Ethics and Innovation - Is an Ethical Fashion Industry an Oxymoron?
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Ethics and Innovation
- Is an Ethical Fashion Industry an Oxymoron?
S. Thomas & A. Van Kopplen
School of Fashion & Textiles, RMIT University,
Melbourne, Australia
ABSTRACT
The question that Edwin Datschefski poses in his book The Total Beauty of Sustainable
Products, is can a product (read design) be totally beautiful if made in an ugly, non-
sustainable way? A portion of what Datschefski is advocating is ethics in design. In this
paper we aim to discuss Ethics and Innovation and their relationship in the fashion industry
and the teaching of both to fashion design students. Is it possible to be ethical as a fashion
designer? The fashion industry has a history, but not all of it proud and ethics are not featured.
The beginning of a new century and millennium is good time to start addressing these issues.
It is timely as the environment, the triple bottom line, consumer activism, ethical purchasing
and human rights become front-page news, as well as part of the global agenda. The political
is personal, and digital, as consumers organise web page sit-ins and coordinate store boycotts
via the net. The political is also personal when it comes to intellectual property, when
designers are asked to copy another product, or a designer appropriates cultural property
without permission, understanding or respect; another tribe becomes this year’s look. Where
does innovation occur, is it only in garment design or in fabrication, production activities and
disposal? What example and guidelines can we offer? Is it possible for a garment to be truly
beautiful and innovative, if it has been created unethically?
This paper will be accompanied with slides for the conference.
Keywords: ethics, design, innovation, sustainability, fashion, ecology, L.I.D.A
1. Summary
In this paper we are going to address ethics and how they affect this industry. Firstly we will
define the current ethics and innovation. The tense relationship between ethics intellectual
property and cultural appropriation and innovation will then be explored. The rationale we
pursue as design educators to enable ethical design research will described. The importance
of this subject in terms of the current consumer and global agenda will be identified.
Innovation will be discussed and where it occurs in the cradle-to-cradle loop. To approach
ethical design guidelines are needed, the authors will discuss design methodology options
including the Low Impact Design Approach (LIDA) Product Cycle. In the conclusion we will
discuss the importance, and inevitability of the need for ethics and innovation in the fashion
industry and pose questions, which need to be asked and state the benefits.
3862. Introduction
Who among us has not sat spellbound at a fashion show, watching a video or paged excitedly
through a glossy fashion magazine? Sitting in the darkened audience, enraptured by the
exotic creatures, bathed in light and colour, prowling past in fabulous fabrics, cut in exquisite
ways? Haven’t most of us revelled in the scintillating, sensual pleasure of a wonderful
innovatory collection, and been left breathless and giddy? This sensory intoxication has an
equivocal source.
Definitions
In fashion it is always possible to innovate as the dictionary defines,
innovate 1 bring in new methods, ideas etc. 2 make changes. [Latin innovare ‘make new,
alter’] [1].
Each couturier’s atelier must have new designs every season, in the high street (in Europe) in
the case of Zara every 19 days. Fashion can boast a healthy work ethic, but of great
importance and germane to this paper, does fashion have ethics? If we consider ethics to be:
ethic n. a set of moral principles (the Quaker ethic) adj. = ethical. [Middle English via old
French ‘éthique’ or Latin ethicus from Greek ēthikos (as ETHOS). [1]
ethics 1 (usu. treated as sing.) the science of morals in human conduct; moral philosophy. 2 a
(treated as pl.) moral principles; rules of conduct. b (treated as pl.) a set of these (medical
ethics). [1]
Why should we be discussing ethics and innovation? Fashion is not an industry renown for
ethical conduct by the way of their methods of inspiration, design or production. Looking
further in the dictionary there are words, which have specific, peculiar and particular
meanings within our industry in relation to ethics;
rip-off n. colloq. 1 a fraud or swindle. 2 financial exploitation [1]
knock off 6 slang steal. [1]
pinch 3 tr. a esp. Brit. colloq. steal; take without permission [1]1
In metropolitan design studios (with computer linkups) fashion workers (they cannot be called
designers) copy (rip-off) ideas and patterns of existing garments, and send them digitally to be
cut and sewn in the sweatshops 2 . The fashion industry manufacturers ‘knockoffs’ in
sweatshops all over the world. This is not a third world phenomenon; it’s a global pandemic.
Everyone knows the stories; this disparity came to general recognition with the publication
The Fashion Conspiracy, appropriately in the 1980s when designers ruled or maybe ‘roamed
the earth’ and ‘greed was good’3. The information was damning4 and in those pre-internet
1 “Pinching the designs of the latest fashion has become widespread among minority entrepreneurs in the
London womens wear sector and this can be seen as a perverse reflection of the differentiation of the milieu. As
manufacturers, many emergent ethnic contractor enterprises now use design input as a negotiating lever with
buyers….’Design-pinching’ represents a considerable and strategic saving for emergent entrepreneurs.”
Unravelling the Ragtrade, Rath, E. (ed) 2002.
2
The sweatshop does not have to be off shore in a Third World country, it can just as easily a few miles from the
stylish studio in London or Melbourne.
3
Quote from the character Gordon Gekko in the film Wall Street (1987) directed by Oliver Stone, which
epitomised the influx of money, and hedonistic consumerism of the decade.
4
Coleridge wrote of visiting a Seoul clothing factory with the owner who “…told me with a measure of pride
that his workers are among the worst paid in the city. ‘Each man earns three-quarters only of other places,’ he
said.
The workers, speaking no English, grinned benignly up at their visitor…. The conditions in which they worked
were so vile that their good humour made one uncomfortable.” Coleridge N. The Fashion Conspiracy 1988
387days the power of the telex, fax or mobility of fashion ‘spies’ seemed terrifying5. Theft of
ideas, now called intellectual property, would normally be foremost in the discussion rather
than issues surrounding ethics throughout the entire industry. Ethics were not discussed
within the industry openly or widely as a subject. It has only been in the last ten years that
sweatshops, human rights and international labour laws have become the topic of mainstream
international newspapers and TV current affairs programming. There is an economic
imperative for industry to become involved and act, because the environment; the triple
bottom line6, consumer activism, ethical purchasing and human rights have become part of the
global agenda for the ethical, media savvy consumer. Consequently fashion design education
should become involved; in fact for our own integrity and that of the industry, we need to
share our observations, findings and those of students with industry. This should be a two-
way flow of ideas.
3. Discussion
Ethics
Ethics within the fashion industry as they exist currently compartmentalised and polarised; in
one industry sector design is seen as property, and copying as theft of intellectual property
and industrial intelligence. In another industry sector there is the sweatshop issue, which is
seen as a management problem; managing prices unions or the threat of unionisation and
publicity. In reality both are part of the same issue ethics; “moral philosophy…moral
principles; rules of conduct” [1] Does the industry discuss moral rules of conduct or do we
discuss or teach them within education? Are they addenda in company report or a trade paper
article or footnotes in lecture? Is an ethical fashion industry ‘too hard’; an anomaly or
oxymoron?
For this paper ethics “the science of morals in human conduct; moral philosophy” [1] are
defined as the philosophy that informs sourcing and production (including fibre
growth/manufacture) design, processing, production, marketing, and disposal. Thus it will
include sustainability, intellectual and cultural property/copyright and human rights.
It should be noted here that the call for ethics is driven by students who desire to express
themselves, their view of their cultures and respond to their world, in three-dimensional
design in cloth. How does an aware young woman (or man) in a fashion college practice her
design and construction skills, training for an industry which will encourage her to rip-off
designs, to be made up by girls younger than herself (without the benefit of education) in
cramped conditions for hours, for wages which would not pay for the students coffees for a
week? The garments will be produced in sizes two standard sizes smaller than the average
5
“Overnight couriering of catwalk photographs to pirate manufacturers is the Achilles’ heel off designer
copyright. It is difficult to prevent, since the photographers themselves are always aware of their part in the
conspiracy. A bogus South African or Far East news agency asks for second rights on catwalk pictures the
photographer is taking for an accredited magazine. A price is set, not on she number of pictures published, but at
an inclusive rate for three sets of transparencies of the show. The photographer then has no way of knowing that
his pictures are never published at all. Instead they are parcelled up in a Jiffy bag together with sketches from
the designer’s publicity portfolio, and directed to the factory. “ Coleridge 1988
6
“The triple bottom line (TBL) focuses corporations not just on the economic value they add, but also on the
environmental and social value they add –and destroy. At its narrowest, the term ‘triple bottom line’ is used as a
framework for measuring and reporting corporate performance against economic, social and environmental
parameters. At its broadest, the term is used to capture the whole set of values, issues and processes that
companies must address in order to minimize any harm resulting from their activities and to create economic,
social and environmental value. This involves being clear about the company’s purpose and taking into
consideration the needs of all the company’s stakeholders – shareholders, customers, employees, business
partners, governments, local communities and the public.” http://www.sustainability.com/philosophy/triple-
bottom/tbl-intro.asp
388women in the First World, will be photographed on models, (close to the machinists’ age), for
a market at least ten years older. The garments will be bought worn and thrown away after
two – three years, if not sooner. The fabric has a planet life longer than either that of the
student, or the machinist, as it will not biodegrade.
The students are made increasingly philosophically uncomfortable and are finding it morally
challenging. Both fashion educators and industry ask, if not demand, that they are creative for
this industry. Morally how can we ask them to contribute to this ethically challenged
environment?
4. Intellectual and Cultural Property
Educational perspective
Fashion courses in the last century in the UK were situated, usually physically and
philosophically, in fine art and design schools, in art colleges. Then in the latter part of the
century they became part of, or were subsumed by, polytechnics and eventually universities.
Their teaching and thus student work was ‘located’ in the prerequisite for creative design,
with an emphasis on individuality7 and originality. Students then as now were encouraged to
roam far and wide intellectually, physically (and now virtually) for inspiration and
information to interpret into the three dimensional sculpture we know as creative fashion
design. Within fashion design education, as in industry, originality; we have to avoid
plagiarism, pastiche, homage, theft of intellectual property and cultural appropriation. How
do we teach this? Starting a project in the text of the brief and verbally, we state the work
must be original. Within the design process we start with research into the inspiration/theme,
the intended market for the garments and thus their potential competitors; put bluntly, what
other manufacturers are doing. This is done to gauge the impact of their ideas, so as not to
reinvent the wheel or in fashion the New Look! They will be aware of what other designers
are doing but not copying them. Design research and development students experience as the
inspirational part of the process. As fashion teachers we know how fascinating other cultures
can be both in terms of artefacts, clothing and cultural practices. Yet, another culture is
exactly that, not our own. Utilisation of imagery, objects and styles can bring new meaning
and not that intended by the original, tribe, sect, people, religion or nation. Is all fair in love,
war, and fashion? The answer is no.
5. Teaching
‘Go to the source’-’Nil degrees of separation’
In an effort to encourage maximum authenticity and creativity and forestall the students being
tempted into cultural appropriation or accidental plagiarism, we try to inculcate the students
with the ‘go to the source’ or ‘nil degrees of separation’ imperative. The basic idea is that
whenever possible they visit the original of whatever they are researching for inspiration. If
intrigued by jellyfish then investigate if there are any local varieties, visit the aquarium. If not,
is there a marine biology department in the university, or in another university nearby?
Always draw first, photograph second, talk to an expert, rather than rely on a fuzzy printout
form the internet! This research methodology although not always popular with the students
(it is deemed slow), results in them owning the research, in every sense. In addition it
7
Perhaps it is worth noting that this paper is situated in the western view of individual creativity being
paramount. However this does not acknowledge the other methods of creativity based in group or teamwork;
when the individual contribution/property is not measured, but that of the entire group.
389supports good practice in the origination of ideas, and will underpin their design process if
called upon to establish an ideas paper trail in the case of litigation.
6. Cultural Appropriation
Aotearoa model
As a teacher in the UK one of the authors became worried when a student was inspired by
Africa, but could not bring to mind the name (or specific location) of the actual country,
people or sect. It was shallow thinking, inexact research, and disrespectful to the people on a
personal level. It was suggested to the student that she would not wish to be lumped
(ethically, culturally and spiritually) together with all of Europe. She was an individual and
would warrant close research (a theme on her own) so why do that to another group of people?
This reflection appealed to the student more than the inexact and shallow reasoning rationale.
In 1995 the author moved to New Zealand to teach. Aotearoa, New Zealand is a bi-cultural
country; they recognise two cultures in their legislature, Maori (the indigenous peoples) and
the pakeha (non Maori – originally English settlers)8. Representatives of both cultures were
cosignatories to the Treaty of Watangi in 1840. Maori colleagues team teaching9 on design
projects taught the students (and a new staff member) Maori history, creation myths, meaning
of images, their significance and cultural protocol. Learning the protocols for approaching
the use of imagery and their significance made the students realise more clearly that they were
often working with taonga (treasure). So to be appropriate and respectful, objects were not to
be taken (culturally appropriated), as this is theft. Symbols, designs, objects are directly
traceable to iwi (tribes), their ancestral lands, and the families, of living individuals.
Protocols
To utilise Maori research information they taught the students to trace the maker, their iwi and
approach their current elders and discuss the traditional use and meaning, so as not utilise an
image in an inappropriate manner or place, then to ask permission.
It is important for students to approach other maker/designers work with humility whatever
the source, to extend to them the same respect and professional regard they would expect. In
whatever circumstance industrial or educational, if protocols are not followed, it can easily
become a power (misuse) issue; colonial, or imperial power, First World taking Third World
cultural property for their gain. Whether it happens at a trade agreement signing, or late night
by a library photocopier, the issue is the same.
This is difficult on occasions to get the students to follow this methodology if they see
established designers regularly explore or plunder other cultures for their creative and fiscal
gain.
7. The time is right
Datschefski [2] wrote “Sustainability is inevitable –it’s now about who will be first to gain a
beachhead. Already firms are claiming major strategic stakes in what will be a trillion-dollar
business in the next five years.”
8
Representatives of both cultures were cosignatories to the Treaty of Watangi in 1840; chiefs of the Maori iwi
and representatives of the British Government: http://www.govt.nz/aboutnz/treaty.php3
9
Thomas, S. & Hemera, R. ‘Teaching in a Bi-cultural Country’ Proceedings ITAA Conference -‘Encountering
Cultures; Making Connections’, November 1999, Santa Fe, USA. http://www.itaaonline.org/index2.html
390Ethics are coming to the fore in discussion in many fields of discourse, research and
commerce, from Enron, Peter Singer10 to Nike. The need to care for environment is real and is
always with us, whether in a global forum at the World Summit for Sustainable Development
in Johannesburg, or deciding whether to legislate locally to recycle plastic bags at the
supermarket. Our ethics are not only personal, they pervade our lives; they are conveyed by
the organisations we work for and the companies from whom we buy. Ethics are about
choices based on beliefs. These choices can be diverse; inclusive or exclusive (the weak or
the strong), for personal or societal beneficial, short-term or long-term outcomes. Consumers
(and investors) are interested in the triple bottom line and human rights. To discover your
favourite label is front-page news for copyright infringement or worker exploitation or
pollution feels like a betrayal. ‘……ethics are rapidly becoming a key issue for debate in
western consumer societies’, as Linda Foster [3] wrote in the forecast publication Textile View.
Naomi Klein wrote about the multinational nature of branding and the issues, which gave, rise
to the anti-capitalist movement, which came to public notice at the anti World Trade
Organisation protests Seattle in 1999. Her book No Logo was published in 2000 and
continues to sell. It provided further content for the consumers who were increasingly uneasy
with global branding and the unethical behaviour of the multinationals. Anita Roddick
founder of The Body Shop wrote Take it Personally in 2001, urging consumers to take
responsibility for their world and their purchases. Consumers are questioning production and
consumption; as noted at the International Wool Textile Organisation in Barcelona, “Mike
Barry, M&S environmental systems manager, said latest data showed that 80 per cent of the
retailer's customers trusted pressure groups. ” Unknown [4] 11 On the Cleanclothes12 web site
consumers can access information about a company: Adidas, Benneton, Disney, Gap, Levi
Strauss, Nike, Reebok etc; read reports on the workers conditions and the company responses.
Consumers with internet can look and read about the world from first hand13 news reports not
filtred by the established networks. However industry is not passive observer in this; Marks
and Spencer post their Environmental Policy and reports on internet, as do Nike and Reebok.
10
Peter Singer is the Ira W.DeCamp Professor of Bioethics in Princetown University’s Centre for Human Values,
he has written Writings for a Practical life, Animal Liberation, Practical Ethics and Rethinking Life and Death.
11
“Speaking to representatives from the International Wool Textile Organisation in Barcelona (2002), Barry said
that the marketplace was changing and that consumer trust had been eroded by, for example, food scares.”
http://www.atfmag.com/atfportal/news/viewarticle.asp?articleID=3456
12
Clean Clothes Campaign -aims to improve working conditions in the garment and sportswear industry.
http://www.cleanclothes.org/companies.htm
13
“Indymedia is a collective of independent media organizations and hundreds of journalists offering grassroots,
non-corporate coverage. Indymedia is a democratic media outlet for the creation of radical, accurate, and
passionate tellings of truth.” http://www.indymedia.org
3918. Innovation
Where does innovation occur? Fashion design educators might reply (too quickly) ‘in the
design process’, but a serious response to the question would have to acknowledge it can
occur in design, processing, production, and even in disposal of garments. In the drive for
innovation when designers address ethics; moral rules of conduct, one aspect they have to
embrace is sustainability. Too often the industry has hidden behind the supposed difficulty of
sourcing, design, producing and disposing sustainably, rather than attempt a fashion range
using sustainable guidelines.
“Most designers focus on improving form and function, but fabrication – how products are
made – is also vital. As we will see fabrication is where many of the environmental factors
lie, with damage being caused by extraction of raw materials and by pollution rising from
manufacturing processes. To restrict your work to form alone is missing out on shaping a
huge part of the story.” Datschefski [2]
It is important to stress fashion at this point, because worthy and unfashionable eco- friendly
clothing exists; “Dull, boring and available only in beige, beige or beige. That’s the old
image of organic cotton…”[5] 14 There are very few examples of innovation occurring in
fashion forward sustainable design. Most of the work in sustainable clothing design has been
done in generic clothing; t-shirts and performance/activity clothing again generic; the polar
fleece jacket. An unhealthy emphasis tends to occur on design yet innovation can and should
occur ANYWHERE in the cradle-to-cradle loop. Questions relating to ethics and
sustainability have to asked; what happens to the water in the factory, where do we use the
most energy, do we have to source overseas, can we provide clothing recycle bins in our
stores, how much would we save on the triple bottom line if we only printed with soy based
inks and told our customers. We need to be much broader and flexible in our expectations
and application of innovation. An ethical response can be an innovation itself!
9. Guidelines - Options
“An individual product may look harmless enough but the environmental damage it causes
happens elsewhere, out of sight and mind, ‘hidden’ from the consumer and often from the
designer as well.” Datschefski [2]
To proceed to the new century and millennium we need guidelines, for ethics and
sustainability for teaching and industry. There are guidelines, but they are for the industry
when it comes to labour laws, and for designers, but they are principally for architecture and
industrial design. There is need for discussion in this area as sustainability has for many years
been debated by product rather than fashion designers. This is paradox as clothes (although in
the same price range) have a higher turnover than household appliances.
UK Model - C.S.E.S.& S.
Students involved in sustainable product design and development must consider the product
(in this case garment) life cycle analysis (LCA), the aesthetics and the requirements,
ramifications of employing workers onshore or off shore (are their human rights being
considered). For example they may utilise Edwin Datschefskis’ [2] method of product
analysis utilising five principles; Cyclic, Solar, Efficient, Safe & Social (C.S.E.S.& S.). That
is “Products should either be apart of natural cycles, made of grown materials which can part
of a manmade cycle”, Solar “All energy used to make or run the product should be from
renewable energy in all its variable forms, most of which are ultimately driven by the sun’.
14
An observation by Textile View when reporting on the successful and exciting fashion show working with the
Sustainable Cotton project put on by the Academy of Art College in San Francisco this year.
392Efficient means; “Increasing the efficiency of materials and energy use’. Safe as it sounds;
“Products and, importantly, their by-products, should not contain hazardous materials” and
finally Social; “A product cannot be great if it’s manufacture exploits workers.” [2] There are
other alternatives.
Australian Model – L.I.D.A.
One of the authors defined in her Australian based research into sustainable fashion design,
two methods of working pursued by fashion designers. The role in the Australian clothing
industry takes on two main forms, Type A: the fashion designer who designs and develops the
product from the ground up, starting with the fibre and fibre origins following through to the
finished prototype, Type B: is the fashion designer who converts someone else’s design,
usually from overseas, into a product to suit the Australian market. Depending on the
company the type B designer works for, developing these products can mean either re-
colouring existing styles to include the latest seasons’ palette or choosing styles observed
abroad considered to have mass consumer appeal and manufacturing them in more affordable
materials.
The design process followed by a type A designer is appropriate to an ethical approach to
design if the designer has the correct principles guiding the design decisions. It is the type B
designer whose role is questioned for it is the nature of the design process followed by these
designers which is generally responsible for generating the most process waste and
exploitation of labour. The turnover of design ideas from research to collection for a type B
designer is so short the designer barely has time to reflect on one design decision let alone the
entire process. Introducing an ethical sustainable design process to clothing companies of
type B requires creative thinking. The fashion industry is famous for its fascination with
excess not only in an industrial sense as waste in the form of liquids, gas and solids but also
when incorporating the ‘WOW’ factor (The Age 2002) at early design stages. The industry
rivals industrial design for the indulgent amount of wasted finished product (Papanek 1995)
celebrating the often heard “you can never be too thin and or have too many shoes” mantra
followed by so many fashion junkies. A sustainable approach to design in the industry needs
to address ethics and waste first, perhaps a difficult concept for management and designers to
embrace.
393The Low Impact Design Approach (LIDA) Product Cycle
Figure 1: The LIDA Product Cycle is an
alternative to the linear fashion design process
developed by the author Anthea Van Kopplen as
part of a Master of Design by project degree completed in 2001.
In response to the situation she developed a methodology; the Low Impact Design Approach
Product Cycle (Van Kopplen 2001) is a model of a sustainable approach to the fashion design
process. The model seeks to help fashion designers picture their role inside the supply chain
in an environmentally and ethically sustainable clothing industry. Figure 1 represents the
stages of the clothing supply chain in a cyclical model. The cycle begins with a design idea or
brief at the centre then follows a looping path through raw materials (for instance wool, cotton,
PET), production, retail and consumption finishing with raw materials again. The cycle
supports the cradle to cradle (Paul Hawken 1994) principle by seeking to design a product
that can be converted at the end of its useful life back into the raw material.
The model guides the fashion designer to evaluate each design decision during the
development of the product and determine its impact on the environment from ecological,
economic and social platforms.
It is important to note that the primary tasks for the designer are:
• Planning, developing and realizing a product idea in response to a design brief.
• To remain well informed of each activity in the life cycle of a product.
394• Make strategic responsible design decisions based on the information provided by
each team member
• Be a team leader and guide the process diligently.
In every industry the designer is in a unique position. The designer has the power to adapt a
design at any time in the planning and development stages of the design process controlling
75% of the final design output (Larson 1998). The fashion design process is a sequence of
stages through which a fashion product flows through from initial design to public
introduction, evident public acceptance and ultimate obsolescence. In a team environment the
fashion designer is able to make informed design decisions based on expert information.
Figure 1 is a looping graph of the stages of what is usually a linear design process, to explain
the steps necessary for consideration by the designer. It represents stages in a sustainable
approach to design – a cyclical design process. Many companies in textiles and clothing these
days are turning to cyclical solutions to make supply networks more efficient and ultimately
more sustainable. Interface is an example of a textile product company, whose carpet business
has become cyclical by providing a service. This company uses a modular system leasing
carpet tiles to consumers. Interface has paid close attention to the end-of-life of their product
by replacing tiles when worn and recycling the old tiles - www.interfaceinc.com. Patagonia is
an outdoor goods company famous for their environmental approach to clothing design.
Patagonia has hired a team of environmental analysts to evaluate their textiles and tell them
which materials are the best. They evaluated nylon, polyester, wool and cotton and the
analysts found at the time in 1990, that there was no significant difference. Technology since
then has made available improved processing systems in some of the textiles which have
enabled them to develop a high performance fleece material called PCR Synchilla made from
recycled PET soda bottles (Brown and Wilmanns 1997). A textile company from Denmark,
Novotex, is involved in the private label production and sales of Green Textiles, an organic
cotton which include tracksuits,
T-shirts, bed linen and towels. The development of these products minimize environmental
impact throughout the textile cycle – cultivation, ginning, spinning, knitting and weaving,
dyeing and printing, cutting and sewing, use and recycling (Charter 1999).
10. Conclusion
We can attempt to solve the physical problem of sustainability; of waste and environment,
even design aesthetics. Through the advent of airconditioning, central heating and global
warming (in part caused by the two former achievements) and the invention of intelligent
fibres/fabrics in the First World, is there a real need for new clothes for the changing seasons?
However there is a major problem we need to solve, the psychological desire (installed by
marketing) for more. Consumerism is harder to fight, let alone solve even if that was our
intention. As Foster [3] observed, “Adopting an ethical stance doesn’t mean consumers will
stop consuming.”
Is it time for a paradigm shift, if not a radical rethink of what we are doing? What is the way
forward, is it possible to be ethical as a fashion designer? The answer is yes, and the way
forward is following or creating guidelines, in consultation with other practitioners; dialogue
rather than assumption, knowledge rather than information. First World ideal is not the Third
World ideal. The objective is not to stop the use of cultural imagery, or to close the
sweatshops, but to work together to establish a mutual way of working for better conditions
and outcomes. Realistically we cannot start an all-new industry, but we can subvert the
paradigm from within. As Klein [5] said this is not re-branding problem, “…nothing will
395change until corporations realise that they don’t have a communication problem. They have a
reality problem.”
To be frank we have not got a choice, industry must respond to the consumers and start
auditing for a triple bottom line; the economic, the environmental and the social value of the
companies. Eduction has to address ethics as stand alone subject or study, not as an side
comment in a lecture, or an occasional project. Students concerns about the industry have to
be addressed, guidelines for ethical, sustainable design have to be devised tested and taught.
For both industry and education leading this new direction is a positive attribute, a method of
enrichment philosophically it adds to the wealth of the company on many levels, and adds a
significant point of difference for education programmes. This is an instance when both can
learn and support each other, strengthen the enquiry and the potential benefit to all
participants by working together, so that ethics and innovation are taught, then practiced in
the industry.
“If we understand that design leads to the manifestation of human intention, and if what we
make with our hands is to be sacred and honor the earth that gives us life, then the things we
make must not only rise from the ground but return to it, soil to soil, water to water, so
everything that is received from the earth can be freely given back without causing harm to
any living system. This is ecology. It is of this we must now speak.” William McDonough [6]
Acknowledgements
Paul, Bram & Ronin Van Kopplen
Sue Ryan, Frances Burke Textiles Resource Centre, RMIT University
Second year BA Fashion (Exploratory Design) Students RMIT University 2002: for asking
hard questions, even in the first year.
References
Books
Coleridge, N. (1988) The Fashion Conspiracy, William Heinemann, London, UK.
Datschefski, D. (2001) The Total Beauty of Sustainable Products, RotoVision, Crans-Près-
Céligny, Switerzerland.
Hawken, P. (1994) The Ecology of Commerce, Harper Collins, New York, USA.
Hall, D. and Ryan, L. (1998) Chains of Success, Commonwealth of Australia
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