Why we need to see the end of fashion advertising
In 2006, Mario Testino snapped Kate Moss sitting on the edge of a sink in a mirrored bathroom. The photograph was reportedly unplanned, a rare moment of behind-the-scenes authenticity between two high profile creatives who are also great friends. The portrait remains iconic in an industry replete with similar ‘moments’. Wearing a black cocktail dress, Moss is reflected in the mirrors around her, elegantly able to apply lipstick without looking in a single one of them. A black mask sits perched on top of her small immaculate head, as she glances towards the photographer, who remains in shot. The picture pulses with fin de siecle glamour, achingly cool; fashion at its most lavish.
With easy access to the world’s greatest photographers, stylists, models and, of course, clothing, fashion has been responsible for some of the most iconic images of all time; scenes that both shape and reply to contemporary culture. But things are different now. Humanity sits in a devastated natural environment, well on its way to a catastrophic post-COP 2.4 degree rise in temperature and hard questions are being asked of all areas of human activity, including fashion. The evidence, so far, has been damning: fashion’s contribution to chemical and plastic pollution, human rights and animal rights abuses and waste is extensive. At the same time, the industry is a substantial contributor to the climate crisis, responsible for between 2-8% of global carbon emissions (1)
Much of this is driven by the sheer size of the industry: 120 billion items of clothing a year, a conservative estimate, produced mainly in the Global South for the rich North. A whopping 85% of all textiles ends up incinerated or dumped. (2). These rates of consumption/production would be impossible without an aggressive enabler and, as fashion has come under scrutiny, so has the role of fashion advertising. In richer nations, the average person is exposed to thousands of ads a day, accelerated by a digital universe which sees us bombarded by paid search ads and in-app banners from the moment we flip open our computers in the morning to the moment they click shut at night. Without advertising, the practice of exponential growth and throwaway consumerism that is capitalism would be dead in the water. So fashion is not singular in its use of advertising. Factor in the power of social media and celebrity, however, and resistance is, truly, futile.
Desire, community, the internet: why people buy so much clothing
“Today, our entire media landscape is centered on celebrities, who then appear in fashion advertising,” says Maxine Bedat, founder of the New Standards Institute. “And when you see celebrities, on Instagram, on red carpets, as guests on shows, they’re always wearing something new - because they are paid to do so. But the business model trickles down.” Ditto the online influencer, financed by fashion brands to model the latest trends on social media feeds. “The entire business model - not just part of it, all of it - of influencer culture is selling stuff,” says Bedat.
“The construct of a different outfit for a different day and not being seen in a repeat look amongst peers has driven the normalisation of mass consumption,” agrees Kerry Bannigan, executive director of the Fashion Impact Fund. In 2017, research by the Hubbub Foundation suggested that 17% of young people questioned said they wouldn’t wear an outfit again if it had been on Instagram. Zeitgeist suggests that figure will have gone up rather than down. Fashion media works in subtle ways. As professor of law Ramsi Woodcock pointed out, in a recent interview with Denier, a bi-monthly newsletter on fashion’s relationship to people, planet and profit: “Fashion companies use image and advertising to create realms of social meaning associated with wearing their products, so that when you put on a piece of clothing, it's not just an ugly piece of cloth or a poorly designed piece of fabric, it’s a symbol to you of your role in the world.” (3)
Woodcock’s words are a reminder of those deeper mechanisms at work in fashion advertising: the creation of unattainable role models and narrowly defined expectations of beauty (like Moss’), of desire through a manufactured sense of lack, and finally the positing of the concrete object - the handbag, the shoe - as a way to fix the ‘problem’. While an image like Testino’s might or might not have helped sell a few items of clothing, it certainly goes some way in establishing the glamorous, elusive world that the fashion industry trades off and that so many consumers still aspire to.
Now, industry insiders want to see fashion and fashion media promoting sustainability, not as an afterthought or an organic cotton capsule collection, but as a better way of living on this planet. Fresh from United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) in November, the Fashion Industry Charter for Climate Action (4) now includes a new commitment: to “align consumer and industry communication efforts to a 1.5-degree or Science Based Targets initiative compatible pathway, as set out by the Paris Agreement Goals, as well as a more just and equitable future.” Whether any fashion advertising currently fits the brief is questionable, particularly as brands are starting to wake up to the fact that, no matter how immaculately researched their Net Zero targets are, the 1.5 pathway is never going to be met if they’re still planning to open more branches, launch new lines or expand into new territories. Fashion has to change - and so does fashion advertising.
On the upside, much has been made of its potential to write a brighter future. “Fashion is one of the most powerful marketing engines on earth,” Futerra CEO Lucy Shea told the UN. “What brands, designers and media share, influences how individuals appear, feel and act around the world. As communicators from across all aspects of the fashion sector, we must come together and use our powers responsibly to motivate the wide-scale shift in attitudes and behaviour change that’s necessary to address today’s code red for humanity. This is fashion’s opportunity to be a wider part of the solution; to use its marketing prowess and position as architects of desire to shape new cultural norms and expectations.” (5)
What a new fashion media could look like
Bannigan agrees: “Just as advertising and fashion worked together to drive today’s throw-away society, we need the powerful combined influence of these sectors to commit to responsible education and citizen information placed into content that is distributed through the advertising infrastructure. [And that] content needs to play a critical role in changing from pushing a desired lifestyle that means nothing on a destroyed earth.” Championing changes and demonstrating solutions to help individuals live more sustainable lifestyles is just one of the recommendations released by the UN Environment Programme, which led consultation on the Fashion Charter. (5)
Others include spotlighting new notions of aspiration or success; celebrating the ecological, cultural and social values of the industry; focusing on inclusive marketing and storytelling that encourages a more equitable industry and motivating and mobilising the public to advocate for broader change. That’s quite a twist away from traditional fashion media content. “I personally would love to see throw-away fashion advertising replaced with [stories on the] women social entrepreneurs leading innovations and solutions to shape the new era of fashion,” says Bannigan. “From factchecker storytelling through to diverse inclusion in the narrative to amplify the visibility and voices of those transforming the industry for good, those in the sector should be driving positive change.”
It’s happening, sort of. Ethical brands such as Girlfriend Collective and Patagonia run eye-catching campaigns on sustainable innovation. In the past, not so much recently, high street megalith H&M made sure the ads for its Conscious Collections were just as lush as its other ranges. Stella McCartney, who hosted a Future of Fashion installation at COP26 to showcase some of the new gen materials she has been working with, has successfully blended good practice and glamour in her own campaigns for years. Recently, the British Fashion Council and brands including Burberry and McCartney participated in the Great Fashion for Climate Action campaign, which used fashion innovation to “encourage the world to ‘see things differently’”.
But, again, few of these efforts address the elephant in the room: overconsumption. McCartney’s and H&M’s campaigns still exist to drive dings at the till. Even Patagonia’s “Don’t Buy This Jacket” campaign in 2011 worked against its stated aim by increasing sales by 30 percent (6). Movements such as Good Life 2030 (7), launched by the Purpose Disruptors, attempt to shift public perceptions of “a good life” away from mass consumption towards a greater sense of connectedness to others and to the natural world. But what we really need is a smaller fashion industry - by about 75 percent, if you read Kate Fletcher and Mathilda Tham’s radical theory of change Earth Logic. The fact is, even if we replaced every polyester t-shirt in the world with one made from organic cotton, we’d still be taking too much from the planet and its future. This is the basis of Defashion, a striking new campaign from activist group Fashion Act Now - and it needs all stakeholders, including fashion creatives, to get on board.
“Creatives are highly skilled at getting any kind of message across. Who can forget the PETA anti-fur adverts? But they only convey what they are paid to convey,” says Paul Foulkes-Arellano, founder of Circuthon Consulting. “The problem is the fashion industry itself. They ask creatives and ad strategists to sell more product. When was the last time you saw a luxury brand asking people not to fly, not to eat meat, not to overindulge? The fashion brands have to fund this.” Whether they will or not is the question - to which the answer is probably no. Fashion, like all other commercial industries, is finding it hard to challenge its own, growth-predicated structures, preferring to posit new business models or material innovation, such as those displayed at McCartney’s exhibition, instead. Change may happen in these scenarios but it’ll be too slow to save the planet.
Laying down the law
Increasingly, campaigners see regulation as vital for an industry that will need to downsize on a handbrake turn in order to meet climate targets. In his seminal book Less is More, ecological economist and advocate for degrowth Jason Hickel suggests introducing quotas on advertising to “reduce total ad expenditure,’ adding “we can legislate against the use of psychologically manipulative techniques.” And there may be more fashion insiders on board than you’d think. This October, Denier’s founder and editor, fashion curator Shonagh Marshall, hosted a panel titled ‘Should We Ban Fashion Advertising'‘ for the New York-based School of Visual Arts. The answer to the question from the high profile panel - influencer and author Aja Barber, co-founder of Atmos magazine Willow Defebaugh and Shazia Abji, experience designer and North American lead for Glimpse, a creative collective dedicated to social change - was a unanimous ‘yes.’
Bedat plots a possible course for legislation on advertising: “The decline in cigarette use was tied to regulations on cigarette advertising. People saw fewer clues in their daily lives to smoke and, because the business model behind it declined, celebrities no longer promoted it and people stopped smoking. We could do the same with fashion advertising: conclude that the effects are just too great, and start regulating how much advertising there can be, limiting it to certain channels, or banning its promotion to children. All of this is possible.” Possible - and urgent: on its current trajectory, fashion is expected to miss the 2030 emissions reduction targets by 50% (2)
And the added benefits could be substantial: reduced levels of resource use and planetary impact, belief systems of material aspiration debunked; deeper, richer connections with community and the natural world, not least the climate emergency itself. There may be less images like Moss by Testino and the ephemeral buzz they provide but more of indigenous climate leaders, animal rights activists, community farmers - all wearing what they usually wear anyway, and without fashion captions. There would still be ‘trends’ but they would be, as Woodcock points out: “human and organic; people seeing stuff on the street that looked cool and wanting to copy it.” (3)
And there would be better products, products that answer genuine needs or serve genuine purposes. “In a world without advertising, how do you get your product to become successful? You simply must make it better than competitors’ products,” says Woodcock (3). In his book, Hickel cites efforts to cull advertising from public spaces in Sao Paulo and Paris. The result? “Happier people: people who feel more secure about themselves and more content with their lives. In addition to slowing down needless consumption, these measures would also free our minds - so we can follow our thoughts, our creativity without being constantly interrupted. And we can fill those spaces instead with art and poetry, or with messages that build community and affirm intrinsic values.” Now, there’s a fashion media for the future.
FURTHER READING
Emily Chan, What would a Truly Circular Fashion Industry Actually Look Like, 26 September, 2021.
World Economic Forum, Morgan McFall-Johnsen, These Facts Show How Unsustainable the Fashion Industry Is, 31 January, 2020.
Rachel Cernansky, Fashion’s Big Potential as a Sustainability Role Model, 18 November 2021.
By BEL JACOBS
Meet fashion’s changemakers
REFERENCES
UN Environment Programme, Sustainability and Circularity in the Textile Value Chain, 2020. https://www.oneplanetnetwork.org/sites/default/files/unep_sustainability_and_circularity_textile_value_chain_1.pdf
McKinsey, Fashion on Climate, 2020 https://www.mckinsey.com/~/media/mckinsey/industries/retail/our%20insights/fashion%20on%20climate/fashion-on-climate-full-report.pdf
Shonagh Marshall, A Converation with Ramsi Woodcock about the Future of Advertising, Denier, November 2021. https://mailchi.mp/72650115ff24/denier-a-conversation-with-ramsi-woodcock-about-the-future-of-advertising?e=%5BUNIQID%5D
About the Fashion Industry Charter for Climate Action. https://unfccc.int/climate-action/sectoral-engagement/global-climate-action-in-fashion/about-the-fashion-industry-charter-for-climate-action
UN Environment Programme, Communication Must Play a Critical Role in Fashion’s Climate Response, November 2021. https://www.unep.org/news-and-stories/story/communication-must-play-critical-role-fashions-climate-response
Kenji Explains, “Don’t Buy This Jacket - Patagonia’s Daring Campaign, Better Marketing, June 5 2020. https://bettermarketing.pub/dont-buy-this-jacket-patagonia-s-daring-campaign-2b37e145046b
