Move-to-Order Fashion

To tell you a little bit about myself, I can get easily overwhelmed.

This happens particularly when I go shopping. I’ll walk into a grocery store and find myself absolutely floored by the amount of food on sale. “Do we really need 20 different types of Oreos?” I think to myself. “How many people are even buying Oreos? How many Oreos are they buying?”

The same thing happens in clothing stores. “So many clothes!” my internal monologue rolls on. “Who is buying all this stuff? Where do I look first? How am I ever supposed to make a
decision?” I start to feel woozy as I contemplate the sheer amount of excess on display and the seemingly infinite choices within my grasp – at least the piles and piles of unsold sweaters help break my fall as I collapse to the floor in a flustered stupor.

I exaggerate, of course, but I hope you see my point. As we’ve spoken about before, we have a massive textile waste problem in this country, one that is fueled by excessive production. We can chalk up a lot of this excess to the make-to-stock production methodology – the practice of producing and storing products in advance based on anticipated customer demand. Make-to-stock is the most common mode of production in the fashion industry, particularly among Fast Fashion brands. While this mode of production in and of itself is not necessarily bad, its current utilization is creating way more clothes than we know what to do with.

Fortunately for us, and our planet, there are alternatives that could help us address this massive textile waste problem. Move-to-order fashion is a broad, supply-chain production model where brands only produce items once an order has been placed. While Fast Fashion brands focus on stockpiling inventory to maximize rapid sales, move-to-order models center on demand-driven manufacturing.

The primary benefit of this approach, at least through the lens of sustainability, is that it cuts down on textile waste. When Fast Fashion brands mass produce garments that then don’t sell, they’re left with heaps of unused textiles that, mostly, end up in landfills. That’s not a problem with move-to-order production, since the buyer has already been arranged before the product is made. No mass production, no problem!

Within the move-to-order umbrella, there’s a smaller subset of made-to-order fashion. While move-to-order involves working across a larger supply chain to procure raw materials and produce pieces, made-to-order is a much more personal approach. With made-to-order, each item is personally crafted, oftentimes by a single artisan, to meet the specifications of a customer’s needs. While it’s hard to produce made-to-order garments at a larger scale, this method cuts down massively on waste and also allows for high customization.

Move-to-order and made-to-order principles are incorporated into the Slow Fashion movement which, as we’ve talked about before, is all about slowing down the production process in the hopes of minimizing waste. Many small businesses and local artisans use made-to-order approaches for their clothing and accessories because, alongside minimizing waste, they reduce their operating costs. Talk about a win-win solution!

While these production methods are less common than traditional – and less sustainable – models in mainstream fashion, there have been a few high-profile examples in the fashion industry recently. For instance, the French luxury fashion brand Maison Margiela produced their 2020 “Reclica” line using a made-to-order strategy. Designers sourced garments from second hand clothing stores throughout Paris according to customer demand, which they then incorporated – either through replication or using the original garment – into their finished pieces. These upcycled pieces were sold as part of the overall collection.

“I feel we are all swimming in this rhythm of life that resounds with Recicla, which is really about recycling and upcycling, and the joy that comes with being able to sell those pieces among the rest of the collection thrills me,” John Galliano, the former creative director for Maison Margiela, told Dazed Magazine in 2020. “We came to the conclusion there are far too many clothes in the world!” At least on that last point, I have to say that I agree with you, John! I wonder if he also occasionally falls down while shopping…

Telfar, a unisex luxury clothing line founded in New York City, also previously instituted move-to-order principles into the production of its vegan leather handbags. The brand’s Bag Security Program, which ran from the fall of 2020 until the summer of 2023, required customers to pre-order their handbags during special “drop windows.” Once the pre-order period had ended, Telfar would produce the appropriate number of handbags and then ship them out over the following months.

I don’t mean to celebrate Maison Margiela or Telfar as bastions of environmentalism: Both brands have been, historically, less than ideal models of sustainability. But I do think they offer a valuable lesson to the fashion industry. While they’ve failed in the big-picture of sustainability, their recent initiatives still showcase how move-to-order methods can be successful in high-end fashion. Sustainability practices sometimes garner a reputation as being “alternative” or “underground” fashion trends. It’s worth reminding ourselves that, in reality, sustainability models very much can (and should!) be used at all levels of fashion – from mainstream brands to the runway collections of Paris.

Let’s move toward move-to-order, folks. By supporting brands and artisans that produce their garments and accessories on demand, we can help reduce waste in the fashion industry – and keep me from collapsing the next time I go shopping.

Thanks for your help in keeping me upright.

Alec Matulka
Doo Dah Apparel