Fashion and Sustainability in the Creative

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A few days ago, LVMH announced that Clare Waight Keller will leave Givenchy as brand's creative director. She took the creative helm of the Paris couture house for the last 3 years. During those three years, however, Keller presented 17 collection in total since her debut in the 2018 Spring/Summer collection. Pre-collections have become a staple in fashion. Big fashion houses such as Chanel showcase six fashion shows per year, including its famed Cruise and Métiers d'Art collections. For designers, this means that they are working under pressure to come up with something new every two months on average. One must not overlook that there's a business aspect to fashion. Consumers desire novelty, albeit at a faster rate than before. However, I can't get rid of this uneasy feeling that the business aspect is being disproportionately prioritized at the expense of the creative one, to the detriment of all those involved.

Sustainability has been fashion's weak spot for decades. Issues abound, ranging from environmental pollutions to labor conditions. Although the idea of sustainable fashion has been tossed around, few meaningful initiatives have been implemented in concrete forms to effect substantive changes at a global scale. (I do not mean to downplay all those serious efforts fashions houses are putting into to tackle the issue.). In fact, according to the "Pulse of The Fashion Industry" report, prepared in partnership with Boston Consulting Group, the effort for sustainable fashion has slowed down. Is sustainable fashion merely a empty catchphrase? The current COVID-19 situation should give us a pause to think about what it really means for fashion to be sustainable. I earnestly believe that the fashion calendar shouldn't be this packed. Natacha Ramsay-Levi, Chloé's creative director, echoed the similar sentiment in Vogue Global Conversations, prompting lively yet heated discussions online. She said that "the waste comes from a system that asks for new products all the time". I think she has a legitimate point there. 

So what's my take on the issue? Again, if possible, fashion can go back to its traditional ready-to-wear/haute couture calendar. Consumers too should collectively appreciate that they can't gratify their desires for novelty instantaneously. Honestly, I hear a lot of fashion admirers complaining, out of their love for fashion, how designs these days are repetitions and alterations of things that have been already done in the past. The complaint (true, to a certain extent) demands too much of the creative. The fashion industry will surely talk about sustainability in the wake of the current crisis. This time, however, the discussion should be comprehensive. We have to acknowledge that issues are inter-connected. Labor issues cannot be solved without making adjustments to the fashion calendar we now take for granted. The issue of the creative waste must become a part of this on-going conversation. For in-house lawyers, the compliance team can help coordinate this process. Almost all major fashion houses now have talented and dedicated compliance teams. They issue internal guidelines and conduct employee training programs. However, the challenge can only be met by ensuring that the guidelines are rigorously followed and the employees are alertedly well-informed.

The Met Gala, which is now indefinitely postponed, examines the traverse between the past and the present. As evidenced in the exhibition, fashion will evolve and survive. However, the future will surely be lost if we keep turning a blind eye towards what's in front of us in the present.