The sustainability debate has become noisy and confusing lately. Recycled polyester, organic cotton, regenerative agriculture, plant-based leather, ethical labor, and vertical production: All fall under the umbrella of "being sustainable," but the phenomenon of greenwashing has triggered skepticism.
What the industry is really calling for, is sustainable certifications that verify such claims. An excellent indicator is B Corp certification. In the complex web of standards and certifications, from OEKO-TEX to GOTS to Fair Trade, B Corp is the most rigorous and demanding, requiring brands to answer 300 questions about their social and environmental impact.
Their answers are scored using a point system, and brands must score at least 80 to be awarded B Corp certification: out of the 100,000 that have undergone the assessment, only 3,500 have made the cut. With 151.4 points, Patagonia is close to the top score, and Another Tomorrow exceeded 80.3.
Chloé is also a member of the Animal Welfare group, a subgroup of the Leather Working Group. The Leather Working Group is an international organization made up of stakeholders across the leather supply chain, working to promote environmental best practice within leather manufacturing and related industries.
Last year Chloé made the list, becoming the first luxury fashion house to do so. The news comes less than a year after Gabriela Hearst took the reins as creative director of the maison. Her impact was not long in coming: her first collection for the brand included recycled wool and cashmere knitwear, refashioned vintage handbags and scarves made from leftover Chloé fabrics in collaboration with Sheltersuit, a nonprofit organization that provides shelter for the homeless.
The overall carbon footprint was 400% lower than the previous year, in line with CEO Riccardo Bellini's mission to become a brand "with a purpose." At its recent Spring 2022 runway show, Hearst introduced a new line of pieces that transcend the notion of luxury, Chloé Craft, made entirely by hand in an effort to support artisans. The B Corp seal verifies and underscores those efforts, but that doesn't mean there isn't work to be done: "More than an end goal, this certification marks a new stage in our transformation to a purpose-driven model, reinventing the way we do business," the firm said in a statement that also underscores the brand's activity beyond the product itself: Chloé now has a board of external experts to review and approve its plans and has set sustainability goals for its employees, from top department to bottom, to encourage company-wide engagement. Chloé Transforms "Climate Anxiety" into Hope During Paris Fashion Week French fashion house Chloé reinforced commitment to irs sustainable transformation of the brand last March by introducing more and more recycled fabrics and using a range of colors of climate catastrophes, a way to shake up the industry. In the collection, presented at Paris Fashion Week, these tones were translated into black, reds and oranges representing fires, blues for floods, as well as some touches of earth tones and white. Gabriela Hearst has been applying these changes to heighten awareness for years thanks to collaboration with associations and artisans to accelerate the evolution in Chloé, and making the luxury brand more aware of the need for changes in production. The brand's management has set a goal of choosing less aggressive materials, eliminating synthetic fabrics, using more recycled fabrics, working with organic silk, using recycled cashmere and using linen instead of cotton in bags, among other projects, between now and 2025.