Chapter 4

Ethical practices and social responsibility by retailers

Welcome to the age of the #WokeConsumer, when companies are evaluated by their treatment of animals and working conditions across the supply chain. The problem is that fashion has not progressed much in the area of sustainability and ethical practices. 

Brands are still playing ignorant when it comes to building business models that put labor rights, animals, waste, and climate change at the center of their agenda.

This is an opportunity for small and emerging businesses to disrupt the fashion industry. But, how?

Breaking the cycle of speed-to-market

Part of it involves manufacturing locally and breaking the vicious cycle of speed-to-market which amounts to mass clothing at lower costs. Two independent clothing brands are leading the charge on this: A.C.F Clothing and Elizabeth Suzann. 

A.C.F Clothing

A.C.F specializes in streetwear clothing that is promoted as being eco-friendly, vegan, and gender-neutral.

Founder and designer Alexandra Foster launched A.C.F Clothing in 2016 to do two things: (1) create simple fashion choices and (2) use ethical business practices to achieve this. 

At a glance

• Vision: To eliminate textile waste in the fashion industry.
• Product: Sourced from luxurious deadstock and surplus fabrics to save gallons of water, kilograms of waste and carbon emissions when each garment is produced.
• Supply Chain: Alexandra was living in Australia at the time, but made the move to Hong Kong to be near the manufacturing facilities used by A.C.F. This has enabled the brand to be completely transparent about their supply chain and only work with accredited highly ethical manufacturing partners. 
• Promotion: Designing genderless collections to encourage everyone to embrace sustainability as the norm, not an aspiration.

Another brand with a minimalist approach, Elizabeth Suzann, is also combatting textile waste.

Elizabeth Suzann

Elizabeth Pape is the designer and founder of Elizabeth Suzann: a women’s clothing label born out of a dislike of excess and encouraging mindful, careful consumption. 

They cut and sew all of their garments locally in their Nashville design studio using the highest quality natural fibre cloth. Across a five-year timeline, the team has grown to 35 employees producing around 500 garments weekly while keeping everything under one roof. 

At a glance

• Vision: To help consumers build a minimal and functional wardrobe worthy of care and passing on. 
• Product: They don’t release seasonal collections and produce basics that are created from all-natural fibres and is made-to-order. 
• Supply Chain: Everything sold is made in-house by the 35 employees in the Nashville studio, so they know how the people making the products are being treated fairly. Pape also ensures ethics is at the top of every decision she makes for the supply chain. 
• Promotion: Their strategy for marketing is to focus on their current loyal customers and ensuring each post always adds value where it’s providing education or information: rather than just simply a picture of a pretty dress.

Both brands achieved scale without abandoning their values.

They know exactly who they are, what they stand for, and are transparent about it. This consistency in having a clearly defined vision and set of values has earned them a high level of consumer trust and played a pivotal part in their growth and success. 

They also made the decision to manufacture locally and or/ move locally to where they are manufacturing. This can serve as one of your biggest competitive advantages against other brands not based in your city and give you the flexibility to order smaller quantities too. 

In the next chapter, we explore closely how you can take a more considered approach to the purchasing, planning and execution of your inventory to avoid deadstock and adopt more ethical trading standards.

Read next

Chapter 5: Purchasing, planning, and executionn