To put an end to Fast -Fashion - Inrocks
Overconsumption, loss of purchasing pleasure, human exploitation: fashion is clearly no longer fashionable.To counter a fast-fashion that produces always more and always cheaper, collective and independent creators are mobilizing for the advent of a more respectful system.
"Don't buy just for the pleasure of doing it.I think people should not invest in fashion, but invest in the world.»Devinette: Who pronounced these words?An environmental activist?An anti -capitalist?No.Against all expectations, these are words spoken in September 2013 by one of the most important actresses in contemporary fashion, the British designer Vivienne Westwood.
In a context of multiplication of seasons, frantic production, increase in the number of clothes thrown by year and while the fashion industry to a huge ecological impact on the planet, the designer, known for her political and ecological commitments,speaks against his own system.At the antipodes of an ultra -controlled large house speech, turned to turnover at any cost, Vivienne Westwood begs the buyer - and potential customer of his brand - to no longer buy.
Productivity at all costs is questioned
This speaking betrays an increasingly admitted disenchantment with regard to the fashion industry.Since 2013 and the collapse on textile workers from Rana Plaza in Dacca, the capital of Bangladesh, killing nearly 1,200 dead, productivity at all costs is called into question.
Fast-fashion, which appeared in the 1990s, produced always more, always cheaper.Each day brings its share of textile scandals: messages sewn in clothing liners, little words slipped into the pockets of coats, workers on strike to claim their unpaid salary for months.
Si l’industrie de la fast-fashion connaît une période difficile – en France, la chaîne Pimkie est en difficulté, tout comme le groupe Vivarte (La Halle, Chevignon) qui a récemment cédé André, Kookaï et Naf Naf –, les boutiques continuent de se multiplier : selon le site Bloomberg, le nombre de boutiques H&M aux Etats-Unis est passé de 200 à plus de 500 entre 2010 et 2017.
Cependant, en 2017, le groupe H&M a enregistré une baisse de son bénéfice net de 13 %, la plus importante sur ces six dernières années.Between 1990 and 2016, the share of household fashion consumption was almost divided by two, going from 6.8% of total expenses to 3.8% (Source INSEE).
A fertile terrain to a new way of thinking fashion
Is awareness on the move?The disasters of fast food are a fertile land for the birth of a new way of thinking fashion.In 2014, Li Edelkoort published Anti-Fashion: A Manifesto for the Next Decade, a manifesto pointing the failures of the fashion industry, as much at the ecological, societal and creative level as well: "Fashion is dead.Long live the garment.»
First speaking within a locked industry, this manifesto opens the way to numerous initiatives: in Marseille, Stéphanie Calvino prolongs her remarks with Anti-Fashion, a collective of discussion on fashion problems, focused on returnpleasure and sharing.
"Too often, we buy a garment, we put it at home in his bag, then we forget," says Stéphanie.I campaign for the return of wonder in fashion, for the pleasure.» Elle définit le titre de son collectif, pensé en collaboration avec Li Edelkoort, comme un “cri d’amour» envers la mode : “Nous ne sommes pas contre la mode : avec Anti-Fashion, on analyse et discute des tendances sociétales de consommation. On n’est pas pour la révolution, mais pour l’évolution», explique Stéphanie, qui met en place des colloques entre différents acteurs de la mode, permettant de tisser des liens et nouer des collaborations entre les univers – par exemple, présenter un petit producteur de chanvre à des designers soucieux de se tourner vers des matières premières responsables.
The collective is organizing its third meeting in Marseille next June.Stéphanie hopes it as moving as the first: "Everyone cried at the end of this first meeting," she recalls.We hide a lot of things in fashion: it is an industry to appear.Opening discussion and secrets has been experienced by many as a real release.»
Reveal the reality of this rotten industry from the inside
Because the primary will of these initiatives is transparency: put an end to the opacity of large groups and reveal the reality of this rotten industry from the inside, by celebrating its shadow actors. Le collectif Fashion Revolution frappe un grand coup avec sa campagne Who Made My Clothes? en avril 2015, marquant l’anniversaire de la chute du Rana Plaza : lors de l’édition 2017, plus de 2 millions de consommateurs à travers le monde prennent en photo leur étiquette de vêtements et l’envoient à la marque en demandant : “Qui a fabriqué mon vêtement ?» Les réseaux sociaux sont ainsi inondés de questions-réponses sur les petites mains qui fabriquent les vêtements : les marques, qui veulent soigner leur image, sont obligées de jouer le jeu.
Digital has completely rebatted the cards.New brands have been based on this refusal of opacity, meeting the need for concrete information from the potential customer: “As the customer is live with us, he has a different requirement, explains Uriel Karsenti, founder ofThe Standard House Male Home Fashion, which mainly exists in the form of e - ehop.He expects us to explain the right price.»
>> A lire aussi : « Maison Standards, la marque de vêtements aux prix justes » <<
The French brand, specialized in quality basics, details the exact price of its products on its website: cost of material, dyeing, cutting, transport - even revealing its margins.Thus, paying more than twenty euros for a shirt appears as abuse.
"There may also be, in the idea of transparency, the desire to justify its quality," says the Standard house founder.Our clothes are designed in factories that make high -end brands and where the same pants are sold that are sold three times more expensive next to it.It was important for us to show, whether in China, Morocco or Portugal, that our products are made with beautiful materials, by workers who have real know-how.»
Workers living at thirty in a 25 square meters
In 2003, the two founders of the Veja sneakers brand visit a textile production plant in China.They meet workers living at thirty in a 25 square meters, sleeping in superimposed beds of five floors, with a hole in the center of the room serving both as shower and toilet.
“Une fois que tu as vu ça, c’est impossible pour toi de créer une marque de mode qui suive ce modèle-là», déclare Sébastien Kopp.Veja was born in 2004: a brand of ethical rubber sneakers and accessories that supports small producers in Amazon, boosting local economic activity, and which entrusts their European distribution to Atelier Sans Frontières, an association of reintegration through work inFrance.
This March 6, Veja launches her brand new website, exposing the manufacture of their parts to the smallest details: name of producers, location of places where each element of basketball, production contracts, chemical tests ... everything is downloadableand available on their site, pushing transparency to the maximum. Le duo s’est même amusé à faire estimer leur modèle de chaussure auprès d’une usine chinoise : en choisissant leur modèle de production “propre», ils paient plus de trois fois plus cher que le prix de production en Chine.
Produce the most resistant part possible
It is precisely by discovering yourself the cogs of textile production that the veil is lifted on the extent of the damage.Julia Faure, co-founder of the Loom ready-to-wear brand, remembers when she discovered the reality of production time: “Our deadlines at Loom, while these are predessinés and products in small quantities, areat least two months, she explains.Impossible to stick to the production cycles of fast food in the same factory: to produce in three weeks, which is the usual time of large groups, it is necessary to delegate to other factories, making almost impossible to tracethe origins of the products and the staff working there.»
At her first meeting with her production factory, Julia poses the question: what is the approach to follow to produce a most resistant part possible?His interlocutor has been stunned: this is the first time that a brand has subject to him this kind of question.Loom, who evolves within the incubator of My Little Paris, chooses to share his lines of conduct with his community: their site offers complete descriptions for each product, information on places and production staff, or stripesdrawn to alert the consumer to the repercussions of non-reflective fashion purchases.
Will this transparency be enough to convince the consumer to abandon the sirens of fast food for a fairer fashion consumption, so necessarily more expensive?“The consumer is fed up with fashion, says Vincent Grégoire of Nellyrodi trend firm.The creators are seen as living in an ivory tower, unable to understand the street.» Et ce qui fait rêver les millennials, c’est la fast-fashion : ce jet continu de produits de mode en boutique, dépassant toute saisonnalité et, parfois, rationalité.
“Le Bangladesh, la Chine, Taïwan, c’est loin»
Oublié le temps où l’on achetait son manteau d’hiver l’été d’avant : le consommateur veut tout, tout de suite, s’entourant de “feel good products» disponibles en masse dans des enseignes à bas prix – autant des boutiques de mode que des vendeurs de gadgets low cost comme Hema ou Flying Tiger.
“Le millennial se rend bien compte qu’une jupe à cinq euros implique forcément qu’une étape de production n’a pas été respectée, mais sait que cette jolie jupe va le faire briller sur Instagram – il s’en fout du reste», reprend Vincent Grégoire.Unlike organic food, which directly affects our organism (but has still taken ten years to democratize), clothing is perceived as much more futile: "The garment does not touch health.Bangladesh, China, Taiwan, it's far away.Even if we have more and more whistleblowers, like Elise Lucet's documentaries, there should be a nuclear disaster to change the habits of people.»
However, a new generation of creators remains convinced that a different mode is possible. “J’espère que les grandes marques flippent de l’arrivée de petites initiatives comme nous», sourit Julia Faure.These initiatives are gradually emerging in France, carried by the boom of the upcycling, the art of recreating clothes from existing fabrics.
“Je vois un vrai truc générationnel»
In Paris, it is the brand Les Recoverables which reigns, carried by the ex -employee of the resourcery of little Rockette, Anaïs Dautais.At its side also evolve hopaal, brand of 100% recycled sweaters and accessories, made in particular from cotton falls and plastic bottles.
>> A lire aussi : « Les Récupérables, la marque qui transforme des chutes de tissu en pièces mode » <<
In Brittany, the Teorum brand transforms old diving combinations into sweaters and jackets, while in Bordeaux, the Milan AV-JC brand advocates zero waste, ensuring that each fall of fabric is reused within asilhouette. Autant d’initiatives ayant pour but d’éduquer le consommateur, de changer les choses “par le bas» et proposer des alternatives.
Beyond the alarmist discourse, real solutions."I see a real generational thing," says Julia, from Loom.We don't have the same concerns as our parents.People my age no longer want to work for Total or Amazon: the search for meaning is found in our career choices, but also our consumption choices.I believe in change: look at our Facebook news sons, how recycling has entered customs, the fact that low cost brands like Lidl now offer organic ranges ... All-consumerism has had its time.But there, people are fed up.»
