As consumers, we want to buy clothing and support brands who make their clothes using sustainable raw materials and ethical production models.  Even though consumers are pushing for this and the marketing buzzwords have proliferated to occupy nearly every window in every retail store and website worldwide, the truth remains that sustainability is missing in the retail clothing industry.  As consumers, here is how we can empower and support brands who are truly making a difference. 

A Shift on Madison Ave.

In today’s clothing stores, you see the word sustainability everywhere.  It has become a marketing catch-all used by retail stores and eCommerce shops worldwide.

Themes like sustainability and responsible manufacturing have been forcing brands to rethink how they make their clothes and nearly all clothing brands have revamped their marketing schemes to lay claim to their sustainability efforts.  

The buck didn’t stop with the brands.  The trend of sustainability has penetrated the entire supply chain in the garment industry.  

What does all this talk of sustainability really even mean? 

In 2015, a world’s top fabric show awarded a sustainability or ethics badge to only 13% of more than 500 suppliers on its exhibitor list.  Walking the floor, few suppliers were flyering or displaying sustainable methods. 

By 2019, the very same trade show presented a show guide that awarded a sustainability-related badge to 89% of its exhibitors.  As you walked the floor that year, you were overwhelmed with advertising for sustainably made threads, fabrics, buttons, zippers, and more.

The garment industry is a highly technical industry entrenched in manufacturing processes and machinery that are decades old.  Even though the marketing dialogue has become all about eco-friendly, the vast majority of industrial processes and practices remain wholly unsustainable. 

Consumers demand products that are made the right way – the ethical way – the truth remains that the garment industry is still not sustainable.

Here’s the good news: we as consumers have the power to push the bar higher if we only ask ourselves one simple question: what really constitutes an ethically made garment?

What Constitutes an Ethically Made Garment?

As consumers, we need to ask ourselves what constitutes a truly sustainably made garment?  

To find out what this means, we asked a brand practicing a radically transparent and innovative business model.  What we learned is that for brands like A Muffin in the Oven, an Italian designed baby brand, the recipe is simple:

“An ethically made garment is a piece of clothing that has been made in a sustainable manufacturing model,” began Co-Founder Martina Cafaro.  “A sustainable production model encompasses much more than purchasing fabrics or trims labeled organic or bio.
A truly sustainable production model is one where the brand knows exactly who are the humans and hands that made the clothes and what they used to make those styles.”

In today’s technologically advanced world, many of us overlook the fact that clothing is still predominantly made by human hands using tools and machines.  Manual labor is still required to cut, sew, and place buttons.  Baby clothing, for example, still relies on human hands to apply the snaps we all use when we change a diaper.

A Muffin in the Oven has challenged the status quo on what it means to sustainably and ethically design and produce clothing, employing a model that is sustainable from start to finish.

“I’m a Mom and I want clothes that are made the right way for my baby.  We’re Mom’s making clothing for moms, so it’s only natural.”

There’s certainly a motherly instinct at A Muffin in the Oven.  The team designs and sews its own clothes in-house and only sources raw materials from suppliers who are willing to share the ethics behind who, where, and what went into every input.

“We’re a brand for the new millennium and I think the next generation cares about real sustainability…and clothes that safeguard the seamstresses and dads making our baby’s clothes.  These families deserve job security regardless of the economic or pandemic ups and downs.”

Yes, sustainability is about choosing organic raw materials.  However, if we really want to push our society in a direction that promotes equality, one part of the agenda that calls for ethical and responsible manufacturing needs to be taken to the next level.

During the pandemic, many household name brands canceled orders in fear of amassing inventories.  This resulted in significant financial loss, which in turn caused lay-offs of over 85% of garment workers in countries like China and Bangladesh.

What’s sustainable about that?

As consumers, our purchase is our vote.  We can choose brands that genuinely stand for family morals.   When these morals are a cornerstone and you validate those morals with a purchase or a like, it empowers brands like A Muffin in the Oven to design chic, eco-friendly products.  It also promotes innovations for moms and babies while at the same time offering stable workplaces to the countless families who are striving to create pure and responsibly made products.  In 2021, we should consider looking more at brands like A Muffin in the Oven where sustainability and caring for the humans behind the product are the only way to live life.

Learn more about the brand at www.amuffinintheoven.com

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