Biotechnology
In Fashion.
Ethics
300 years of Mass Textile Production, but
Where is it All Going?
Issues
The ever-changing, expanding role of biotech in fashion is laced with concerns... Issues like
the practicality of certain adaptations to every day use arise in circumstances, the affordability of clothing biotechnology is for a majority of people the biggest issue.
Ethical
The Effects of Globalization on Consumerism
The driving force in the push for biotechnological innovations is the pressing issue of pollution and climate change. There is a push for action both individually and industry wide to protect the environment for future generations. This is the goal of sustainable fashion, and although sustainable efforts in textile production are helping it cannot keep up with the world's textile consumption rate. The introduction of Biotechnology in the fashion industry is key to effectively solving global issues by speeding up "Slow Fashion" and making it attainable to a large amount of people, reducing resources consumption, and facilitating a cycle in which used clothes are recycled rather than thrown away.
Legal
There are no explicit legal prohibitions of the application of biotechnology to clothing, nor does the bio-engineering of textiles challenge human or animal rights. In fact the fruition of the concept of biotechnology falls in line with the goals of the United States Environmental Protection Agency, Specifically in reference to the Pollution Prevention Act created in 1990 in order to "[focus] industry, government, and public attention on reducing the amount of pollution through cost-effective changes in production, operation, and raw materials use. "
Social
Affordability
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Clothing edited with biotechnology such as bolt-threads tie collection which retails for 300 dollars average consumers may be led to think that sustainable fashion is not for them
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However some say clothes on the more expensive side are an investment, and may even last longer than cheaper clothing because of the way they were manufactured
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Typically clothing manufactured as "Fast Fashion" is made of cheaper synthetic materials which may age faster and have a shorter lifespan than one's made purely of natural products