You might not realize it, but fashion is one of the world’s most polluting industries. Second only to oil, it is responsible for 20 percent of freshwater pollution and 10 percent of the world’s carbon output. Synthetic fibers such as polyester, the most common fiber used in clothing, are non-biodegradable and pollute our waterways even from the washing machine – ecologist Michael Brown estimates that each garment sheds roughly 1,900 fibers per wash that end up in our oceans and along our shorelines. To make matters worse, cheap production and fast-moving trends have made our clothing a disposable commodity that we are quick to purchase, then toss out. And these are just a few of the apparel industry’s effects on the world. With cheap, outsourced labor an integral part of the business, its social impact is equally detrimental.

Launched in 2013, Zady is an online retailer and fashion label tackling these issues. The company spent months mapping the complex supply chain of clothing production in order to set sustainable guidelines across the line, all the way from farmers to designers. Called the “New Standard,” these guidelines are rethinking how we make our clothes.

Interestingly enough, Zady’s co-founder and CEO Maxine Bédat began her career in international law, an appropriate if unexpected background for the work she does now. (The apparel industry in a global one: Materials, labor, and distribution of a single garment often involve resources of multiple countries.) She talked to us about the complications of making sustainable apparel and why this is something so few retailers do.

Zady’s website describes the fashion industry as a shadow system, where its production is more or less kept secret. Why is everything so hidden?
Well, it's a story of globalization. Through trade agreements [made in the 1990s], the world opened up. It impacted the apparel industry the most because it’s one of the industries most reliant on hand labor. We still make things with sewing machines. That hasn't innovated, ever.

And so with trade opening up, these brands stopped owning [their own factories and instead] would work with these middlemen, and that's how it became a shadow system. They would just contract with these middlemen who would contract with these other factories who would then contract with some other factories, and nobody knew the next step in the supply chain.

How does this differ from other industries?
I feel like it's unique to the apparel industry because of that labor component. You don't see that as much in the car industry. A lot of the times those manufacturers own the manufacturing chain. But in the apparel world, no one even knows what's happening at the cut-and-sew, and they have no idea where their farms are – zero idea. So it's unique. It seems to be the worst in the apparel industry.

Also, [rather than investing in innovation] the industry has been so focused on trying to find the cheapest labor center. It started with the United States, and then when the world opened up, it moved to Hong Kong, and then when mainland China opened up, it moved there. And then that got too expensive, so Vietnam and Bangladesh became popular. And now as wages are rising there, the brands are just going to cheaper and cheaper – that race to the bottom.

Zady started out just trying to map the complex production chain of our apparel, each part of which has its own set of guidelines. Your findings later led to defining what you call the “New Standard.” What is it, exactly?
It's a research-backed approach to guidelines for sustainable apparel production. And that means it starts with guidelines on design and material sourcing and material production and finally product development. It’s from design to the farm, all the way through the finished product.

And how did you define it?
It really started with a Google doc, where I would put these facts as I was coming upon them. It was like, “Oh, my god. This is crazy! How do we not know about this?” People know about reducing our energy use and turning off lights and having electric cars and recycling, but we have no exposure to this massive issue, even though it's something we interact with every day when we put on our clothes.

Finally [the Zady team] took a step back and said, “Okay, we know what all the problems are. How, then, are we supposed to solve them?” And basically what we came up with are different standards for different pieces of the supply chain. For example, let's say a cotton T-shirt is an organic T-shirt. Well, that means no synthetic pesticides have been used in the farming stage. But it could be an organic T-shirt that uses a really toxic dye that has been dumped into local drinking water. So on net: not the best product, even if it says it's organic cotton. What we've done is piece together these different standards across the different pieces of the supply chain [to guarantee sustainability].

How do you find suppliers who follow these standards?
Let's just take what seems like a simple cotton T-shirt. You have the cotton farmers. You have a gin. You have the spinners. You have the knitters. You have the cutters and sewers. That's a pretty complicated supply chain.

We realized that if we start by partnering with a sustainable farm, we could learn from them: OK, where do you do your ginning? And then from the gin: OK, where do you do your spinning? And mapping it out that way. Right now, other brands, they have no insight. It’s really hard to crack that code and figure out what their supply chain even is.

That's great. I can see how your background in law is really coming into play.
It is interesting how creating a standard does feel like a legal exercise in a way. It's like regulation. It's like law that we self-impose.

Want to learn more about the environmental and social impact of the apparel industry and what you can do to help? Visit the “New Standard” section of zady.com. Stay tuned for our full interview with Zady in the August/September issue of American Craft.