Aiming for fashion that is sustainable all round

Rachel Wambui spoke to Wangari Nyanjui, the founder of the Peperuka apparel brand. She is also the country co-ordinator of Fashion Revolution, a worldwide movement that works to positively influence how clothes are sourced, produced and consumed.

Think about your favourite dress. Have you ever thought about how it was made, who stitched it and where the fabric came from?

How did the journey from the source to your closet impact the planet and its people? These questions are the what conscious fashion is all about.

Sustainability has become a buzzword, but we rarely think about it in relation to fashion and design …

Sustainability covers a broad spectrum; companies or individuals can decide where they fall on that spectrum, regardless of their line of work.

There are tools that help organisations gauge where they fall in the sustainability chain.

Does your team know, consciously, that they are supposed to switch off the lights? How much water does your operation consume in a day?

Do your workers have fair wages and good workplace conditions?

So it’s not only about ecological issues but also about social well-being?

Precisely. That is actually how the fashion revolution was born. In 2013, a building in Bangladesh that housed garment workers (making clothes for huge international fashion brands) collapsed, killing over 1,000 people.

The fashion giants started being asked ethical questions. Being a conscious fashion consumer means you can ask the brands you love, “Who makes your clothes and in what conditions. Where did the cotton that made this T-shirt come from? What is its carbon footprint?

My T-shirt’s carbon footprint?! Are Kenyans THAT conscious?

In Kenya, our conscious levels are different. But if you ask anyone whether they, for example, care about the conditions of people working in Export Processing Zones (EPZ), they will say “yes”.

There are those who would say we have more pressing issues to worry about

Yes, our social context is different from the West’s. But let’s look at it this way.

The West’s way of making sure their clothes don’t end up in landfills is donating them to Africa.

As a local designer, I cannot compete with a T-shirt sold at Toi market. So what is the West’s sustainability doing to our local industry?

Is it more sustainable for me to buy a T-shirt at Toi (I am recycling)?

Now, those are the things that YOU should decide as a consumer. You might say you will not buy mitumba in order to support local industry.

But if you look at places like Rwanda, which banned second-hand clothes, what has that done to people’s choices?

How do I recognise sustainable fashion?

There is no set standard, but there are things to watch out for. For example, we have a Kenyan brand that rears its own silk worms.

Another works with communities, trains women, et cetera. At Peperuka, we have the Wangari Maathai Line. For every product we sell in that line, we plant a tree.

What does unconscious fashion look like?

Very good question. And generally, we call it fast fashion. It is cheap and trendy.

It is driven by producing quickly and at low cost, usually working people for 12 hours straight.

Fast fashion also perpetuates this very consumerist way of purchasing. But the conversation in Kenya is different.

It would be interesting to see what access to cheap fashion has done.

But I’d rather buy a pair of mitumba jeans for Sh1,500 than a new one for Sh5,000 because the ones I have bought from upmarket stores do not last as long as the mitumba ones …

That’s the point of fast fashion, it forces you to get another pair.

Are you, as Peperuka, comfortable with me buying a hoodie from you once every two years?

Now that’s the thing. A middle-level brand like mine cannot survive on one hoodie per year.

But it I am still not willing to give poor quality or give up the idea of sustainability.

So how do you, as a conscious brand, reconcile with being a business?

I feel as if the ‘ethical’ thing has become a meme, and that brands will plaster that badge on themselves just to explain why they are expensive.

Sustainable, like organic, is expensive! It depends on where the item falls on the spectrum. Organic fabric is slightly more expensive.

But certain consumers do actually want a story behind their product, regardless of the price. Meanwhile, it doesn’t cost me anything to switch off the light or use less water.

How does this conversation matter to the lower economic classes?

Even for us, the middle classe, it is still a difficult conversation. We still think about it as something for other people.

What are some practical things I can do to be a conscious fashion consumer?

The first thing is to question your beloved brands. Find out the conditions under which their products are made.

In America right now, corporations cannot afford not to have sustainability as part of their operations, even fast-fashion brands like H&M.

They now have a buy-back programme where you can return clothes.

There is a huge quantity of factory-made clothes, new but poor quality, most knock-offs of popular brands …

They are all imports from china. Consumers want variety, and at a low price.

But we also have to be honest that the only way a new product can be imported and sold at such a low price is if it has skipped something in the production chain.

How about the idea of buying less, regardless of where I buy, not loading my closet with clothes; isn't that a win for sustainability?

There is a buy less movement. But shopping means many things to people and I wouldn’t be quick to say “just shop less”.

Perhaps consider using your local tailor to make your everyday wear. This changes the social interaction between producer and consumer, which makes all the difference.