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The Paradox of Sustainability: Green Overproduction

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Is sustainable overproduction a valuable strategy?


Do you know the paradox of sustainability? The paradox is this: making far more garments labelled as green products. In other words, it means perpetrating the same old overproduction pattern and marketing it as sustainable.

If that’s how you make money, why should you change? Okay, but the planet is dying, and we are facing a climate emergency the fashion industry should care about. Well, the attention towards this topic is just a facade.

In fact, according to Edited, “In the past four years, the number of clothes described as ‘sustainable’ has quadrupled.”

Green overproduction: the paradox sustainability


Yes, we know we write about this topic a lot. But when the data we ran across confirms our impressions and perplexities, it is appropriate to address it over and over.
Is sustainable overproduction a valuable strategy? Specifically, is that how we plan to save the planet? Making four times the stuff we made before is our strategy?

If this is true, we are far from reducing our impact on the planet. Clearly, that is not sustainability. And it doesn’t take a genius to understand it. So, let’s call it by its name: this is marketing! This is greenwashing!

Sustainable fashion, like eco furniture, food, tourism or whatever, has become a profitable business. And more than an effective change of direction, it represented a change of marketing. Just call it green, and you’re going to sell it. Whatever object or service you are trying to launch on the market.

The solution the fashion industry ignores


Let’s be clear: sustainable fashion, rather than making new garments and new stuff in huge green quantities, is a matter of educating people towards conscious consumption. Indeed, the solution is producing far fewer garments. At the same time, we must reuse, resell, recycle and upcycle existing clothing.

But, instead of educating people, for the fashion industry, it is easier to make money by flooding the market with sustainable products. Which, in the end, aren’t sustainable at all.

And so, this is the paradox of sustainability: making four times more garments and naming them sustainable. Unfortunately for us and for the planet, it is not a joke!

Free download our sustainability checklist here!

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Fashion Out Of the Beaten Paths: Marc Le Bihan

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Emotions & beauty in a distinct venue for Marc Le Bihan & Jean Francois Mimilla


Come and discover fashion out of the beaten paths, where you’ll find exceptional artisanal work made with care and love for uniqueness.

Walking through showrooms for our Spring-Summer 24 research, it’s been amazing to witness the work of some designers who express their unique vision of fashion. Those who follow their own path, meaning they don’t feel involved in the latest trends just to sell more. Those who offer good design, beautiful fabrics, and timeless quality. Away from the commercial logic of overproduction and mass distribution. Precisely, they do the opposite. Few words and hard work. So they provide real value.

A path of recognizable value


For instance, entering Marc Le Bihan‘s space was like opening the Narnia door: you open it and get in a world apart. Set up in a post-industrial structure, a large room with big windows from which a late summer September sun brightened the garments. After a look around, a shiny black piano in a corner gave us a clue we didn’t get immediately, just because we did not expect it. Indeed, while peaking through the clothing along the perimeter of the four-room sides, we noticed a wood bar behind them. So we connected the dots: it was a dance school! 

Fashion out of the beaten paths


Marc Le Bihan’s “Danseuse Line” has found the perfect frame. But so it was for the gorgeous pristine white lace or linens, the silk slip dresses in different shapes. And the tye-dye knitwear. Likewise, Jean-Francois Mimilla’s materic jewels, whose precious crocheted hand work makes them unique. 

Uniqueness out of the beaten paths

And so, the atmosphere was unique, warm, quiet and poetic. Marc le Bihan‘s clothes, like Jean Francois Mimilla jewels, delivered a tactile experience made of dreamy creativity, out of the ordinary, and, because of its uniqueness, even more beautiful.

Independent designers and artisanal fashion provide the opportunity to own unique, high-quality pieces that are not mass-produced or widely available. That is the essence of luxury style.

However, the whole set-up affirmed that there’s still something meaningful in fashion. It doesn’t have to mingle with the mainstream. Indeed, it’s not for all, yet you can find exceptional fashion out of the beaten paths. 

Another note of appreciation: the space was fully accessible. Don’t take it for granted in the fashion field.

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Sustainable Fashion Awards 23

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What are we celebrating?


The Sustainable Fashion Awards 23 closed the Milano Fashion Week. Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana arranged this award ceremony to celebrate the designers who stood out for their environmental commitment, ethical practices and social rights.

We should be happy with it, celebrate the winners and move to Paris! No?

Held at Teatro La Scala, the Sustainable Fashion Awards reminded us that although the fashion industry is polluting, the Italian supply chain is progressing towards a greener way of operating the fashion business.

In other words, this event is a counterpart to the Milano Fashion Week. However, you’ll find the same names you saw on the runways throughout the week, only now under a different umbrella–a green one. Event and brands presented with labels so familiar to marketing, intentionally or not, blurring into greenwashing.

Sustainable Fashion Awards & The elephant in the room


Perhaps industry players, business owners, and designers are developing a higher consciousness about green matters. And, perhaps, some changes could be relevant. However, we cannot understand how these changes can align with a production model based on overproduction.

It’s one or the other! And since the two elements aren’t consistent, they cannot stand on one plate because they clash.

The fashion industry has one major issue: overproduction, the elephant in the room, which none dares to mention. But if we still have overproduction, there’s no sustainability. No effective change in production chains will be enough without interrupting the overproduction pattern.

Sustainable Fashion Awards 23 witnessed a progression in the fashion industry towards greener practices, elevating environmental consciousness. But, as Mr Pierre-Alexis Dumas, Hermès creative director, said at Triennale: “Sustainability, that’s where we have a problem in fashion. We are making a change with low impact facilities and manufacturing practices. Perhaps in 15 or 20 years we’ll see the result and we’ll finally be sustainable.”

Unfortunately, according to climate scientists, we do not have that time. So, in the end, what are we celebrating now?

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Milano Fashion Week 24

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Simplicity and practicality for Spring-Summer 24


Milano Fashion Week 24 is over, so we want to analyse the overall feelings. What’s in the air?

It looks like fashion designers had to focus on safety. So, they provided simplicity and practicality through those tailored techniques typical of the Italian style. In fact, collections were more down to earth. Easy to wear, which also means easy to sell. Market demands, not creative genius.

Spring-Summer 24 from Milano runways


We were happy to witness the end of the circus Alessandro Michele made for Gucci. Perhaps Sabato De Sarno needs time to develop his own path, but anything would have been better than the flea market jumble. However, it would be interesting to understand to what degree this collection is the result of his view or a commercial request.

Still related to the above topic, there’s a discussion about the expectations on genderless fashion or the end of it.
We are astonished! Specifically, we cannot understand why people identify genderless style with the circus. Can anyone explain? Take a garment without asking yourself if it comes from a specific gender category. Then wear it (with elegance, if you can). This is genderless. And it’s still here.

Indeed, isn’t the work of Mattieu Blazy for Bottega Veneta a blend of blurred gender identities? Though fabrics and outfits seemed too heavy for a Spring-Summer collection.

Thoughts on Milano Fashion Week 24


Overall, the impression is that clothing was the background as brands mainly plan to sell accessories. On the one hand, we are happy for the end of the circus. It was time to take a sense of elegance and Italian tailoring back. But on the other hand, brands mostly looked the same. Unless you have a trained eye, and so you can say, ‘this accessory is from this designer’ – it is almost impossible to tell the difference from one to another.

Milano Fashion Week 24 has probably satisfied people’s needs and the industry turnover. But, in this game of overlapping design codes, and by compromising to any current contingency, we wonder where brands are going. More precisely, do you think brands are reliable?

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Visions And Glamour By Antonio Marras

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Fashion as cultural contaminations


The evening event “Visions and Glamour of a mythical set on the cliffs of Capo Caccia” by Antonio Marras confirmed our sensation: cultural events connected to fashion are more fascinating than fashion shows. The things you learn, the cultural depth, are amazing. And there’s no circus.

On September 21, during Milano Fashion Week, we were invited to Cinema Mexico for the documentary screening: “The Summer of Joe, Liz and Richard.” The docufilm by Sergio Naitza debuted at the last Rome Film Festival and was awarded in London as best documentary at the Kingston International Film Festival. It investigates the reason for the flop of the movie “Boom!” – which director Joseph Losey filmed in the summer of 1968 in Capo Caccia, near Alghero, Sardinia, with Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton.

Before the screening, there was an introduction by the filmmaker Sergio Naitza, Alessandra Sento (dir. of Società Umanitaria – Cineteca Sarda), the art critic Francesca Alfano Miglietti and Antonio Marras.

This cult movie inspired “Lights, camera, action!” – the Spring/ Summer 24 Marras fashion show featuring Marisa Berenson and sequences of the documentary, contaminating the presentation of the items from the collection.

Visions and Glamour by Antonio Marras

Antonio Marras: fashion & cinema


“I use fashion to tell stories and I learned it by going to the cinema, an inexhaustible source of stories, dreams, moods, characters, costumes, sets, life stories. Cinema for fashion is an indispensable life companion. And even more so for me. Not by chance, I named my debut collection from ’87 ‘Hush, hush sweet Charlotte’ after the ’64 film starring Bette Davis directed by Robert Aldrich. So, how not to give in to the provocation of a Hollywood film like “Boom!”
Thanks to Sergio Naitza’s masterful documentary I immersed myself in that hot summer, where the line between reality and fiction, between true and false, between reconstructed and existing, between acted and revealed, was only a faint breath of wind. As if by magic, Hollywood lands in the wildest and purest land, on the cliffs of Capocaccia, Alghero, Sardinia.“

As the director Naitza explained: “The documentary aims to be the reconstruction of a cold case in the history of cinema, one of the most sensational flops despite the presence of the major stars of the time and a huge budget.”

Visions and Glamour: icon of style


Also the critics rejected the film. But they later re-evaluated it as a true cult movie after the rehabilitation of great cinema voices of our time, such as the famous US director John Waters. The film is also an icon of style and a timeless reference for fashion and glamour, thanks to its costumes, atmospheres and landscapes. Astonishing details made the movie special: a young boy designed the clothes, and it turns out he was Karl Lagerfeld. And Bulgari made the jewels for Liz Taylor.

The “Visions and Glamour of a mythical set on the cliffs of Capo Caccia” event by Antonio Marras prompts that fashion is culture, revealing intriguing connections and contaminations between seemingly separate worlds. Indeed, it was a pleasure to learn from it.

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