As usual many different trends emerged during the latest fashion weeks. But, at the first post-Covid half digital and half physical edition of Paris Fashion Week, there was also a key theme that became a protagonist of some of the shows - sustainability.
Recycling, upcycling and reducing waste are definitely key points in the fashion discourse at the moment, even though it is also true that some labels and fashion houses are just engaged in a greenwashing exercise.
How do we raise awareness about such issues? The group Extinction Rebellion gatecrashed Louis Vuitton's runway at the Louvre on the last day of Paris Fashion Week at the beginning of October to highlight the impact of the fashion industry on climate change.
One activist walked down the runway with a banner reading "Overconsumption = Extinction". The banner also included a logo for Extinction Rebellion France, Amis de la Terre France (Friends of the Earth) and Youth for Climate. The young woman carrying the banner was soon grounded and promptly taken away by security. There was also another protestor who arrived during the final round up of models, but again he was swiftly carried away and, at the very end of the show, Creative Director Nicolas Ghesquière came out to say thanks followed by a body-guard.
The message undoubtedly fit with the theme of the show: Ghesquière was inspired by his experience of dressing Alicia Vikander for HBO's new production of Olivier Assayas' "Irma Vep", an adaptation of the 1996 eponymous film about an American actress going to France to star in a remake of silent classic "Les Vampires".
The vampire, eternal and therefore able to cross times and jump from one era to the next, became a theme embodied by the models walking the Louvre's Passage Richelieu in designs that remixed items and details from other times and eras, including panniers, capes and bias-cut embellished dresses, at times matched with jeans with open-toed wrestling boots or sandals, a sort of Poiret mood filtered through contemporary lenses.
Ghesquière is fascinated by the possibility of crossing times, travelling through the ages, and merging designs and codes from different eras, so he must love a good vampire story. Yet, vampires suck their victims' blood and fashion has a vampirical tendency, sucking the energy from creative minds and workers and depleting resources, something that may cause climate induced catastrophes and famines if we don't act as soon as possible.
While the vampire theme may have been perfect for Ghesquière, it was therefore also a great reference for climate change activists. Yet guests appeared unbothered by the action. After all, nowadays you don't know if such disruptions may be part of a runway show or may be the real thing. And when you realise they are an actual protest, you wonder if such protests are still necessary or if they actually apply to that particular house or brand.
Grand gestures like the ones you may have seen on television in the '80s with activists throwing eggs and flour to guests clad in sumptuous furs attending the opening of La Scala in Milan aren't necessary anymore as many fashion companies have stopped producing fur designs or pledged they will soon do so. And this decision was taken as, throughout the years, consumers became more aware of the conditions of animals in fur farms.
It is obviously perfectly fine to organise a demo or join a protest, speak our minds and express our ideas, but maybe before gatecrashing a fashion show, we should all get more informed and documented about the specific brand we want to gatecrash or we should propose brands some sustainable solutions.
In Louis Vuitton's case, Ghesquière did a research about garments from the 17th and 18th centuries to understand what made them so striking and lasting, compared to contemporary fashion. Now, that may not be enough to prove a brand's faith into timeless designs, but Louis Vuitton recently disclosed its progresses towards an eco-friendly approach.
The fashion house reuses or recycles 93% of its event and window materials and has so far also reduced by 16% its single-use plastic in packaging, opting for reusable wraps and straps in the place of plastic for pallets. The company also employs 69% of renewable energy to power workshops and logistics sites.
The brand has set more climate objectives that should be reached in the next 5 to 10 years (yes, that sounds like a long time, but hopefully some objectives may be reached sooner). By 2030 the company pledges to reduce the carbon footprint of Louis Vuitton's fashion and leather goods division by 55%, with an action plan validated by the U.N.
Besides, working with sustainable materials also seems to be a must for the luxury house that uses wool, cotton and leather certified by environmental standards.
In the last few months the fashion house has produced a range of sustainable shoes and bags: from the upcycled version of the LV Trainers to the trio of felt bags from the men's A/W 21 collection (made with organic cotton, recycled wool-based jacquard, 100% recycled polyester derived from excess fabric stocks, and recycled plastic) to the more recent LV Charlie sneakers and Pillow bags, the latest products made using 90% recycled and bio-sourced materials.
These products are marked with the brand's new Upcycling Signal tag with the iconic LV monogram logo combined with the symbol indicating recycling credited to Gary Anderson. All the products bearing this logo will indicate that those designs are upcycled, or contain at least 50% of recycled and bio-sourced raw materials.
The brand has also announced it will produce smaller quantities of goods, something that obviously aligns with the principles of luxury fashion.
There are actually further good news about fashion and sustainability as Richemont-owned brand Chloé, currently led by Creative Director Gabriela Hearst, a designer that has actively been working to empower artisans and create more eco-friendly pieces, is the first luxury fashion house in Europe to achieve Benefit Corporation (B Corp) certification.
Companies with B Corp status (4,000 across 77 countries and 153 industries) are legally bound to act in the interest of both people and planet. To achieve such status, companies are required to fill out a rigorous 300-question survey; answers score points and brands must earn at least 80 points to be B Corp certified.
Chloé may be the first luxury house achieving this status, but it joins a wide range of other companies, including Vestiaire Collective, Patagonia, Allbirds and Eileen Fisher among the others.
The company applied for it before the arrival of Hearst in December 2020, but the designer accelerated the eco-friendly impulse of the fashion house: the S/S 22 collection puts indeed emphasis was on sustainable processes and upcycled and recycled materials with shoes and sandals featuring soles made from flip-flops washed up on beaches and garments made in collaboration with social enterprise organisations.
So, while most fashion houses may still be far from achieving tangible sustainable goals, a few of them are slowly changing their modus operandi.
It is true that many brands are taking such decisions based on consumers' spending behavior rather than because they genuinely care about the planet, but this is exactly the key to make these brands change. In many ways, gatecrashing a show is an almost useless act as, by now, we are all very aware of climate change and the consequences of overconsumption. The problem stands indeed in finding real solutions.
There are actions that may be taken by all of us, from repairing garments and accessories (many luxury clients use the repairing services offered by fashion houses) to stop demanding same-day deliveries (and this applies to all products we order online) as that puts stress on people, means of transport and the planet, or asking brands to reduce their packaging (think about plastic tags or plastic films protecting selected parts of luxury accessories, such as metal parts in handbags or belt buckles).
It is undeniable that the fashion industry is a great and major polluter, but a protest starts when we decide what we want buy and when we manage to force companies to change their habits with our voices and purchasing power combined.
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