Written for the Purist by Constance C.R. White
While the garment industry continues to exact a toll on the environment, luxury designers fuel their creativity by imagining a more sustainable world. I had the pleasure in writing this story for the Purist magazine. See an excerpt below and please click on the link to read the full article.
Tom Ford’s latest creation is neither a plush fur nor a bespoke suit—it’s a luxury timepiece made from plastic.
Before you clutch your pearls, saying “No, Tom Ford, plastic?” understand that this is not the single-use material as we traditionally think of it. Each $995 watch is made entirely from 35 bottles’ worth of ocean plastic.
Some 150 million metric tons of the synthetic material are bobbing around in our seas, according to estimates from the Ocean Conservancy and other scientists, strangling aquatic life and polluting the Earth’s water. And we’re piling it on, making our oceans a cesspool of garbage. Fashion is the second-most polluting industry in the world, according to the UN Conference on Trade and Development.
It’s a dire situation. We dump plastic in oceans at the estimated rate of 11 million tons annually, noted Lonely Whale, a conservation group co-founded by actor Adrian Grenier. Ford partnered with Lonely Whale to create the product, draw attention to the problem and spark more partnerships.
“Sustainability is a key issue in our lives right now,” said Ford in a statement. “In particular the amount of ocean plastic that we are generating is perhaps taking the greatest toll of all on our environment.”
“In my opinion,” Ford added, “ethical luxury is the greatest luxury.”
And it’s not just plastics. Every industry, every nation, is grappling with the effects of environmental violence, from deforestation of trees in Brazil to the poisoned drinking water in Flint, Michigan. Environmental issues have become one of the greatest threats to human survival.
Fashion generates carbon emissions equaling more than all international flights and maritime shipping combined. Fashion production generates approximately 10 percent of the world’s greenhouse-gas emissions, and that’s expected to increase to an eye-popping 50 percent by 2030 if we continue at this current reckless pace. The garment industry is simultaneously a gluttonous user of water and one of its biggest pollutants. It takes 2,700 liters of water to make just one cotton T-shirt.
We’re buying more clothes and wearing them less. Shoppers are projected to consume 102 million tons of clothing in the next 10 years, a whopping 60 percent increase from 2020. And roughly 73 percent of this will end up in landfills or being incinerated, according to reports from UNFCCC (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change) and the Ellen MacArthur Foundation.
