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This is the first article of a two-part series for Women’s History Month exploring the role of and challenges facing women driving sustainability in fashion. Read part two here.
Fashion has been talking about sustainability for years now, yet the most prominent designers focused on sustainability are women. That’s not a coincidence, says Gabriela Hearst, founder of her eponymous label and former creative director at Chloé.
“I do think we take a more holistic approach to our thinking and our doing than men,” she says. “I’m not going to say that men are not empathetic, but there’s something about us; it’s really long-term viewing, and maternal thinking in a way. Even if you’re not a mother, it’s just the way we think — in future generations.”
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But for an industry that has been making one promise to the planet after another, how can the creative focus on sustainability remain so heavily divided by gender? This is an anecdotal observation — taking a formal inventory of the fashion landscape is all but impossible, given how many new designers come onto the scene, or disappear from it, continually. But consider the list of women-led brands that were founded, or evolved, specifically to put sustainability at the centre of their business models: Mara Hoffman, Priya Ahluwalia, Marine Serre, Phoebe English, Driftless Goods, Collina Strada, La Réunion, Another Tomorrow, Canava, Brother Vellies, Maria McManus and even Eileen Fisher, to name a few. (There are also notable exceptions to this, including Patrick McDowell and Christopher Raeburn.)
Vogue Business approached over a dozen women in the industry, from designers including Hearst to brand founders and sustainability consultants, to discuss these questions and explore the various factors at play. What emerged was a complicated picture of historic gender roles, women’s tendency for leadership in times of crisis, inequalities in who is impacted by both climate change and by the fashion industry directly and the role of privilege in creating both opportunity and visibility.
“Women often find themselves leading in times of crisis, expected to navigate tumultuous waters and pioneer innovative solutions. With the fashion industry at a critical environmental crossroads, it’s unsurprising that more women are steering the ship towards sustainability,” says Sandra Gonza, senior sustainability strategist at Quantis. “I believe that sustainability-focused women designers are not merely responding to our global climate crisis; I think some are on a mission to rewrite the narrative.”
Put on a pedestal
For many, the story of sustainable fashion starts with Stella McCartney. She has never used leather or fur in her namesake brand, launched in 2001. That sometimes means she uses petroleum-based materials instead, but she is also a consistent and active supporter of new material development. She was one of the first designers to sign onto the non-profit Canopy’s pledge to avoid sourcing viscose from ancient and endangered forests; she was part of The Sustainable Fashion Handbook in 2012, and she helped launch the UN Fashion Industry Charter for Climate Action in 2018.
“It is not easy. I cannot count the number of times I was the only woman in the room and called an ‘eco weirdo’ for what I was saying. Even 23 years into my Stella journey, it still happens,” McCartney said over email; she declined a full interview for this story. “I often find myself the lone voice pushing conversations around sustainability... still! Everybody talks about how they want to change and become more conscious, but there are very few brands who have followed in my footsteps by investing in innovation, research and development across supply chains.”
Stella McCartney is regarded by some in the industry as synonymous with sustainability. “We wouldn’t be where we are today without Stella McCartney. Specifically, she brought eyeballs and credibility to the idea that luxury can be redefined, that we can stand up for what we believe and move the needle on the planet,” says Geren Lockhart, independent consultant, CEO and co-founder of “profit-for-purpose” apparel brand Canava. “Without Stella dipping into the supply chain, asking for more options, and investing in that supply chain, we would be even further behind.”
The sneaky role of privilege
It would be counterproductive, however, to ignore the role her built-in fame and wealth played in her ability to generate that influence. McCartney, the famous daughter of Paul and Linda McCartney, built her brand with more resources than a typical designer has access to. And breaking into the industry with a sustainable design ethos is even more challenging. Hearst, meanwhile, grew up on a farm in Uruguay, a background that inspires much of her design aesthetic, as well as her material sourcing, with her family’s ranch being a key supplier of her wool. She is married to Austin Hearst, the grandson of media baron William Randolph Hearst, who co-founded and invested in the Gabriela Hearst label when it launched in 2015.
“The reality is that both Stella and Gabriela could take the chance and push the conversation, risking failure because of who they are, which is the real privilege at play. If they say no to something or challenge the status quo, they will still be invited into the conversation and retain their future employment opportunities, a risk most other designers can’t take,” says Lockhart.
On top of the startup costs needed to launch any brand, sustainability-first decisions are prohibitively costly for many because of the way the industry operates today, including the role that existing government policies and incentives play in keeping costs of certain materials and processes artificially low.
Hearst, though, is convinced there’s a solid business case for running a brand sustainably, as long as the will is there. She says she grew her eponymous brand by 25 per cent while she was working at Chloé — which grew 65 per cent at the same time. “It’s unheard of that a designer working for two brands grows both companies. For us, it was a mission and model to prove, and we proved that the model can be scalable,” says Hearst.
She had investors, including LVMH, and says the brand has achieved what she outlined in the pitch deck in 2017. It’s a matter of making smart choices, she says — finding efficiencies (Gabriela Hearst stores have no window displays or mannequins) and not following retail trends, for example — to make it work. “I know, from a factual point of view, that you can actually grow a business in a sustainable way — with restraints, with real challenges… I think it has nothing to do with anything besides wanting to do it.”
A systemic problem
Still, hurdles remain for smaller designers wanting to operate differently. It can be hard to secure responsibly made materials at a competitive price, or to order in volumes large enough or at a high-enough price to convince a supplier to change practices or equipment. The fact that privilege has helped certain designers elevate the sustainability conversation is not the fault of those who have it, but of the system we operate in, experts say — and a sign that the industry has not put sustainability first nor figured out how to make the business case for doing so.
“It simply has not reached the highest levels of power within the industry,” says Maxine Bédat, director and founder of the New Standard Institute. “Fashion is a world of boardrooms mostly filled with straight men over 60 who went to about 10 prestigious private universities. That wildly small group is deciding what’s important to consumers and the planet, and they need to do better,” adds Lockhart.
If the industry limits who it listens to, it risks limiting the solutions it can learn about and the potential feedback on ones it’s exploring. A lack of diverse voices also risks limiting who sustainable fashion is “for” — who feels included in or served by the message it conveys.
“Climate, sustainability, all these issues most adversely impact women of colour. So globally, women of colour need to be involved in those brainstorms and those conversations,” says designer Aurora James, founder of New York label Brother Vellies.
Role of the business model
While some female-led brands may be smaller because they never get the visibility or can’t afford to reach the same scale, many are smaller because that’s a defining aspect of how they feel they can operate sustainably. “Maybe that’s quite intentional — when they’re so in tune with sustainability, they’re at a certain level that they want to maintain,” says sustainability strategist Rachel Arthur. “Having [one of those designers] in one of these positions of power would be huge and beneficial — but I don’t necessarily think that it will happen in a way that is authentic, if they’re really engaged with the sustainability agenda, because those two things are inherently opposed.”
“The current fashion business model would struggle to make its current level of profits from more sustainable practices,” says London-based designer McDowell, who makes made-to-order and limited-edition pieces. “I knew I needed to redesign the system our clothes sat within, along with the clothes themselves.”
Indeed, a number of independent designers say they operate in a different space, and that’s OK. “When I run a race in life, I’m not really looking around me so much. I’m really just focusing on breathing the air into my lungs and getting to where I’m going,” says James. “[Prominent designers like Stella McCartney] are occupying a container that’s not interesting to me. If there’s not enough space for me, I haven’t noticed.”
Where is the industry heading now?
Despite the many targets and commitments made by virtually every major fashion house, there’s little indication that the industry is heading for systemic change. The recent spate of male creative director hirings may be evidence of the opposite, some say, a sign that fashion continues to treat sustainability as optional and as something that can be added on rather than needing to be built in from the start.
“In many ways, it’s a silent proclamation that the industry prioritises traditional markers of prestige and success above the urgent demands for inclusivity and environmental stewardship,” says Gonza of Quantis. “The current trajectory indicates a hesitance to undergo this necessary transformation, showing a preference to remain in the safe, familiar realms of tradition and exclusivity.”
While the role of the design process in driving sustainability is often overlooked or underestimated by major brands, it’s where so many decisions are made that will inform the rest of how a garment is made, from sewing technique to colour choices. The designers hired to fill the top roles in recent months are known for their design aesthetic, not their sustainability credentials. They may have an interest, but that’s not the same as expertise and training in a specific mindset.
“When I do workshops with designers, I am always blown away by their creativity. We intentionally create new boundaries for them around circularity and I hear new ideas all the time because they are being given new challenges to solve,” says Nicole Bassett, co-founder of The Renewal Workshop, which is now owned by logistics firm Bleckmann. “I feel like there is so much potential to use the creative power of a designer’s brain to solve our industry’s problems.”
Hearst echoes that sentiment, emphasising the role of creativity and sustainability not just in design but in thinking about how to approach running a business overall. “You have to be able to, yes, sacrifice, but it’s not unheard of what we’ve done. It’s not revolutionary. It’s just a matter of slowing down and figuring out how to do things better.”
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