There's been a bit of a rumble about H&M and their supposedly not-so-organic line of "organic clothing." Sure, if you care to wear 100% organic, being fooled into thinking partially modified material is the good stuff is a crap move. Then I came across Fashionista's recounting of the story which spilled into a little op-ed piece extolling how very unsustainable "the bigger picture" is. Namely, the fuel used in shipping materials from place to place during production and then during shipment to H&M's worldwide stores. So, the article concludes, "if you’re that committed to wearing sustainable fashion, you should be buying items that are produced locally with locally-grown materials." Even designers are saying you should buy locally.
So what if you don't live in New York City? Or LA?
And what if you're that small business and there's demand outside of the confines of your brick-and-mortar store? Do you just ignore the promise of a bigger customer base and shun those who don't have the money to make the pilgrimage (which btw would also cost "gas guzzling fuel" unless you walked it or had a purely electric car). I mean, shuttling around your goods from boutique to boutique is a smaller-scaled version of what big chains do no?
Point is, "buying locally" is great and all, but to me it's just not realistic unless you live in a big fashion metropolis or there's a fuel-free alternative to shipping.
What do you think? How important is purely sustainable fashion? More importantly, how realistic do you think it is?
