By Ann Marie Newton for QHQ
February 2023
“Is this fabric sustainable?” A question that can be heard many, many times now as you walk around a fabric fair in Europe these days. The answer can vary from things like “Yes, it is made from recycled polyester” to “ummmmm” to “no, but let me show you our eco-range” and if you are fortunate “well let’s have a conversation about that”.
I’ve asked this question myself in the past, but I am making a conscious effort now to ask better questions. As our understanding of ‘sustainability’ evolves so do our conversations, and therefore the questions we ask. With an estimated 27,000 visitors to one season of Premiere Vision and Texworld in Paris last autumn, that means there must be a lot of conversations happening about fabric, which equates to a lot of opportunity to change the industry.
So, what is wrong with the question “is this fabric sustainable?” The format lends itself to a yes or no answer, which cuts a conversation short. This yes or no format does not reflect the complex character of sustainability in textiles but does lend itself to a box checking activity. The more we learn about how damaging current production and consumption models are, the more we realise the complexity of what needs to change.
To tackle the issues, we currently face including climate change, extreme weather, biodiversity loss, social inequality, financial inequality and resource depletion, we need to acknowledge the complexity involved and not get overwhelmed by it but acknowledge this is not a yes or no type of situation.
To promote more meaningful conversations that get us nearer to the nitty gritty, asking “How is this fabric sustainable?” is a step in the right direction. Asking how opens up the conversation to go into detail of the way the fabric is manufactured. This question though still suggests that a fabric, as an entity, can be sustainable or not. Let’s consider this using a thought experiment.
Firstly, how much of the fabric are we talking about? A small hanger or 1 million metres? How can you gauge how ‘sustainable’ a fabric is or isn’t or even better how good it is for the planet, and our future, without considering how it will be used, and where it will end up, and how soon? What if someone invests a lot of effort to make a fabric as good for the planet as possible, but then it is shipped thousands of miles, made into a t-shirt in a factory that doesn’t treat the people who work there very well, is shipped thousands of miles again, driven even more miles to a distribution centre and eventually is worn by someone in the UK three times before they put it in a rubbish bin and it ends up in landfill? Is that fabric ‘sustainable’?
Personally, I think asking if a fabric is ‘sustainable’ or not is putting too much emphasis and pressure on what the product is and not enough on how it is manufactured, used, circulated, and disposed of, and why it is being made in the first place.
Although materials are very important, we should consider how they are made, and move beyond the materials alone in isolation. In the textile and fashion industries many are looking more widely at supply chains, people, usage of products and how textiles can be returned to the earth. Asking better questions is one way to get started on this journey. Below is a table with suggested questions that you can print out and take with you to a fabric fair, there will be other questions based on your specific circumstances, but this is a good place to start.
If you have just one takeaway from this article it will be to replace asking “Is this a sustainable fabric” with “Tell me about how this fabric is made”. Asking a question in this way opens up the conversation, and deeper conversations are what is needed now.
Download the QHQ Question guide and enjoy your time at the #fabricfairs !
