In wondering about the future of sustainable fashion, author Kate Fletcher comments that over 20 major brands and 1200 smaller ones sell organic fiber products and that spending on eco-fashion has doubled in the last two years. But she notes that the focus of eco-fashion has been almost solely on choice and provenance of materials, and that is too limited.
Fletcher argues that sustainable fashion must concentrate on materials-based or technical innovations and social change, everything from championing lower impact fiber types to fairer employment methods to more efficient processing techniques. Some of this is already happening; Marks & Spencer, Britain’s biggest clothing retailer, has mainstreamed Fairtrade label cotton. One recent article noted how sustainable fashion was helping local farmers.