In Honour Of World Earth Day, Here Are The Fashion Initiatives Pledging To Help The Planet

Today is Earth Day - and this year’s celebrations are more extraordinary than most. Not only does 2020 mark the movement’s 50th anniversary, but the world has been plunged into a state of emergency. There’s never been a better, or more necessary time to take stock and realise how much more we should be doing to protect its future. And while we might be in lockdown, there are still plenty of ways to get involved.

Fashion Revolution Week, which commemorates the Rana Plaza factory collapse with the campaign #whomademyclothes, falls between 20-26 April. This year, it’s launching Fashion Open Studio, a series of panel discussions, interviews, workshops and tours that will all be held virtually on Zoom and YouTube. It promises to be a fascinating line-up, with an introduction to at-home weaving (with Kirsty McDougall) and a how-to on upcycling garments with sustainably-sourced crystals (held by Patrick McDowell).

There’s also plenty happening in the world of resale sites. Vestiaire Collective is asking its community to take part in a Wardrobe Reality Check Challenge. The premise is simple - consider the environmental impact of your choices, free yourself from pieces you no longer need and learn how to build a sustainable wardrobe for the future. To set you on the right track, it’s put together a helpful four-step guide, with input from the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s Make Circular Fashion initiative, so there really is no time like the present to get spring cleaning.

Depop, meanwhile, is encouraging its buyers to make sustainable choices by highlighting sellers that fulfill its sustainability criteria in ‘Meet The Sellers’ and asking its community to use the hashtag #RethinkReuseRenew to spread the message.

If you want to send a message with what you wear, Pangaia’s ‘Earth Day Every Day’ T-shirt speaks volumes. Not only is it made from 20% saltwater seaweed fibre and 80% GOTS-certified organic cotton, but Pangaia is planting one mangrove tree, in collaboration with SeaTrees, for every product sold.

The Danish label Baum Und Pferdgarten has just launched UND Breathe, a collection made from 100% organic cotton that supports NGO Green Transition Denmark. €10 from every item sold will be donated - and you can pinpoint exactly where each was made in an effort towards transparency.

Frame has a sustainable curation for Earth Day, with cashmere jumpers, respun from vintage cashmere and factory leftovers in Northern Italy, and jeans made from organic cotton and recycled polyester that comes from post-consumer plastic bottles.

Ralph Lauren, meanwhile, has committed to using 170 million recycled plastic bottles in its product and packaging by 2025. You can now buy a polo shirt, one of the American brand's preppy signatures, that's made using thread derived from recycled plastic bottles (approximately 12 per shirt) and dyed using a zero-water process.

Another luxury brand that's set out clear sustainability goals is Burberry. The ReBurberry Edit is a capsule of 26 pieces that are all crafted using either circular materials or sustainable fabrics. A pistachio-coloured clothing label will mean that customers can tell that an item ticks certain externally-assessed criteria. These ‘positive attributes’ measure indicators such as the amount of organic content or recycled natural fibres used in materials and social initiatives supporting workers, with the brand aiming to have all products bearing one positive attribute by 2022.

Finally, if you want a taster of Earth Day’s all about and the kinds of questions we should all be asking, watch this clip. It was created by video artist Aiden Zamiri to announce the partnership between Vivienne Westwood and Canopy, a not-for-profit organisation that is dedicated to protecting our forests, and features a spoken poem by Kai-Isaiah Jamal. It’s message? The time to act is now.

READ MORE: How Transparent Are Your Favourite Fashion Brands When It Comes To How They Make Your Clothes?