Sustainability: Will we soon be reading clothing labels such as food labels?

the fashion labels have always provided information on some fundamental characteristics of what you buy: the cut it, the composition of the various materials, the percentage of the latter, the recommended washing method and the country where the garment was produced. And what if, from now on, the tables shown were similar to nutritional ones of food, but with sustainability scores? The provocative – and brilliant – idea comes from a green shoe and accessories brand, Nisolo, based in Nashville.

The brand has indeed introduced a label with Sustainability Facts, inspired by the box of nutritional data on packaged food: an evening of information that gives consumers the opportunity to trace the creation – at each stage – of a potential purchase. A positive trend that dates back to at least 2019, when Sheep Inc., a London knitwear brand, has introduced an NFC tag – the same technology that allows contactless payment – attached to the hems of each garment, allowing customers to discover every step of their supply chain via an app. Nisolo opted instead for a more “familiar” looking label, which can also be scanned via QR code, in order to introduce a large audience to the topic of sustainability, and in a more intuitive way.

To give life to fashion labels Sustainability Facts, the Nisolo brand took three years and an investment of over 500 thousand dollars. The result? Instead of terms such as carbohydrates and proteins in foodstuffs, as reported in the nutritional tables, we find here the values ​​attributed to salary of workers, support sanitary, impact environmental of materials used and packaging for the shipments (and not only), evaluated with scores measured on a scale of 1 to 100. After all, if we had the possibility of immediately knowing the level of sustainability of two very similar clothing items, we would probably all choose the one that supports the Planet and ethical work. And the Earth would thank you.

Other stories of Vanity Fair that may interest you:

– Fashion and sustainability: the 10 green advances of 2021

– Is rental fashion really that sustainable?

– Mushrooms, seaweeds and wine: where the newest (and most sustainable) fashion comes from