Is Fair Fashion just another catalyst for capitalism or can it be a force for good?

Capitalism is evil, consumption is bad-we can hear and read it everywhere. But is there such a thing as sustainable consumerism and can we maybe even affect positive change through our consumption? As a Fair Fashion blogger I namely often ask myself this. I may consume better, more consciously and more mindful but in the end I still consume, right? So I did some research to find out more to find answers to my questions.

The fashion industry as a major employer
The fashion industry has an estimated gloabal market value of about 406 billion dollars. Therefore, we cannot ignore the fact that the fashion industry is a huge employer. It is estimated that around 60 million people worldwide are employed in the Fashion industry of which three quarters are women. Women for whom employement in the fashion industry is sometimes the only option, as they are denied employment in other industries. Unfortunately, most of them are employed by Fast Fashion providers therefore working under inhumane conditions and often denied their basic human rights. So there needs to be a way that those people can keep their jobs but can enjoy fair working conditions. This is where Fair Fashion comes in.
By supporting the Fair Fashion industry whenever we need to make a new purchase we can support the transformation of the fast fashion market into a fair one. Fair Fashion namely depends on sales just as any other busines. So while we should consume mindfully, meaning that we buy only what we need or what was on our wishlist for a while, the Fair Fashion industry directly gets supported by our purchases. So if we stop consuming alltogether also Fair Fashion and other ethical businesses cannot sustain themselves any longer eventually shutting down their operations.
And as it's unlikey that people will stop consuming alltogether we need to create a viable alternative which Fair Fashion is able to provide.

But what about the environmental impact of our consumption?
Of course there is more to it than just the socio-economic aspect. The fashion industry is yet one of the main contributors to environmental contamination. Unlike many sources claim, fashion is not the second largest pollutor. First up are electricity and heat contributing to almost 25% of the overall environmental pollution and the fashion industry only follows after agriculture, road transportation and gas and oil production, ranking fashion as the 5th most polluting industry (Source). Still pretty bad of course but comparatively better than a second rank. Therefore, fashion is still a big source of contamination and a big contributor to climate change.
Furthermore, a study by the European Parliament suggests that fashion accounts for around 2-10% of the environmental impact of EU consumption (Source).

However, most Fair Fashion brands have recognized the fact that ethical production includes a holistic view of not only sustaining a satisfied workforce but also sustaining our environment. Many brands constantly work on material innovations and finding ways to reduce the carbon footprint of their clothes. By using organic cotton for example a brand uses 71% less water as 80% of the organic cotton is rain-fed. Furthermore, organic cotton uses 62% less energy and refrains from insecticides and pesticides, keeping the water and soil clean instead (Source). 
Other brands use recycled PET, called rPET, or offcuts to make efficient use of ressources in an attempt to minimize waste and conserve natural resources. Furthermore, fair brands are increasingly moving towards a carbon neutral production, so fully compensating for the carbon emission caused during production. So while Fair Fashion has an impact on the environment too, the impact is far less than in the Fast Fashion industry.

When brand's efforts benefit entire communities
There are many fair brands out there whose efforts benefit whole communities. Not only in form of donations from their revenues but some brands actively support communities by giving them the opportunity to learn a new handcraft for example. They educate people and thereby give them the great gift of sustaining themselves. Adding to this, many brands donate part of their revenues to conservation projects or invest money into sustainable material innovation.

Mama Tierra for example is an NGO that supports indigenous people. Not only by giving them an existence-saving employment with a fair wage but also by opening up traderoutes they enable a community of over 800 members to benefit from the brands efforts. That way Mama Tierra also ensures that the culture heritage of the handcraft of the indigenous is upheld and passed on by enabling them to make a living off of it.
This example of Mama Tierra shows very well that brands can use their capital and knowledge for altruistic purposes benefitting entire communities.

Conclusively, things are not just black and white, therefore consumption is not necessarily just consumption. There is a big difference between fast fashion and fair fashion as is between mindless and mindful consumption. Yes, we do consume too much. And I don't tell you to go on a shopping spree, even if it entails ethical and sustainable brands. Even with sustainable brands we need to consume more consciously because even if their footprint is far better, there is (most of the time) still a footprint.
But it always needs to be taken into account that capitalism isn't necessarily bad - in fact we rely on a stable economy. But what we need is a different form of capitalism. Where we consume ethically and sustainably produced goods in a conscious manner and were we hold on to our products for a long time. An economy where revenues are reinvested for the sake of innovations and investigations on social projects and climate change. With the consumption of Fair Fashion we can help transform the fashion industry and hopefully other industries. They do rely on our consumption for their exisence and, as I said earlier, because it's unlikely people stop consuming entirely in the near future, consuming Fair Fashion in a mindful way that can help transform our current system.