FGI Examines the Profitability of Eco Fashion
The world of environmental fashion has grown increasingly popular, but crucial questions on eco business remain for entrepreneurs planning to get into this field, according to a panel of eco-fashion consultants, retailers and business people who spoke June 18 in Los Angeles at a Fashion Group International of Los Angeles event called “Has Green Gone Wild?”
According to the panel, many entrepreneurs wonder if eco-fashion businesses can make a profit. Entrepreneurs also want to know more on the steps a company must take to become an eco-fashion business. Many also want to define what this market’s terms—such as “eco-friendly” and “sustainable”—mean.
The panel was held at the downtown Los Angeles offices of finance company CIT Group Inc. CIT Senior Vice President Robert Lewin moderated the panel. The panel included Lorelyn Eaves, a director of marketing for the MAGIC Marketplace’s new eco-fashion trade event, Ecollection@MAGIC, set to bow Aug. 25–27 in Las Vegas.
Other panelists were consultant Barbara Montz, president of Marketing By Design Textile and Sourcing Solutions, and Nathalie Fausty, trend consultant for Promostyl Trend Office LTD. The panel also included Darren Friedman, creative director for fashion line Fortune & Redemption; Monique Marco, a Los Angeles–based green fashion stylist; and Amanda Shi, co-owner of Avita Co-Op, a Los Angeles–based manufacturer and retailer of eco-friendly fashions.
Montz and Eaves both maintained that a business could be both eco-friendly and profitable. When asked if using eco-friendly materials increases the cost of goods, Montz said that in the short term, using materials such as organic cotton would be more expensive. But, she said, in the long term, a company could find economic gains from using eco-friendly or organic materials. Use of these materials such as LED lighting can save energy costs, for example.
Montz said greater health benefits would be gleaned by workers who work with organic materials such as organic cotton, which is cultivated without pesticides.
Eco-minded companies might have to rethink ways to sell to their consumers, Eaves said. Instead of selling “fast fashion,” which is meant to be disposed of quickly, companies might develop “slow” fashion, which would be designed to last years.
Friedman and Shi both pointed to small but important ways they made their companies more eco-friendly. For example, both said they e-mail invoices rather than print them on paper and then mail them.
Shi said she hopes to explain to customers what made her store’s garments eco-friendly through the store’s hangtags. The hangtags list the percentage of eco-materials in a garment and how production of the garment could affect the environment.
Panelists also said they worried that consumers and businesses were confused about the terms that described environmentally friendly clothing. Montz described the term “environmentally friendly” as a product that put less stress on the ecosystem than other products.
Terms such as “environmentally sustainable” could be defined as something that sustains the natural system, but it could also refer to something that sustains a community of workers and their culture, Marco said.
Eaves also urged the crowd of more than 50 that it was crucial for businesses to back up environmental claims with certification such as the Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS).
For more information on environmental standards, the Federal Trade Commission will be holding a public workshop on updating its guidelines for environmentally friendly textiles and building materials from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. (EST) on July 15 in Washington, D.C. The free workshop will be Webcast on the FTC’s Web site (www.ftc.gov). —Andrew Asch
