With the advent of social media people are sharing about everything from what they had for dinner to how their date worked out. A new sort of openess is becoming the latest in business as well. Because of the economy, more and more people are going free-lance, working for [...]]]>  Published by celestynabrozek

With the advent of social media people are sharing about everything from what they had for dinner to how their date worked out. A new sort of openess is becoming the latest in business as well. Because of the economy, more and more people are going free-lance, working for a company for a short while, then moving on. As a result, there has to be a greater sense of immediate trust due to the nature of the liason, and both the company and the consultant have to put out feelers and share information that they wouldn’t need to in the traditional employer-employee relationship.

 I think transparency  and openness are some of the most important aspects of sustainable fashion. There are a lot of steps from fiber to finished garment on the supply and production chain of a typical T-shirt. This is a simplified example, but here are some basic steps, assuming the fiber is natural:

Where is the raw fiber grown?

Where is the fiber processed/cleaned/bleached?

Where is the fiber spun?

Where is the yarn woven?

Where is the fabric finished (dying/treatments)?

Where is the T-shirt designed? Who designed it?

Where are the pattern makers? Who grades it for all sizes?

Where is the sample sewer?

Where is the production facility?

Does all production occur in one place, or are the Ts cut and bundled someplace and then sent someplace else for sewing?

Imagine if the cotton is being grown in China, then sent to Turkey for processing, to India for weaving, the designer is in New York, the fabric is cut in Hong Kong at the same factory where the samples are sewn, but all other production happens in Taiwan, or what have you. Imagine that the factory in Hong Kong is fairtrade certified but the one in Taiwan isn’t…it gets complicated really fast! No wonder consumers are left in the dark. Half the time the company itself doesn’t really know the details beyond where it purchased the fabric.

What’s the solution? The simplest solution is two-fold. If your supply chain is too complicated for you to communicate to consumers, then you’re not being sustainable. Simplify. Streamline. And then tell your consumers. They want to know. Because that’s the other trend here: conscious consumerism. People are really starting to examine what they buy on a number of levels, instead of making mindless impulse purchases.

A few companies have already made the step of making aspects of their production visible to consumers, including Alabama Chanin, who we’ll interview later this month, so keep an eye out! Also Icebreaker, a New Zealand company that makes merino activewear includes a “baacode” with each garment, allowing customers to track where their merino came from! Ikea shares which of its designers designed what item. And now, websites like this one are popping up: Source Map. Source Map defines itself as “a platform for researching, optimizing and sharing the supply chains behind a number of everyday products.”

Sourcemap was voted one of the most transformative design projects of 2009! In addition to mapping where all the parts of an item come from, they also include statistics and assign a carbon footprint.

Thanks to innovative ways of organizing and providing supply chain information, it doesn’t have to be the headache most companies are imagining. Because the real problem is not whether or not you communicate, but HOW you do it, because communication and transparency are now the name of the game.