The big ticket question, why is sustainable fashion so expensive? Well, there's a few different answers!
First, it's relative. The price tag is being compared to fast fashion - which is not a fair comparison at all!
Fast fashion brands order extremely high volume of products (clues in the name, fast) meaning they work with volume profit rather than unit profit, allowing them to put the price per unit down! Most sustainable/ slow fashion brands work with unit profit as the turn over isn't as high!
And if that's all too much business talk then here are the hard truths.
Fast fashion brands use fabrics with lesser quality, as they aren't made to last! They are expected to be worn once or for one trend/season then thrown away! So, what's the point in using better quality fabrics that cost more?
Most Fast Fashion brands have factories in third world countries where employment laws don't even come close to comparing to UK laws! So, they don't pay them anywhere near enough to live off! They use child labour too, so... the pay is even lower!
Secondly, the use of plastic and non organic materials. Mass production of natural materials need the use of chemicals and pesticides to speed up the process in an unnatural way, making the fabric cheaper as the farms can produce more fabric in a year than organic farms can!
So why is sustainable fashion so expensive?
Because we use high quality, organic fabric. These two factors make the overall fabric price go up, by having to wait the natural and correct time for the raw material to grow!
Most slow fashion/ sustainable brands pay their workers a living wage!! (not even just minimum wage, a wage that people can actually live on!) I say most, because we've all heard of greenwashing! Brands can say they're sustainable but have a hidden ugly side to the ethics of their brand! So, I should correct myself - ETHICAL, slow fashion/ sustainable brands pay their workers a living wage!!
At KOHR we have always been transparent about our sustainable and ethical practices! Below you can see the pricing structure of our Vegan Leather Trousers. We believe this allows our customers to fully understand what they are paying for and it justifies the high price point!
So, the question shouldn't be why is sustainable fashion so expensive? The question should be, why is fast fashion so cheap?