THE FASHION INDUSTRY IN CONFLICT WITH ITSELF, THE CONSUMER

Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week took once again place in the capital Berlin from 1 to 3 July.

On the catwalk, Guido Maria Kretschmer, RebekkaRuétz, Lena Hoschek, Rianiand Atelier Michalskywill show their collections for summer 2020.

Away from the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week runway, numerous site events will take place this week: Showrooms, fashion brunches, blogger and beauty lounges - there are numerous locations throughout Berlin where fashion designers present their collections.

As if that weren't enough fashion hype, Berlin also hosts the four trade fairs "Premium", "Seek", "Selvedge Run" and "Panorama" during the Fashion Week.

While an industry celebrates itself in the three days and presents its latest creations, one notices subliminally how an industry tries to trim its image to green and sustainable. But if you are honest, this attempt in Berlin has failed in the last 3 days.

Traditionally, peta-activists have demonstrated against fur and leather use and thus represented a large part of consumer opinion, but the rest of the event usually lacked sustainable action. Even the organiser of the event was unable to provide reusable cutlery or coffee mugs. The green plants used are all returned to the nursery after the fair, but this has nothing to do with sustainable thinking, but rather with the cost/benefit of the event.

Only a few fashion labels are committed to sustainability right from the start or try to use recycled material.

There has been a lot of talk about sustainability, but in the end, far too little movement.

But why is that?

Although the answer is complex, the first thing to note is that the fashion industry is an open, unregulated market. This means that the customer or consumer decides which products he or she wants to buy at which price and which not.

The customer currently still wants a new blouse every month and this must cost only little. However, many consumers here still lack the awareness that a blouse for Euro 20, - can not be produced sustainably and he should rather buy only every 2 months a new blouse.

Our preliminary evaluations of the FASHION SURVEY 2019 show that more than 70% of those surveyed do not consider green labels to be decisive for purchasing. So if the consumer thinks so, one should not be surprised if an industry does not feel the right pressure to act, because sustainable action would not be rewarded by your customers, but would probably be punished because of the higher price. If the creative minds of the fashion industry really want to make a difference here, they must play a pioneering role and educate their customers more.

If you as a consumer want to give your opinion a voice, then take part in our Fashion Survey 2019.