The start of a new trend ?
After a recent petition by the Clean Clothes Campaign for fashion houses to stop using sandblasting as a treatment for denim, it seems that fashion may start being called to task on many of the prevalent practices used that caused untold harm to the environment and staff working in the industry. The technique that gives garments an artificially worn look produces larges amounts of silica dust which can lead to silicosis – a potentially lethal pulmonary disease (the Guardian, 10th August).
Thousands of people have signed a petition for stopping the use of the treatment, and both Gucci and Versace have responded favourably to it. Giorgio Armani, Roberto Cavalli and Dolce & Gabbana have apparently ‘remained totally indifferent’ to the petition and claims. With the increasing use and impact of online petitions across all issues, we could see fashion houses pushed to engage in environmentally friendly practices - which is no small thing for an industry at the top of the charts for issues touching human rights, workers rights, animal protection and sustainable manufacturing.
The campaign has singled out Dolce & Gabbana for special attention. Deborah Lucchetti (Clean Clothes Italian spokeswoman) said the Campaign made a practice of notifying companies before they were targeted. “Dolce & Gabbana telephoned me to say thanks for the information and that it did not interest them. I was pretty surprised. This is a serious issue. People have died because of sandblasting,” she said.
