Gen Z struggles with a paradox:
While we champion sustainable choices,we also find ourselves entangled in fast fashion.
Denim, in particular, poses a significant challenge. The allure of cheap, trendy jeans overshadows their environmental toll, making it difficult for young consumers to reconcile their fashion choices with their values.
Denim is one of the major polluters in the fashion industry. About 7,500 liters of water neededto produce a typical pair of jeans, accordingto the . Cotton irrigation accounts for of this water footprint.
Service retail associate and Columbia alumniGage Prose-Malan hemming a pair of jeans
GREENER DENIM
Amidst this troubling landscape, some brands are striving to do better.
Brands like Levi's have long been at the forefront of the sustainability effort within the denim industry. As the first major denim brand to adopt eco-friendly practices, they paved the way for others. Levi Strauss & Co designates 76% of its products "Water<Less" — meaning they have achieved a 50% reduction in water use in areas of "high water stress." To date, this has saved 4.2 billion liters of water. Also, 75% of their cotton is used from materials grown through sustainable farming practices.
Levi's is a corporate partner of Fashion for Good, which supports sustainable initiatives and is working with the Ellen MacArthur Foundation's The Jeans Redesign project, which promotes a circular design for fashion, meaning clothing that is manufactured more sustainably, lasts longer, and reused instead of just discarded. Levi's also offers Levi's Secondhand where buyers can drop off their old Levi's jeans, denim shorts and jackets at participating stores so they can be cleaned, sorted and resold to help keep garments out of landfills.
A pair of traditional straight-legged blue jeansfrom Levi's ranges from $40 to $150.
Patagonia is also widely recognized as a responsible brand that has constantly been an advocate for sustainability. Since 1996, they have exclusively used organically grown cotton, as well as more sustainable crops like hemp, and recycled materials like polyester and nylon. Their website offers transparent information about their many sustainability initiatives. Most of Patagonia's denim jeans are made with a blend of certified organic cotton, recycled cotton and recycled spandex.
A pair of traditional straight-legged blue jeansfrom Patagonia costs $130.
Initiatives like these are forcing fast-fashion brands to take some actions, too. For example, the fast-fashion brand H&M is collaborating with the Lee brand to provide life cycle assessment data for its denim garments. Currently, thanks to a collaboration with the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, most of H&M's denim contains at least 20% recycled content.
A pair of traditional straight-legged blue jeansfrom H&M ranges from $30 to $40.
In Chicago, Dearborn Denim is embracing these practices on a small scale, and demonstrating that it isn't always easy to maintain sustainable practices. Dearborn Denim designs, cuts, sews and finishes their denim jeans in a factory in Chicago. There aren't many companies that source materials, design and manufacture denim clothing in the U.S. "This makes Dearborn Denim’s business model quite unique,” says Allison Leahy, associate director of the School of Fashion at Columbia College Chicago. “There’s a lack of people willing to do this work, and few entrepreneurs are investing in factories."
Dearborn Denim sources its 100% cotton denim from Mount Vernon Mills in South Carolina, which has a longstanding sustainability commitment. They source their stretch denim from Cone Mills in Parras, Mexico, since the original U.S. location closed in 2017. As a result, Dearborn Denim can no longer claim to source 100% domestic denim — a common trend in the US, where textile mills have closed in recent decades.
“Our supply chain is unfortunately a little bit broken, and we’re doing our best,” says Xochil Herrera of The Chicago Pattern Maker, who specializes in product development and has worked with Dearborn Denim. Still, Dearborn Denim emphasizes durability in their jeans, and creates accessories from denim scraps to avoid waste.
A pair of Dearborn Denim
jeans costs $80.
But will Gen Z pay the premium to buy more sustainable denim clothing? Many express a desire to shop for more ethical brands, but find it difficult with the additional cost.
“Being a college student is a little bit difficult trying to shop sustainably and also affordably but it is definitely something I keep in mind,” says Claire Bald, 19.
“I used to buy from Shein and Romway and AliExpress. I'm trying to lean away from that and try to shop smaller, even though it's expensive,” says Mo Reed, 21.
"-I do [keep sustainability in mind], I only bought from Shein, like in 2019-2020, ever since then, I found out they were kind of shady, so now I mainly thrift for jeans," says Abigail Halla, 24.
Some Gen Zers are adopting upcycling: transforming old jeans into new garments. “I’ve tried to upcycle my jeans into bandanas but it hasn't really worked out, but I try and do everything besides throw them out,” Bald says.
