Filter By Fabric: Empowering Informed Fashion Purchase Decisions

By Rachel Gallagher, The Woolmark Company, & B. Ellie Jin, NC State University

Raising awareness: The impact of consumer fabric choices on landfill waste

By 2030, 73% of clothing is projected to be of synthetic, plastic origins (Trunk et al., 2021). It’s undoubtedly of great global concern that our synthetic clothes will haunt our planet for up to 200 years, long after our lifetimes, to leave a disastrous environmental legacy inherited by our grandchildren and beyond.  Consequently, it will be important to encourage consumers to choose natural fibers over synthetic fibers. However, are consumers aware of the presence of synthetic fibers in their clothing purchase? While there are legal requirements for fibre composition labelling on products, vague descriptions about fabric composition of clothes are alarmingly common.

From digital shopping platforms to fashion media, textiles products are often described with ambiguous language in product information and descriptions. They are frequently described as ‘fleece’, ‘satin’, ‘crêpe’, or ‘leather-like’ – drawing on the benefits of natural fabrics – when in truth, none of the products feature natural compositions at all. Such misleading descriptions and selling techniques can cloud buyers’ understanding of the materials within their purchase.

Tackling fashion’s impact crisis: The Woolmark Company’s “Filter By Fabric” campaign

Highlighting this transparency issue is important to helping consumers make informed purchase decisions. Just as how food authorities have empowered consumers with tools to understand nutritional information on packaging, and as household appliances showcase their energy efficiency ratings, it’s long overdue that the fashion industry provides honest descriptions about what we wear on our bodies every day and its implications for our planet’s future.

One notable effort toward the transparent communication is the Woolmark Company’s “Filter By Fabric” campaign (The Woolmark Company, n.d.). The Filter By Fabric campaign underscores one of the most pressing issues in the fashion industry: transparent communication. When shoppers are left in the dark about the true composition of what they buy and wear, it is no wonder that consumers unwittingly contribute to the growing use of synthetic fibres in fashion. The Filter By Fabric campaign offers a filter that allows online shoppers to easily sort by fabric type on e-commerce platforms. This enables consumers to make mindful decisions over their fabric choices. A growing number of brands have committed to the campaign. Now it’s your turn to demonstrate your commitment to environmental sustainability by signing the pledge. This collective action allows us to create real change, rather than merely thinking and talking about it.

Looking Ahead to the Future

It won’t be long until regulatory proposals emerge in both the European Union and the United States that change the way the fashion industry creates textiles, markets them and accounts for products’ end-of-life stage. Various initiatives are proposed and executed from Extended Producer Responsibility policies (The Woolmark Company, n.d.)Wook and extended producer responsibility ) through to fair labour practices and social responsibility. One effective way to protect the planet’s health is to increase the awareness of natural fibers that decompose, such as wool. Woolmark’s recent initiative, Filter By Fabric, exemplifies the first steps towards focusing on a practical solution to the fashion industry’s challenges. By encouraging a greater relationship between consumers and industry, Filter By Fabric offers a solution that ensures effective and transparent communication, guiding globally aligned initiatives towards a better future in fashion. We expect to see more initiatives similar to this that educate and guide consumers, who indeed have the power to influence change.

References

Trunk, U., Harding-Rolls, G., Banegas, X., & Urbancic, N. (2021). Fossil fashion: The hidden reliance of fast fashion on fossil fuels. Changing Markets Foundation.
The Woolmark Company (n.d.). Wook and extended producer responsibility. https://www.woolmark.com/industry/sustainability/wool-and-extended-producer-responsibility/#:~:text=Extended%20Producer%20Responsibility%20(EPR)%20is,at%20end%20of%20useful%20life.