The importance of sustainability in fashion is not lost in our modern generation, in fact, it holds greater dominance than ever before - but how did we get here? Our present-day consciousness is the result of a movement that has been slowly building for over six decades, brick by sustainable brick, as it were. Within this article, we’ll explore a comprehensive history of the Sustainable Fashion Movement, exploring key events and turning points since the 60s that have formed our contemporary, ongoing mission striving for responsible fashion.
The Sustainable Fashion Movement timeline
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The 60s - 70s
The concept of sustainable fashion began to emerge in the early 1960s, mainly in underground groups and subcultures of the time, i.e hippies and punks, rather than consumers in the mainstream.1970 marked the first-ever Earth Day, an annual celebration that is still honoured today to raise awareness for environmental protection and the preservation of our natural world.
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The 80s
Vintage and second-hand shopping was on the rise, with more mainstream brands taking positive environmental stances within their production. Pioneers of the early sustainable fashion brand movement included the likes of Patagonia and Esprit, who within this decade both started to explore the use of recycled and organic materials.
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The 90s
The 1990s saw a growing awareness and call for responsible fashion practices from the everyday consumer for the first time on a large scale. More and more brands began to promote their sustainable commitments, with the 1992 “Earth Summit” United Nations conference in Rio de Janeiro bolstering global awareness for sustainability.
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The 2000s
The turn of the century saw fast fashion reach new heights of excessiveness, in line with growing access to online shopping through the rise of everyday internet use. Encouragingly however, this existed alongside a steadily growing slow fashion movement, with the Ethical Fashion Forum being set up in 2006, just one year after we launched Ayten Gasson.
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The 2010s
April 2013 bore witness to the horrifying Rana Plaza factory collapse in Bangladesh, a preventable disaster that killed 1,134 fast fashion workers, and injured thousands more. For the first time, the true atrocities and costs of the fast fashion industry were laid bare on the world’s stage, generating mass change in consumer shopping behaviour and beliefs.
Buyers now wanted to know more about how and where their clothes were being made, promoting a shift in the processes of nearly all mainstream brands, to varying degrees and levels of commitment. It’s no surprise that this decade simultaneously introduced a rise of greenwashing, with many businesses promoting eco-improvements purely for appearance's sake rather than making tangible change.
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The present-day
Climate change is the biggest threat we face in the present day, but we can have faith in a generation that, more than ever, is committed to turning the tide, especially on fast fashion. Today, sustainable transparency is being called on as a necessity from fashion brands, with the European Commission creating new rules and regulations around circular textiles. There’s certainly a long way to go, but the demand for authentic sustainability in fashion is louder than ever before, triggering a vital eco-shift in the consumer mindset.
Ayten Gasson’s role in positive change
Ayten Gasson officially joined the Sustainable Fashion Movement following our 2005 launch, but our founder Ayten started on the journey long before. Always determined to create a label that made a conscious difference, she has continuously prioritised strict ethics over profit, serving as one of the many small brands championing change in our industry.
From our handmade, small-batch production to our growing expansion into responsible materials, Ayten Gasson continuously strives to play a role in positive change for the fashion and natural world. We look to raise awareness of this greater eco-mission at any opportunity, with Ayten speaking on the need for sustainability in fashion at several local events and panels over the past few years. The movement is ongoing and the journey is far from over, but ours is an independent brand, like many, determined to play an active role in keeping fabrics circular, preventing waste, promoting recycling and putting a stop to harmful fast fashion processes.
