Mother Nature is the New Fashion Icon

Call it responsible luxury. The trend is for this relatively small brand segment to become more and more associated with protecting the worldwide environment.

Why?
There is a fundamental shift away from luxury goods such as Chanel and Versace. People are embracing a more Whole Earth philosophy. So, luxury brands are getting with the program.  Many have started to introduce eco-friendly products.

More than that, they are snapping up brands that tout their social responsibility and are weaving environmental themes into their advertising and marketing.

For example, the French luxury conglomerate Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton took a stake in Edun, an organic-clothing company founded by the singer Bono and his wife. In 2004, it conducted a "carbon inventory" to gauge its impact on greenhouse-gas emissions. Afterwards it cut back on corporate travel and air shipment of goods.

More evidence: The long-time eco-friendly designer Stella McCartney is finally becoming recognized for her steadfast commitment to cruelty-free, green luxury fashions.

Going green is a luxury
There has been talk lately about how going green is itself a luxury: what people want during a recession is cheap goods, whether or not they are the most environmentally friendly products available.

There is a counter-trend too: the UK industry self-regulatory bodies the ?Comittee of Advertising Practice and Broadcast CAP have revised their codes to clamp down on "greenwashing".

They said absolute claims of environmental benefits "must be supported by a high level of substantiation" without omitting "significant information". "Green" claims must also cover the full life cycle of a product and recognise areas where scientists' opinions are divided. The Codes, due to come into effect in September 2010, will be administered by the Advertising Standards Authority.

On the other hand, the market for luxury goods is a tiny market. So how much effect can greening it really have? In terms of promoting environmentalism as a trend, the greening of luxury brands has to be a good thing. After all, there are plenty of people out there who will follow faithfully whatever example their favourite celebrity sets.

It's also worth considering that environmental promises made by high-end brands may be among the most reliable. They've presumably got the resources required to do very careful sourcing, in order to make sure that the organic, low-carbon, union-made, fair-trade cotton that goes into their $200 t-shirts really is what it claims to be. What's more, it is clear that these brands would seriously damage their cachet if they didn't live up to their eco-rhetoric.

To do this brands should look at linking their purpose and performance, they should publish a clear CSR policy, and look to set up interaction with key stakeholders and consumers.

Any eco labeling should be evidence-based and preferably have third-party endorsement. NGOs have called for sustainability certification schemes to incorporate rigorous, independent evaluation into their design.

In order to have credibility in the green arena, luxury brands need to be hyper transparent about their "back story."  Those brands that can show that the path from production to marketing and selling is a green one will gain a huge amount of traction.

Co-branding or partnering with an appropriate NGO - after quantifying NGO vulnerability - is worth investigating.
(Our thanks to our colleague Elaine Cameron, Strategic Research and Trends Analyst from Burson-Marsteller, for contributing this story from her newsletter, Future Perspectives)