关于可持续时尚，社会各界一直有很多不同的声音。有人认为，购买打着环保旗号的品牌服装有助于保护环境，还有人认为，购买奢侈品牌可以防止工人被压榨。这些都是广为流传的误解。真相到底是什么呢？Photo by Waldemar Brandt on Unsplash误解一：从“具有环保意识”或“可持续”的品牌购买服装是减少时尚碳足迹的最佳方式MYTH: Buying from "eco-conscious" or "sustainable" brands is the best way to reduce your fashion footprint 事实：减少时尚碳足迹的最佳方式就是少买衣服。最大化地使用你现有的衣服，你可以修补或改造旧衣服，把穿腻了的衣服重新设计一下，和朋友换穿衣服，或者到网上进行衣物互换（当然是在疫情过后）。如果必须买新衣服，试着在二手店找找有没有合适的。一些公司甚至提供修补衣服的项目，比如巴塔哥尼亚品牌的“破旧衣服”项目，或者帮助顾客卖掉穿过的衣服。对可持续品牌进行调研可以有所帮助，但是购买新衣服应该是最后的选择，而不是首选。TRUTH: The best way to reduce your fashion footprint is to buy fewer things. Get the most out of your current wardrobe by mending or altering old garments, restyling tired pieces and trading items with friends or through clothing swaps (post-pandemic). If you must buy a new item, try to find it second-hand. Some companies even offer repair programs, like Patagonia's "Worn Wear," or help to resell worn items. Researching sustainable brands is helpful, but buying something new should be the last option, not the first. 误解二：奢侈服装比快时尚服装更可持续MYTH: Luxury fashion is more sustainable than fast fashion 事实：花钱购买奢侈服装并不能保证可持续。包括巴宝莉在内的一些时尚品牌举行了“碳中和”时装秀，古驰品牌则声称自己的产业运作现在完全是碳中和的。斯特拉·麦卡特尼品牌多年来一直致力于更环保的行为，也是签署联合国《时尚业气候行动宪章》的多个时尚品牌之一，承诺到2030年将碳排放总量减少30%。但是奢侈时尚行业做的还不够。今年早些时候奢侈品展示网站Ordre发布的一份报告揭示了奢侈品时尚业的一些真相，比如时装周对环境的破坏有多大。通过测量12个月内参加国际时装周的来自2697个零售品牌的时装买家和5096名成衣设计师产生的碳足迹，该报告发现，时装周产生的24.1万吨二氧化碳（或等量的温室气体）相当于一个小国的碳排放量，这些能源足以为4.2万户家庭提供一年的照明。TRUTH:Spending money on luxury fashion does not guarantee sustainability. Some fashion houses, including Burberry, have staged "carbon-neutral" shows, and Gucci claims its operations are now entirely carbon-neutral. Stella McCartney has been working towards more greener practices for years and is one in a number of fashion brands to sign a UN charter for climate action, pledging to reduce collective carbon emissions by 30% by 2030. But the luxury fashion industry still has work to do. A report released earlier this year by Ordre, which specializes in online showrooms, reveals how unsustainable fashion weeks really are, for example. By measuring the carbon footprint of fashion buyers from 2,697 retail brands and 5,096 ready-to-wear designers attending international fashion weeks over a 12-month period, the report found that the 241,000 tonnes of CO2 (or equivalent greenhouse gases) emitted was the same as that of a small country, or enough energy to keep the lights on in 42,000 homes in a year. 误解三：衣服越贵，工人受剥削的可能性越小MYTH: The more expensive the garment, the less likely workers have been exploited 事实：许多中高档品牌的服装实际上跟折扣店和快时尚品牌用同样的工厂生产。这意味着从工人权利到工作条件等方方面面都可能存在剥削，与价位无关。此外，衣服的高价不能保证员工能得到公平的报酬，因为劳动力成本只占生产总成本的一小部分。TRUTH:Many mid-priced and premium labels actually produce in the same factories as discount and fast fashion brands. This means that everything from workers' rights to the conditions in which they work in, can be exploitative, regardless of price point. What's more, the price of a garment does not guarantee that workers were fairly paid, because the cost of labor only makes up a small fraction of total production costs. 误解四：捐旧衣服是清理衣柜的可持续方式MYTH: Donating old clothes is a sustainable way to clean out your closet 事实：尽管慈善机构和二手店确实会捐掉或卖掉它们获得的一部分旧衣服，但是你捐的衣服很可能最终会被运到发展中国家的转售市场或者进入垃圾填埋场，而运到发展中国家的旧衣服会给他们的当地产业带来负面影响。捐给二手店的衣服只有10%真的被卖掉了。光是美国每年就会运10亿磅（约合45万吨）旧衣服到其他国家。非洲接收了全球70%的二手衣服。TRUTH:While charities and thrift stores do give away or sell a portion of the clothes they receive, your donated clothes are likely to end up being shipped overseas to resale markets in developing countries, which can negatively impact their local industries, or in a landfill. Only 10% of clothing given to thrift stores is actually sold. The US alone ships a billion pounds of used clothing per year to other countries. Africa receives 70% of global secondhand clothes. 2016年一项名为“已故白人衣服”的研究项目发现，在加纳最大的二手市场坎塔曼托市场，每周有1500万件衣物会运到那里。研究团队在报告中总结道，每批衣服的40%会成为垃圾，被倾倒入本已满溢的垃圾填埋场、几内亚湾，或在阿克拉贫民窟焚烧。A 2016 research project, entitled "Dead White Man's Clothes," found that in Kantamanto, the largest secondhand market in Ghana, 15 million items are unloaded each week. The team behind the report concluded that 40% of the clothing in each bale becomes waste, dumped into already overflowing landfills, the Gulf of Guinea, or burned in Accra's slums. Photo by Becca McHaffie on Unsplash 误解五：打着可持续旗号的品牌就是可持续的MYTH: Brands that promote sustainability are sustainable 事实：“可持续”和其他“漂绿”的流行词可能被误用于吸引那些迫切想减少对地球环境影响的顾客。时尚搜索引擎Lyst去年报告称，2019年可持续相关的搜索词条相比前一年增加了75%。麦肯锡咨询公司的萨斯基亚·海德里希告诉美国有线电视新闻网说：“可持续时尚的客观评价标准缺失了。”TRUTH:"Sustainability" and other greenwashing buzzwords can be misused to attract consumers eager to reduce their environmental impact on the planet. Fashion search engine Lyst reported in 2019 that it saw a 75% increase in sustainable-related search terms compared with the previous year. "Objective criteria for rating sustainable fashion are missing," McKinsey's Saskia Hedrich told CNN. 误解六：大多数衣服都可以被回收MYTH: Most clothes can be recycled 事实：衣服回收起来可能会很难，一部分是因为衣服的制作方法。首先，许多面料都是棉涤或其他材质混纺，如果要用这些面料重新做成新衣就必须把各种材质分开。在美国，被扔掉的衣服鞋子最后只有不到14%被回收。但是“回收”从广义上可以被分为“下游循环”和“上游循环”，而两者的区别很重要。下游循环的衣服通常会成为用于家庭隔热材料或地毯的纤维。循环经济组织称，在欧洲，不到1%的收集到的衣服真的被回收并制成新衣服。TRUTH:Clothing can be difficult to recycle, in part because of how it's made. For one, many fabrics are made from blends (of cotton and polyester, for instance), which must be separated if the material is to be turned into a new garment. In the US, less than 14% of clothing and shoes thrown away end up being recycled. But "recycling" is also a broad term that can be broken down into "downcycling" and "upcycling," and the difference matters. Downcycled garments often wind up as fibers used for home insulation or carpets. In Europe, less than 1% of collected clothing is actually recycled into new garments, according to Circle Economy. 误解七：修补便宜衣服不值当MYTH: It's not worth it to repair cheap clothes. 事实：修补一件快时尚衣服也许意味着修补花的钱和买衣服花的钱一样多，但是循环使用同一件衣服是减少碳足迹的最佳方法。你也可以学习如何在家小修小补以节省成本，包括换纽扣、修拉链、缝合开线处和给裤子卷边。TRUTH:Mending a fast fashion item may mean spending what you paid for it, but keeping the same clothes in rotation is the best thing you can do to reduce your carbon footprint. You can also learn how to carry out small repairs at home to keep costs down, including replacing buttons, fixing broken zippers, resewing loose seams and hemming pants. 误解八：你网购退回的衣服又被卖给其他顾客MYTH: Your online returns are resold to other customers 事实：你退回的衣服可能最后被焚烧或扔进了垃圾填埋场。公司检查和重新包装退回的衣服所花的费用通常比直接处理掉更高。品牌商也可能因担心拉低品牌价值或破坏独特性而不愿捐掉退回的衣服。加拿大广播公司2019年的一份报告凸显了这种行为，并指出网购退货量在过去五年增加了95%。TRUTH:Your returns may end up incinerated or in landfills. It's often cheaper for companies to dispose of returns than to inspect and repackage them, and labels may be unwilling to donate the items for fear of cheapening their brand or damaging their exclusivity. A CBC report in 2019 highlighted this practice, pointing out that the volume of online returns has also increased by 95% over the past five years. 误解九：你的衣服来自标签上印的生产国MYTH: Your clothes are from the country listed on the tag 事实：你的衣服可能在该国进行缝合，但标签却无法透露参与制作衣服的复杂劳动链。时尚革命组织的报告《如何进行时尚革命》中写道：“你的衣服标签不会告诉你原料所用棉花是在世界的哪个地方种植的，纤维是在哪里被纺成纱线的，纱线是在哪里织成面料的，以及面料是在哪里染色或印花的。它不会告诉你纱线、染料、拉链、纽扣、珠饰或其他装饰物来自哪里。”为了鼓励在标签上让供应链透明化，时尚革命组织一直在宣传#谁做了我的衣服？这一话题标签，请用户在自拍上晒出衣服标签并标注出衣服品牌。TRUTH:Your clothes may be assembled in that country, but the tag can't reveal the complex chain of labor that went into making them. "Your label won't tell you where in the world the cotton was farmed, where the fiber was spun into a yarn, where the yarn was woven into a fabric (or) where it was dyed and printed," states Fashion Revolution's report, "How to Be a Fashion Revolutionary." "It won't tell you where the thread, dyes, zips, buttons, beading or other features came from." To encourage labels to be transparent about their supply chains, Fashion Revolution has been promoting the hashtag #whomademyclothes?, asking users to tag brands in selfies with clothing tags visible.