Sustainable Fashion – Christmas Sweater Style

For the unselfconscious who don the proverbial Christmas sweater at this time of year, here’s the Good News: you can now purchase one with a 30-year guarantee!

No, this is not a sales pitch gimmick; it’s the entrepreneurial vision of one U.K. designer who decided to take a “sustainable” stand against the trendy “fast fashion retailers” whose garments are cheaply manufactured and not designed to last.

“I am told it is the world’s first Christmas jumper to come with a 30-year guarantee,” Tom Cridland told BBC News.

Too right it is. And in a consumerist, disposable age where profit margins – rather than sustainable and renewable products – call the shots, he is taking a lead that just might take off.

His vision, as shared with the BBC:

We are essentially making a pledge that we are going to make our clothing as well as possible and to be a durable as possible. For the consumers’ point of view, people are buying these sweatshirts with the intention of keeping them for 30 years . . 

It is not that it is letting fashion trends pass them by because the only reason people would replace things like that is because they would wear out because they had been badly made by a fast fashion retailer.

I blame the light bulb makers . . 

Huh?

Shortly after Thomas Edison invented the light bulb, a committee assembled to determine the economic viability of such a product. They agreed to maximize their profitability by designing an inferior bulb that would bow out at 1,000 hours. Such fabricated limitations on the bulb, ensured that many more bulbs could be sold. Their decision spawned an environment fraught with waste that placed an unnecessary responsibility on the consumer.

(For fun, why don’t you check out the world’s longest burning light bulb, hanging from the ceiling of a Livermore fire station in California for—wait for it —114 years! And still going strong.)

Point being: the 30-year pledge that Mr. Cridland is making to his customers is a testament to someone who takes pride in the quality and durability of his garments; cares that the workers who make them are paid a fair wage;  and is providing a sustainable option for customers to choose over the sub-quality, albeit trendier alternatives.

In this Holiday Season that commemorates the birth of the Christ Child, whose simple, humble beginnings did not thwart the moral and spiritual legacy he left us, we might take our cue from the Mr. Cridlands in our midst . . and reflect a little deeper on what Holiday giving and sustainable living is all about.

Wishing all my readers a Holiday overflowing with joy, hope, and gratitude!

Cover Picture: Wikimedia Commons

Image Insert: Pixabay