“The Ecologista” – what greenwashing is?

Preview from December issue #15

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Photography Flavia Sistiaga | Style Louis Guimard | Model Gabrielle Dubois | Style assistant Loic Bourgeois | Makeup, Hair Style Helena Henrion

To talk about sustainability has become very easy today. Anyone is willing to listen to you and it is a fertile ground on which to build reputation: a card to play without many risks. Precisely because of this relative simplification of the term it is of vital importance to talk about greenwashing today. To avoid first of all sustainability to become an easy tool with which to deceive the public – all of us included. Secondly, to ensure that there is indeed a positive feedback in the practices and policies of the producers, not only in the fashion field but also in all other sectors. In a saturated market, knowing how to choose what to buy is a moral duty above all.

Greenwashing, for those who have not yet come into contact with the term, is the practice of using sustainability as a marketing strategy to increase the number of customers, without having effective feedback on a practical level. In few words, greenwashing is about all those brands that claim to be eco-friendly and make it a flag, making very little effort on a practical level. Or even those who “hide” harmful production practices under positive behaviors that are not strictly related. Misleading advertising, that’s what it is in simple terms.

It is not difficult to imagine how greenwashing is effectively widespread in the fashion advertising system, today that sustainability is proving to be a crucial value in the choice of consumption by customers, especially the younger ones.

It is not difficult to do research and, even in small steps, coming to know how to distinguish between what is good and what is not. Just a little bit of good will and it is done.

The Internet is the best place to start, even though it is often a double-edged sword. Certain informations, however, are clear and indisputable and constitute the essential background we all should have. For example, knowing the fabrics, their origin and their processing.

Give preference to natural fibers such as wool, cotton, viscose or hemp (yes, hemp! The most innovative and at the same time the oldest fiber) is very important, though not sufficient. Synthetic and artificial fibers, which come mainly from plastic, are extremely harmful not only during production but also after, during their life. Not everyone knows that every time a polyester garment is washed it releases a certain amount of plastic particles into the water that add new pollution to the ecosystem, in a potentially infinite cycle. Companies that demonstrate they use natural fibers are usually more conscious than others.

Prices and the number of items per collection is another direct way to evaluate a brand. Low prices and countless collections per year are a sign of low (if not non-existent) respect for the environment and probably a truly polluting production system.