THE FUTURE OF FASHION IS OLDER THAN WE THINK

Sustainability is often spoken about as if it were a trend.

- By ShiR. Amarasinghe

Something newly invented. Something to be adopted, rebranded, or abandoned when it stops selling.Yet sustainability predates marketing departments, supply chains, and certification labels. It is how humans lived for most of history. Repairing. Reusing. Respecting limits. Understanding seasons. Knowing that resources were finite, and that effort mattered. Long before sustainability became a buzzword, it was simply a way of life. At some point, sustainability became a product. The fashion industry, in particular, loves solutions it can sell. So, sustainability was reduced to materials. Polyester was replaced with organic cotton. Virgin nylon was swapped for recycled fibres. Green hangtags appeared. Sustainability reports were published. “Conscious” collections were launched. These changes are not meaningless, but they are incomplete.

When sustainability becomes something, you buy rather than something you practise, it loses its power. A garment made from organic cotton but worn twice and discarded is not sustainable. A recycled fabric produced at scale, sold cheaply, and replaced the following season is not progress. We have mistaken input changes for behavioural change. The uncomfortable truth is that the fashion industry cannot continue producing at its current pace and call itself green, regardless of the fabric it uses.

The real issue is pace

Sustainability conversations often avoid the hardest question of all. How much is enough?

The global fashion industry produces more than one hundred billion garments every year for a population of just over eight billion people. This equation does not improve with better materials. Overproduction cannot be offset by good intentions.