible consumption. It is an illusion to think that intellectual awareness or moral bias are enough to drive change in this arena. Sustainable fashion has to become the REAL fashion for real change to take place. It must become cool and trendy not to buy new clothes, but rather to find your own style by juggling your wardrobe, vintage purchases, rentals and exchanges. It's not a question of losing the pleasures of playing, of looking good, of identifying and standing out, but of reinventing it.

The history of fashion has already seen such moments; think of Swinging London, for example, when strolling along Kings Road or Carnaby Street opened the door to endless plays with codes: girls wearing men's uniforms, fin de siècle clothes mingling with the minidresses of Mary Quant or Biba.

It is of course difficult, if not impossible, to decree such a change of habit, even if the prospect of ceasing to be subjected to the trend and becoming the makers of one's look could be very seductive. Transparency about the impact of clothing produced in unacceptable conditions and with unacceptable impact should help to raise awareness. And so should opinion leaders, influencers, journalists and celebrities. After all, Anna Wintour began her career in fashion as a saleswoman at Biba; this would be a return to her roots...

And there is undoubtedly a special role to be played by creative people. Of course, some of the creative energy goes into designing new clothes (and we need to defend this know-how and all the ?savoir-faire that go with it). But above all, the great designers want to make their mark on their time, to find their vision in the street. It's up to them to show the way: when will there be a Dior fashion show made up entirely of vintage pieces or sustainable materials?

And our fashion schools can ask themselves: when will graduation collections be made up entirely of pre-existing pieces? At Lisaa Mode Paris, we get our students to work in this direction by having them put together garments from unsold items. More broadly, the tools of eco-design, sustainability and awareness of responsibility play a part in all our teaching, without sacrificing inventiveness and self-expression, that part of playing with desire that makes fashion so seductive. Because we deeply that's by fostering creativity that we will build a more sustainable and responsible fashion industry.