Sustainability in Fashion and Apparels: Challenges and Solutions

Contents

Preface
Ecological consideration in the apparel manufacturing industry is a permanent feature that attracts industrialists, public, government and many NGOs. In this aspect; it becomes imperative to provide alternative solutions to preserve the ecological wealth and natural resources.

Sustainable fashion, also called eco fashion, is a part of the growing design philosophy and trend of sustainability, the goal of which is to create a system which can be supported indefinitely in terms of human impact on the environment and social responsibility. Sustainable clothing refers to fabrics derived from eco-friendly resources, such as sustainability grown fiber crops or recycled materials. It also refers to how these fabrics are made. Ethical Fashion is an umbrella term to describe ethical fashion design, production, retail, and purchasing. It covers a range of issues such as working conditions, exploitation, fair trade, sustainable production, the environment, and animal welfare.

While environmentalism used to be manifest through a percentage of sales being donated to a charitable cause, fashion designers have recently adopted the idea of sustainability, using more environmentally-friendly materials and methods in clothing production. Designers say that they are trying to incorporate these sustainable practices into modern clothing, rather than producing “dusty, hippy-looking clothes. Sustainable fashion is typically more expensive than clothing produced by conventional methods.

A growing range of factors distinguish ethical processes, alternative energy, and low-impact dyes in manufacturing. However, to the extent that fashion consumers make an effort to choose an ethical wardrobe, they usually do so by trying to pick an eco-friendly fabric.

Three criteria are primarily used to extinguish the creation of eco-friendly from ordinary fabrics:

1. The use of fewer toxic chemicals,
2. The use of less land or water, and
3. The reduction of greenhouse gases.

Some fabrics perform better than others across all three of these criteria. However, in many cases, one fabric is more preferable according to one of the criteria, but less preferable according to another, making for complicated choices even without factoring in differences in fabric qualities, cost, labor conditions, or carbon footprint of product transportation. The future of sustainable fashion lies in the hands of all the stakeholders within the industry. In order to improve the current situation, innovation and collaboration is needed. Everyone active in the industry should take its responsibility. The fashion sector should become more transparent. A good start is to share knowledge and best practices.

The main objective of this conference is to create an opportunity to enrich knowledge on sustainability in fashion and apparels by providing a platform to interact with industrial experts, product manufacturers, retailers, designers, academicians, researchers, and students. The conference also provides an opportunity for sharing knowledge through paper presentation by industrial experts, academicians, research scholar, designers and students from various parts of India. This conference will be adopting a case study method to identify and communicate practical challenges and solutions to apparel manufacturers. The specific challenges in apparel industry related to sustainability are to be highlighted with respect to product value, quality, and aesthetics.

Dr. M. Parthiban
Dr. M. R. Srikrishnan
Dr. P. Kandhavadivu