A Brief History - Fashion Takes Action

A Brief History
of Canadian Eco-Fashion
Take a crash course in sartorial history
with our resident eco-fashionista!
Designs by FTA member Nicole Bridger
By Kelly Drennan
When, where and how did the
sustainable fashion movement
start in Canada?
You might think that the eco-fashion movement has only
just begun, however its roots actually extend back decades.
In the 1970’s the hippie movement re-popularized the
(once mainstay) idea of making your own clothing, from tie-dye
to the very “granola” patchwork look. The introduction of hemp,
around that same time, was what really created a name for
green fashion and inspired many designers to work it into their
collections. It even made its way onto the fashion runways in the
‘80’s with designers Ralph Lauren and Calvin Klein and, by the
time the mid ‘90’s hit, several independent designers were also
using this highly durable and equally controversial fabric.
It is important to note that the plants referred to as hemp and
marijuana are not one and the same. Both are members of the
Cannabis sativa plant species, but they are two distinct varieties.
Despite the scientific research that explains their differences
- particularly that marijuana contains high levels of THC (the
compound responsible for the plant’s psychoactive effect) while
hemp does not — there are many who strongly oppose its
cultivation. In fact, the Drug Enforcement Agency in the United
States has made it nearly impossible to grow hemp, making the
U.S. the only industrialized nation where growing industrial hemp
requires a permit.
Regardless of its controversy, hemp fabric has become a
popular choice among the sustainable fashion set. When blended
with other fabrics such as silk or organic cotton, it creates a luxe
fabric that can even be seen on many a red (or green) carpet.
Second hand or “thrift” shopping also became quite trendy
in the ‘80s with the “New-Wave” music movement; however
it wasn’t its environmental benefit that made vintage shops
popular. The wallet-friendly nature of second-hand clothing
offered an alternative to the designer label craze of the 1980’s,
and then appealed greatly to a growing number of students in the
1990’s whose loan debts made it difficult to buy anything new.
In addition, the alternative music scene gave it a renewed “hip
factor,” as Generation X’ers flocked to the underground clothing
markets in order to achieve the popular grunge look.
64 EcoParent | Making Better Choices Happen Fall 2012
Only in recent years has the vintage or second-hand
option been specifically referred to as ‘sustainable.’ This is
mainly due to the fact that we now have documentation
to support the amount of textiles that end up in landfill
each year. According to Earth Day Canada, the average
Canadian contributes an astonishing seven pounds of
textiles to landfill every year!
Fall 2012
{ “i
consider myself
to be somewhat
of an accidental
environmentalist.”
— Julia grieve, founder, preloved
The Pioneers
Designer Linda Lundstrom was one of the first in
Canada to embrace social and environmental initiatives
in the fashion industry, including the development of a
‘lean’ manufacturing facility, her work with First Nations
communities, and the use of eco-friendly fabrics.
Preloved is the brand that put ‘up-cycling’ on the map
in Canada. Founded in 1995 by Julia Grieve, Preloved
features unique clothing made from vintage fabrics,
such as men’s suits, sweaters, and pants. Grieve has also
recently launched a home line, accessories, and a kid’s
line, which utilize scraps and clippings from the main
collection, further strengthening the brand’s commitment
to sustainability.
“I consider myself to be somewhat of an accidental
environmentalist,” states Grieve. “When I started Preloved,
the environmental aspect of my business was not at
the forefront. We were all about creating one-of-a-kind
clothing, and looking great. Now 17 years later, we are still
making people look great, and saving the planet at the
same time.”
Another pioneer in the eco-fashion movement is
Montreal based Harricana, who in 1993 began recycling
fur and transforming existing pieces into new fashionable
items. Her work can now be purchased in eighteen
countries worldwide.
But it is really in the past five to ten years that there
has been a significant boom in the sustainable fashion
movement. Designers like OOM EthikWear from Montreal,
Nicole Bridger from Vancouver, and Toronto-based
Thieves have really lead the way. Fashion Takes Action
(FTA), which launched in 2007, is Canada’s premiere nonprofit
organization aimed at promoting and supporting
sustainability in fashion by working with both industry
and consumers to raise awareness. In 2010 FTA launched
the first sustainable fashion design award, and later that
same year Eco Fashion Week launched in Vancouver.
design by
preloved
Making Better Choices Happen | EcoParent 65

design by
thieves
Where are we now?
How far have we come?
There are now more than 100 designers in Canada, from coast to
coast, who have in some way embraced sustainability. In just five
years, Fashion Takes Action has worked with more than eighty
designers, and anticipates that by the end of 2012 that number will
be well over a hundred.
As sustainable fashion has evolved over the past twenty years,
so too has its definition. Up-cycling, slow fashion, organic materials,
repurposing, fair trade, vintage, locally made, waste consciousness,
and natural dyeing are now just some of the terms used in
conjunction with eco-fashion. The average person is slowly learning
that there are many ways to become sustainable when it comes
to our wardrobes and that it doesn’t always mean you have to go
out and buy something new. Reducing our consumption is just as
important as buying brand new pieces from sustainable materials.
In recent years, the eco-fashion movement has hit several
significant milestones. Standards and sustainability metrics
tools have been developed. Big brands and fashion houses are
collaborating with small designers and non-profit organizations.
And sustainable fashion is certainly not limited to North America, as
the UK and other European nations are making great progress, and
Australia is now emerging as a serious player. This global uptake is
due in part to many of the big brands who are taking on corporate
social responsibility (CSR) initiatives as they pertain to water, energy,
waste, toxic chemicals, transportation and labour. While many
larger brands are making sustainable fashion more accessible to the
average consumer, not all companies are created equally when it
comes to their CSR or sustainable initiatives.
The Sustainable Apparel Coalition (SAC), for example, is an
industry-wide group of leading apparel and footwear brands,
retailers, manufacturers, academics and non-profits working to
reduce the environmental and social impacts of fashion around the
world. Members include Adidas, H&M, Gap Inc., Mountain Equipment
Co-op, Patagonia, Nike, and Levi Strauss & Co., to name a few. The
group is working toward creating a tool that enables companies to
evaluate material types, products, facilities and processes based on
a range of environmental and social practices and product design
choices. However, things are not always what they seem. Just last
year, Greenpeace discovered that Chinese factories linked to SAC
founding members Nike, Adidas, and Puma, were discharging
hazardous and persistent chemicals with hormone-disrupting
properties. The wet processing of textiles - dyeing, washing, printing
and fabric finishing - can lead to the discharge of large quantities
of waste water that contains hazardous substances. Although each
company has agreed to work with Greenpeace to ‘detox’ their
supply chains and achieve a mutually beneficial result, it has still
cast a shadow of doubt on the integrity of the SAC.
What major challenges does
sustainable fashion face now?
• Greenwashing
“Greenwashing” has become a major challenge, both for
independent designers and larger fashion houses or brands, but for
different reasons. Critics and environmental watchdogs are skeptical
about the intentions of some of the companies who have joined
organizations such as the SAC, as it may just be a “green screen” that
they are hiding behind. Membership in socially and environmentally
responsible organizations can sometimes provide a false sense that
the company is actually making improvements.
Greenwash comes in many shades. On the lighter end,
greenwashing may be more discreet, like empty alignments with
environmental NGOs, or launching a special “ECO collection” that only
contains 10% sustainable materials. The deeper shades of greenwash
are seen with those who slap a leaf or a panda bear onto the front
of their packaging in the hopes that their customers are not smart
enough to read between the lines.
Then there are those who genuinely believe that their product
is sustainable based on what they are told by their supplier or
manufacturer, despite not having any third-party verification to backup
such claims as being fair trade or organic. Unfortunately, this is
more likely to occur with smaller independent designers - the ones
who are extremely passionate about doing the right thing and making
a product that people can feel good about, but that do not have the
savvy to follow the greenwashed paper trail of the businesses with
whom they are aligned.
In all cases, greenwashing has created confusion for consumers
who no longer feel confident in what genuinely constitutes ecofashion.
It has also prevented companies who really are doing
something great from openly promoting what they are doing, for
fear of saying the wrong thing, or making the wrong claim and being
penalized for it.
Bamboo is the perfect example of a fabric that has been
greenwashed and, as a result, several designers and retailers who
were making eco-friendly claims have been put through the ringer.
When it first appeared on the scene, bamboo was promoted as
having many of the same attributes as the plant itself, being called
biodegradable, a renewable resource, and anti-bacterial. In 2009, the
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in the U.S. announced that bamboo
Boutique Locations:
1512 Marine Drive
West Vancouver, BC
851 Hornby Street
Vancovuer, BC
1.800.862.2608
www.redfishkidsclothing.com
Fall 2012
is “made using toxic chemicals in a process that releases pollutants
into the air. There’s also no evidence that rayon made from bamboo
retains the antimicrobial properties of the bamboo plant, as some
sellers and manufacturers claim. Even when bamboo is the ‘plant
source’ used to create rayon, no traits of the original plant are left
in the finished product.” The FTC went on to charge four bamboo
companies who were making false marketing claims. In Canada, the
Competition Bureau and the Textile Labeling Act have legislated that
any bamboo textiles must be labeled ‘bamboo rayon.’
• Consumer Awareness
Consumer awareness is growing, yet only a small percentage of
shoppers truly understand the benefits of sustainable fashion and care
enough to change the way they purchase their clothes. Organizations
like Fashion Takes Action, Mod Ethik and Eco Fashion Week Vancouver
are working hard to bridge this gap and to empower consumers with
knowledge. In addition, as the larger fashion houses and mainstream
brands make shifts toward sustainability, eco-fashions will become
more accessible for consumers and will not seem as exclusive.
With a lack of consumer awareness exists reduced demand, which
in turn means clothing buyers for retail stores are less interested in the
‘eco’ attributes of clothing. They are only concerned with what sells,
making awareness even more crucial to the success of sustainable
fashion.
• Certifications
Designers who work independently often face an extra set of
challenges from the larger brands with deeper pockets. Access to
Making Better Choices Happen | EcoParent 67

certified eco-friendly fabrics and fair trade labour is not only difficult
to achieve, but it is often cost prohibitive as well. The system is quite
flawed as it allows for the larger brands such as Walmart or H&M to
easily access eco certification, but creates a challenge for the smaller
independent designers.
On the one hand, consumers are being told to look for trusted eco
logos on labels such as GOTS, Ecocert, and Transfair. On the other
hand, it tends to be the bigger brands that carry these certifications.
So the issue here is not whether or not these are legitimate claims,
but rather that these are the same brands that also mass-produce
“fast fashion” and disposable clothing. There is little to no attention
paid to detail or quality and this contributes greatly to our landfillage.
What does the future hold?
What can we do to take action?
When it comes to the clothes we wear, we don’t really have a choice
but to make the shift towards sustainably made items. The reality
is that we cannot continue to deplete the earth’s resources at the
current rate. Sooner or later, the entire fashion industry will have
to adapt and become more sustainable. This will, no doubt, take
years but there are also many simple things that the fashion industry
can do right now in order to be more responsible when it comes to
water, toxic chemicals, waste, pollution, energy and labour.
Independent designers, big fashion houses and fast fashion brands
must be equally transparent about what they are doing. If they are
calling themselves sustainable, then they need to substantiate those
claims and make them readily accessible on their websites or in their
marketing materials. They need to be clear and genuine in how they
are communicating their initiatives, and they should also point out
why they chose to make the changes in the first place, identifying
what was broken and what needed fixing.
As consumers, we must learn to read our clothing labels as we
have come to read food labels and cosmetics products. We can
support organizations like Fashion Takes Action and through them
learn what sustainable fashion is, where to buy it and what labels
to trust. At the same time we need to be making smarter decisions
when we shop. We need to ask ourselves some serious questions
when we find ourselves in an impulse-buying moment and choose
to invest in our wardrobe by buying quality-made, long-lasting
classic pieces that don’t fall apart after we wear them three times. •
• www.naihc.org/hemp_information/content/hemp.mj.html
• www.apparelcoalition.org/3.html
• www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/alerts/alt160.shtm
• www.environmentalleader.com/2009/08/12/ftc-charges-clothing-firms-with-bamboo-zling-the-public/
• www.competitionbureau.gc.ca/eic/site/cb-bc.nsf/eng/03021.html
Changing the way we Create
and Consume Fashion
take the pledge today at
www.fashiontakesaction.com
• Water
• Energy
• Waste
• Toxic Chemicals
Add a little fun!
Your baby’s closet can have some fun with
Thula’s hip & decorative Eco Hangers.
The lively illustrations are
embossed - there are no toxic
glues or inks.
Millions of hangers are thrown in
to landfill every year because they
are not accepted in municipal
curbside recycling programs.
You can say “no” to creating
more waste by choosing to use
Thula’s paperboard Eco Hangers.
Made in Canada from 100%
recyclable and biodegradable
paperboard. If you decide that
you no longer need your Eco
Hangers - you can easily recycle
or compost them.
>
Moojoes Poncho (sizes 3-11
years): Wow! Superbly well-made,
durable, and flexibly sized for
several seasons of wear, this coat
is Oeko Tex-certified - meaning
it’s guaranteed free of harmful
chemicals! It’s also designed
and manufactured right here in
Canada! LOVE! $59.99-$65.99
MEC Newt Suit (infants
& children’s available):
Waterproof and made of
nylon with PVC-free coating,
this suit is so popular you’ll
find lots of folks looking
to buy them second-hand
online. Very durable! $54
>
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Hatley Rain Boots (sizes
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these really are rubber
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These run a size large
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endeavor to preserve the
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*Dangerous PFCs, frequently used in weatherproofing fabrics, have been eliminated
from most new DWR (Durable Water Repellent) fabrics.
*PVC is sometimes (though not always) identified on products or packaging by the #3,
V, PVC or vinyl.
*Wanna know more about why you should avoid PVC, commonly used in rainwear?
Check out: http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/Global/usa/report/2007/8/ten-reasons-toavoid-pvc-plast.html
>
>
Hatley Rain Coats: Available in fun
patterns and a full range of kid’s sizes,
these terry-lined, 100% poly-shelled
cuties are 100% PVC & phthalate
free, and use azo-free dyes (azo
is a carcinogen). Hatley also uses
compostable packaging and closedloop
dryers in the dying process
to prevent contaminating water
systems. And they’re Canadian too.
Thank you! $52.99
>
MEC Reflective Rain Jacket: To keep
them dry even in a downpour, this midthigh
length jacket is made of nylon with
PVC-free poly coating. A good choice for
cooler weather as it’s roomy enough for
a warm base layer. $54
Photography by Sam Stedman
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