What if you could read a clothing label like that of a food?
Special for Infobae of The New York Times.
One of the greatest fashion trends in the late 2021 had to do with the color or length of the skirts or sequins, but with sustainability.Or, to be specific, the appearance of clothing labels with data that consumers can use to follow up on the creation of what they may buy.
The roots of the trend date back to 2019 at least, when Sheep Inc., a brand of woven clothing in London, introduced an NFC label - or close field communication, for its acronym in English (the same technology that allows paymentswithout contact) - that allows customers to follow up on the supply chain of their Merino wool sweaters through an application.
At the G20 meeting in October 2021, the Sustainable Markets Initiative Fashion Taskforce of Prince Carlos presented his “digital ID”, which can follow up on a fashion article from production to sale and even resale.It will be used by the fifteen brands and retailers of the initiative, including Armani, Mulberry and Chloé this year before they use more brands.
In addition, the British emerging company Provenance developed software to track the parts supply chain from the field to the finished garment.Ganni, a Danish brand, was the first to use Provence technology the past autumn.
However, it was in December when Nisolo, a sustainable footwear brand in Nashville, Tennessee, presented what is perhaps the most familiar label of all: a “sustainability information” label inspired by the nutritional information box of many food products.
Below a card on how everything works.
P: ¿Cuál es la diferencia entre estas etiquetas y las etiquetas de ropa que suelo ver en mis camisas y suéteres?
A: For years, clothing labels have offered simple information such as the country where the article and its material composition were manufactured.
But if it is a cotton shirt, that label does not explain anything about, for example, where and how cotton was grown or if the people who collected it received a decent salary.Or if it is a wool sweater, where the wool comes from and if the sheep were treated with compassion.The new labeling offers many more details.
P: ¿Cómo funciona?
A: Each labeling system is different.
With Sheep Inc., you hold your cell phone on a plastic tab the size of a five cents made of a biodegradable ricino derivative.Then a page opens in the application, where you can see “in what flock is the sheep, the date on which the animal was sheared, when the sheep was vaccinated or gave birth for the last time, the wool route from New ZealandEven the mill, the weavers, the distribution center and the arrival to the client, ”explained Alexander Lewis, Sheep Inc.
For digital identification, which Fashion Taskforce developed with EON, a digital identification company, a QR code is scanned on the label or an NFC embedded in the article.That also leads you to a page of the application, which details the materials used and the authenticity of the product, a useful tool for the second -hand market, where the sale of counterfeit products remains an important problem, and for recycling, thenComponents such as dyes and buttons are identified.
In the provision system, the information is accessed by clicking through the online purchase platform of a brand."Let's say the shirt is made of organic cotton: you can click on‘ cotton ’and see the use of water, carbon reduction and the impact on workers," said Jessi Baker, founder of Provence."You can see on a map where the factory is."There are plans to embed the same information in QR codes on hanging labels and labels.
P: Eso parece engorroso y es similar a las instrucciones que vienen en las cajas de medicamentos. ¿Y si quisieras saltarte todo eso?
A: Maybe you like the “Sustainability Facts” brand of Nisolo.Patrick Woodyard, executive director of the brand, said the company invested three years and $ 500,000 to develop the label, which appears in its shoe boxes and changes vitamins and minerals for the social and environmental effect of the product, or whatHe calls "people and planet."
The valuations are divided into twelve categories, including salaries, health care, materials and packaging.Each of them appears in the form of a percentage, so that, if all members of the article supply chain charge a decent salary - according to the world coalition for a decent salary - the score is one hundred percent;If nine out of ten factories offer maternity or health care license, the score is 90 percent.(There will also be a QR code in the shoe bag and on the hanging labels of the accessories that customers can scan).
It is possible that the metric of each section is not fully understood: Analyze what is a worthy salary in a specific country is a bit like finding what trans fats are in pop tarts.Nisolo states that his data comes from 31 sources, such as the Higg, Textile Exchange and Good On You index, as well as his own investigation.
The Eventay Chelsea boot label, one of Nisolo's most popular styles, for example, says that the factories that produce it are quite well in regard to health care and benefits, but "packaging and distribution"They could be better (plans are to reduce packaging materials by 50 percent).
The idea, Woodyard said, is that the label "is an awareness tool - so that brands can see their weak points - as well as a tool of responsibility."To that end, he commented, the software is available for free, so that everyone can use it.
P: Entonces, ¿este tipo de etiquetado me facilitará ser inteligente al comprar mi ropa?
A: Any traceability identifier "is definitely one step in the right direction," said Dilys Williams, fashion design professor for sustainability at the sustainable fashion center at the University of the Arts of London.However, ultimately, fashion, like the food industry, "will have to reach a point where everyone uses the same format," she said."Only then will we have a really good system."
