The California Market Center is a market trade show where people embrace their love for fabrics. Perron, a business development manager for Peclers Paris, said that sustainable fabrics are the hottest trend at the moment and there is a huge demand for them compared to previous years. At the California Market Center, 40% of the show’s vendors offered sustainable fabrics and most of the people were searching for sustainable fabrics and organic cotton. 

This article highlights the increase demand for eco-friendly fabrics. Having a high demand for this is important because it forces businesses to comply with their consumers or else they will not have a market anymore. Although 40% of the show’s vendors offered sustainable fabrics, this is not enough to mitigate climate change. The fashion industry has one of the largest carbon footprints and the majority of the industry needs to be eco-friendly in order to relieve the environment. With the increasingly high demand for sustainability, hopefully most of the industry becomes eco-friendly.

The UC Cooperative Extension hosted a webinar for organizations who implement sustainable fashion. These organizations work closely with California farmers to grow regenerative cotton; farmers have been experimenting with different techniques, like using flail mower and planting covering crops, and measuring the amount of carbon cotton can capture. Companies involved in this process share pre-competitive information with each other to overcome unsustainable gaps in the supply chain and to attract other companies to their coalition. 

I think it is really special that companies are working closely with farmers because it demonstrates their clear mission to be more environmentally conscious. Although this coalition has not found a definitive way to cleanly grow cotton, they are on the right track by experimenting with several different techniques. A close relationship between cotton farmers and companies also promote sustainability because it eliminates the middleman that typically involves more carbon emissions. Furthermore, it is promising to hear that companies are working together and are not being competitive with sustainable practices. This is the best approach to mitigating climate change because it is a holistic effort.

Sid Gupta is the founder of a California-based company called Quince: an eco-friendly clothing brand that offers affordable prices. Most companies are unfortunately one or the other; they either sell sustainable clothes at high prices or sell unsustainable clothes at cheap prices. However, Quince takes pride in offering sustainable clothes with affordable prices through cutting out the middleman and sending their goods directly to the sellers from their factory. 

It’s unfortunate that consumers are forced to sacrifice either money or sustainability when buying clothes. However, Quince exposed the simple way to eliminate this sacrifice which is to cut out the middleman. Quince uses the money that would have gone to all of the in-between steps to invest in eco-friendly cotton for their clothes; plus, they avoid the extra carbon emissions from the extra transportation. If businesses started to follow Quince’s footsteps, then there would be an affordable market for sustainable clothing, which will help mitigate climate change. In my opinion, I don’t see much of a reason for businesses not to operate like Quince; sustainable clothes should be the standard, not the exception. 

To comply with California’s Prop 65, requiring businesses to alert Californians of any toxic chemicals in their products, Duvaltex and Steelcase collaborated to create eco-friendly fabrics for furniture. The manufacturer uses renewable energy to create fabric made out of marine plastics and safe chemicals. Furthermore, for every pound of fabric produced, suppliers remove approximately half a pound of marine waste from the ocean. 

California’s Prop 65 has clearly guided businesses towards the sustainable direction. The company’s sustainable product is multi-faceted in the sense that it tackles a variety of environmental issues. They use renewable energy to curb carbon emissions and remove waste from the ocean, demonstrating how they are holistically trying to help the environment. Furthermore, for the economy-driven criticizers of climate change, this company has also helped the fishing industry through creating more jobs to help remove waste from the ocean. I think this article does a wonderful job of illustrating the way companies can take a multifaceted approach to climate change, which in return, can also aide the economy. 

California has the potential to be the sustainable capital of not only the U.S, but the entire world. On one hand, they are in a geographically prime region of the world. With its proximity to the ocean, dessert, and mountains, California in its core is a nature-valued state, making sustainability a highly-valued issue because they want to preserve their nature. On the other hand, they have the market capability for sustainable fashion. In the fashion industry in California, collaboration is far more important than competition, meaning that California has the potential to create a supply chain that is incomparable to other states. 

California, in its nature, is a unique state and this article details how the state needs to capitalize on its uniqueness to make a change. Most states have one or the other; they are either nature driven or market driven. California is the only state that has both and to their highest extreme. I strongly believe that this positions California as the perfect place to be the sustainable fashion capital since they already model and embrace the qualities for sustainability. If California becomes the sustainable fashion capital, then they have the capability to curb carbon emissions through their direct actions and also through their influence on other parts of the world.

Moore, Kaleigh. “America Recycles Day 2020: How Are Fashion Brands Making Progress?” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 13 Nov. 2020, www.forbes.com/sites/kaleighmoore/2020/11/15/america-recycles-day-2020-how-are–fashion-brands-making-progress/?sh=38d3ece95da1. 

The U.S celebrates a nationally-recognized recycling day: “America Recycles Day”. This national day is meant to raise awareness for the consumers’ growing demand for sustainability in everyday products, as 69% of environmentally-conscious buyers willingly pay more for eco-friendly goods. While the fashion industry still has a long way to go to compensate for their environmental impact, many American companies have tried to incorporate recycled materials into their products to prevent those materials from entering landfills and oceans. 

The make-up of plastics are hard to dismantle and typically enter landfills and oceans, toxifying them. I think it’s a great idea for companies to incorporate recycled plastics into their products to prevent them adding more to climate change. One of the companies the article mentioned was Veja, a shoe brand that is composed of recycled plastics, I’ve actually bought from before. Although a lot of brands try to label themselves as sustainable, I like Veja because they are a transparent company that explicitly proves how they are sustainable. 

LaBarre, Suzanne. “The $380-Billion Trend Turning Fast Fashion on Its Head.” Fast Company, Fast Company, 17 Nov. 2020, www.fastcompany.com/90576065/the-380-billion-trend-reshaping-fashion. 

Although fast fashion is expected to grow 20% in the next decade, secondhand clothing is expected to grow 185%. The U.S secondhand clothing market is projected to more than triple in value in the next ten years, which is complimented by it expanding 21 times faster than conventional retail in 2019. This clothing market is composed of two sectors: thrifting and secondhand retail shops. Secondhand retail shops are more popular as many apps and stores have made it convenient for shoppers to buy trendy and cute clothes sustainably. 

 Buying secondhand is one of the most ethical ways to buy clothes as it minimizes clothing production that harms the environment. While fast fashion is still growing, the secondhand clothing market’s growth is promising for the environment; afterall, fast fashion is arguably still necessary for individuals who desperately can’t afford expensive clothing. With apps like Poshmark and Depop, I think secondhand clothing has become very convenient for shoppers to comfortably browse through sustainable clothes. 

Indvik, Lauren. “Sustainable Fashion? There’s No Such Thing.” Subscribe to Read | Financial Times, Financial Times, 13 Nov. 2020, www.ft.com/content/d174e7d7-97c4-43fc-8765-95075e5fcce7. 

In Indvik’s article, she argues that the fashion industry is actually becoming more environmentally toxic. The past four years have been a defining era for the fashion industry since consumers have been demanding for more sustainable clothes. This has caused companies to label virtually everything as “organic”, “sustainable”, “eco-friendly” and more. While these terms may appear to benefit the environment, there’s no sense of regulation to ensure these products align with these terms, allowing companies to exploit these terms to profit. 

With climate change in the back of many minds when making decisions, consumers try to make sustainable choices to mitigate environmental consequences. As someone who makes an effort to buy sustainable clothes, I’ve noticed that so many companies have been labelling their products as “sustainable” and “organic”; even companies who are the epitome of fast fashion like Forever 21 and H&M claim to have a sustainable clothing line. When it comes to large companies, like Forever 21 and H&M, I immediately don’t trust their sustainable claims since their mass production automatically cancels out any sense of environmental benefits. I tend to trust smaller businesses’ sustainable products, however, I think there needs to be U.S policies to ensure that sustainable clothes are actually eco-friendly.