Sustainability issue: is it environmental commitment or empty activism?

Basscoutur Men Women Fall Winter 2020 Paris

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Henrik Vibskov Men Fall Winter 2020 Paris

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Phipps close-up Men Fall Winter 2020 Paris

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Walter Van Beirendonck Men Fall Winter 2020 Paris

Walter Van Beirendonck close-up Men Fall Winter 2020 Paris

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Rhude close-up Men Fall Winter 2020 Paris

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Paris Men’s Wear Fashion Week / FW20

Ideological and concrete engagement in Sustainability has recently become the center of gravity of contemporary fashion, and Men’s Wear Paris Fashion Week also proved to see fashion through these lenses.

Head designers and brands feel bound to take up the challenge in researching new materials and production practices of a lower environmental impact. The ethical interests are raised as creative pillars to conceive new collections; yet this not always happens for the same good purposes for Mother Earth.

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Find all the looks from Basscoutur FW20 collection

Problems arise when Sustainability becomes a symbol to offer and consume in place of the product itself. In other words, when we are dealing with Greenwashing, a not-so-sincere environmental concern disguised by clever initiatives to make it looking like they are engaged in ethical projects without actually changing their practices. It is an all talk and no walk strategy, that induces to buy from brands that have nothing to do with Sustainability, contrasting with the logic of Sustainability in and of itself (Buy less, reuse and recycle, etc).

Actually, fashion cannot stop producing; newness is its unavoidable prerogative, Fashion being intrinsically moved by the ceaseless research of the New.

As a solution for climate issues nowadays, the New works better when combined with the Old – the already existing textiles-, when they’re recycled, renewed and re-thought, maybe updated to higher performances and practicality; when their endurance is definetely enhanced, calling into question the ephemeral cycles of fashion.

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Find all the looks from Henrik Vibskov FW20 collection

It is a kind of sustainability based on action taken through little, concrete steps towards a better future in terms of environmental pollution, in order to meet today’s need without compromising the future’s ones.

Basscoutur is one of those eco-conscious brands which take advantage of the already existing material to transform it into new items. Against the consumerist ethics of fast fashion, its core principles are recycle-rethink-redesign, in the name of the perfect circular economy-à-porter. Riad Trabelsi’s FW20 collection is the outcome of rethinking the textile in a different way, assembling it through knitwear patchworks and constructing architectural silhouettes through re-worked upcycled pieces.

The 95% of Henrik Vibskov‘s collection for FW20 is instead made of durable fabrics and materials: some of the fibres derive from 100% recycled Pet bottles or from Norwegian wools of rams that are free to graze in the nature.

Phipps‘ FW20 collection wants to be an awareness raising project about forest fires in recent ravaging woodlands from California to Greece to Australia. Entitled Treehugger: Tales of the Forest, it tries to captivate the attention upon the mystic energy and properties in trees as resources to be safeguarded for the future of the planet. This purpose is also translated into a concrete commitment in finding new sustainable textile materials, such as Piñatex pineapple leaf leather, plush Steiff wool and recycled feather down.

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A different attitude was adopted instead by other brands walking on Parisian catwalks, for which fashion shows were the perfect platforms where to broadcast eco and political messages, not – explicitly reported at least – backed by concrete commitment in the matter.

Walter Van Beirendonck expresses the metaphor of nowadays world through his collection called “War” (Walter About Rights). Threatening silhouettes and bold slogans like My planet my future and Stop buying fast cheap fashion now create strong contrasts with the psychedelic flower prints and natural colorful references.

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Find all the close-up images and full-lengths from Walter Van Beirendonck FW20 collection

Rhude‘s FW20 show began with a call for environmental action, even though the designer Villaseñor reported the press the collection itself had little to do with sustainable fabrics.

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Find all the close-up images and full-lengths from Rhude FW20 collection

There are plenty of possibilities that declaring it outspokenly on a catwalk can arise awareness and shake public consciousness, it’s indeed a nice thing that fashion uses its allure to address the broadest public’s attention on worthy causes. Yet, there’s something paradoxical about it, for those messages come from mouths that still belong to the Fashion system, that is objectively a big player in the global environmental issue. As such part of it, brands have the responsability to take measures through Fashion-related business more than leverage political activism – for an action often delegated to others.

Consumers are more aware of their purchases today and have more precise requirements: choosing brands that take real action and make the difference means having the chance to do their part in their own small way for an environmental positive change.

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Sustainability issue: is it environmental commitment or empty activism?

Paris Men’s Wear Fashion Week / FW20

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