Our glossary

The Paris Good Fashion glossary was born following the citizen consultation on responsible fashion carried out in 2020 at the initiative of our association alongside a collective of committed actors*.

It responds to the expectations expressed by more than 107,000 participants, concerning the need for consumer information and the need to use a common language understood by all. Hence, the members of Paris Good Fashion decided to develop this glossary in order to exchange and communicate on the same basis.

Initially published in French, this glossary is now available in English in order to make as many people as possible benefit from this work. It includes about 350 definitions, and is the result of collaborative work with our members**.

  1. We first defined the main categories and terms to be included. First, we defined the main categories and terms to be included: general terms of fashion and sustainable development, labels and certifications, actors and initiatives, and materials. Another category was established, that of "Basic concepts". It includes the most important generic terms of our sector. These are also often the most complex, as their scope is either very broad or unclear.
    _
  2. Then, we carried out bibliographical research, which allowed us to carry out a state of the art of the existing definitions by basing them on the official and international definitions when they existed.
    _
  3. When they did not exist, the terms were the subject of consultation and in-depth reflection by Sylvie Benard, Clémence Grisel and Isabelle Lefort in order to be enriched and as precise as possible. For each term, you will find the bibliographic references that helped establish its definition.
    __
  4. Following this work which took place from March 2021 to February 2022, the definitions were submitted to the members for correction and validation. Special thanks go to Claudia Lee and Guy Morgan (Chanel), François Souchet (BPCM), and Andrée-Anne Lemieux (IFM) for their careful reading of the translation, coordinated by Clémence Grisel.

If you would like to know more, or have any suggestions, please contact us at contact@parisgoodfashion.com

* Eram Group, Etam Group, Galeries Lafayette, Petit Bateau, Vestiaire Collective, WSN

** They participated in the WG: Chantal Cabantous (Balmain), François Souchet (BPCM), Éric Dupont, Guy Morgan, Claudia Lee (Chanel), Christophe Bocquet and Aude Vergne (Chloé), Sylvain Cariou and Hugo Sereys (Crystalchain), Clémence Hulet and Alice Timmerman (Deloitte), Géraldine Vallejo, Yoann Regent and Annabelle Villot Malka (Kering), Frédéric Lecoq (Lacoste), Hélène Valade and Alexandre Capelli (LVMH), Thomas Bucaille and Pauline Mattioli (Petit Bateau) as well as Léonore Garnier (FHCM), Adeline Dargent (Syndicat de Paris de la Mode Féminine) and Andrée-Anne Lemieux (IFM)

Certification awarded by the B Lab non-profit to companies that meet high standards of social and environmental performance, transparency and accountability. For a company to be certified, it must: 1/ evaluate its practices and outputs across five categories: governance, workers, community, the environment and customers through the B Impact Assessment; 2/ amend its corporate governance structure to remain accountable to all stakeholders; 3/ sign the B Corp Declaration of Interdependence.

Reference: B Corp
Supported by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), the Better Cotton Initiative supports continuous improvement in cotton growing and promotes standards that minimise the use of water and chemicals.

The BCI program includes a set of standards and requirements for cotton producers, following seven principles: minimize harmful impacts of crop protection practices; promote water stewardship; care for health of the soil; enhance biodiversity and use land responsibly; care for and preserve fiber quality; promote decent work standards; and operate an effective management system.

The Better Cotton Initiative authorises the use of genetically modified seeds as well as chemical fertilisers and pesticides (at the same time encouraging more sustainable forms of crop protection).

It has been criticised for failing to adequately monitor improvement, for its weaker standards and (as a consequence) for taking significant market share from certifications that are harder to obtain, such as the Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS) or OEKO-TEX. Third-party reviewers have observed that Better Cotton standards need stronger criteria and closer producer monitoring if they are to match the ecological impact of organic alternatives.

References: 
Better Cotton
Condenast - The Sustainable Fashion Glossary
Changing Markets Foundation (2018) The false promise of certification
International Trade Centre (2017) The State of Sustainable Markets 2017
Bio-based products are wholly or partly derived from materials of biological origin, excluding materials embedded in geological formations and/or fossilised.

Find out more

The Biobased Content Certification Scheme enables independent assessment of claims about the bio-based content of products, based on European standard EN 16785-1.

Reference:
European Commission
Bio-based plastics are fully or partially made from biological resources, rather than fossil raw materials. They are not necessarily compostable or biodegradable. It is important to examine the full life cycle of bio-based plastics, to ensure that they are beneficial to the environment beyond the reduction in use of fossil resources. This includes littering and changes in land use.

See: Bio-based

Reference: European Commission
A “bio-feedstock” refers to any unprocessed natural material (e.g. not manmade) used to supply a processing technology. Bio-feedstocks come from a variety of sources (e.g. petroleum, biomass, coal, etc.) and are transformed from their unprocessed state to create fuel or to support a chemical reaction to create a material or process. Any natural resource might be considered as a bio-feedstock. For example, petroleum is a bio-feedstock for most plastic and polyester. Algae is starting to be used as a bio-feedstock for textiles and dyes. Corn is a popular bio-feedstock for bio-based plastics. When determining whether a bio-feedstock is “sustainable” or not, it is important to understand the bio-feedstock and how it is procured.

See: First-generation bio-feedstock, Second-generation bio-feedstock, Third-generation bio-feedstock, Fourth-generation bio-feedstock

Reference: Kering Standards
The capacity of a material to be broken down by the action of living organisms into elements that are harmless for the environment. Biodegradability is measured by how much of a material biodegrades and how long this takes.

Find out more

EN 13432 is widely considered as the reference standard for biodegradability. For biodegradable plastics to comply with this standard, they must meet several criteria:

• Composition (as per EN 13432): the initial material must contain a minimum of 50% of volatile solids and not exceed acceptable maximum levels of heavy metal and fluorine.

• Disintegration (as per ISO 16929): the capacity of a material to break down into small fragments through composting. The fraction of test material retained by a 2mm sieve must be less than 10% of the initial mass after 12 weeks.

• Biodegradability (as per ISO 14855:1999): the acceptable level of biodegradability is at least 90% in total or 90% of the maximum level of biodegradation of the reference substance in less than 6 months.

• Final compost quality and ecotoxicity (as per OECD 208): must not be modified by packaging materials added to the compost and must not be harmful to the environment. This guideline requires ecotoxicity tests to be performed on the final compost and that results are 90% better than for the corresponding control compost.

Other biodegradability standard: NF T 51-800 : 2015 - Specifications for plastics suitable for home composting.

References:
Vocabulaire de l'environnement - JORF n°0087
Natureplast
Plastic which can be decomposed by physical or biological means, ultimately degrading into carbon dioxide (CO2), biomass and water, and, in compliance with European standards for packaging, can be recycled by composting and anaerobic digestion.

See also: OK Compost HOME and OK Compost INDUSTRIAL

Reference: European Directive (EU) 2019/904 on the reduction of the impact of certain plastic products on the environment
The Convention on Biological Diversity defines biodiversity as “the variability among living organisms from all sources including, inter alia, terrestrial, marine and other aquatic ecosystems and the ecological complexes of which they are part; this includes diversity within species, between species and of ecosystems.”

Reference: United Nations (1992) Convention on biological diversity
The European Commission defines the bioeconomy as "the production of renewable biological resources and the conversion of these resources and waste streams into value added products, such as food, feed, bio-based products and bioenergy.”

This profound economic transition involves the transformation of biomass, through advances in modern biology, into new products such as biofuel and green chemistry.

Find out more

Responding to what he believed was an overly mechanist liberal economy, in 1971 Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen published his seminal work in which he highlights the contradiction between finite natural resources and unlimited economic growth.

Reference: OECD (2009) The Bioeconomy to 2030: designing a policy agenda
Biofabricated materials are produced by living cells (e.g. mammalian) and microorganisms such as bacteria, yeast and mycelium. Examples of biofabricated materials would include fermented biosynthetic & biofabricated ingredients and bioassembled materials.

Reference: BioFabricate and Fashion for Good (2020) Understanding Bio Material Innovations : a primer for the fashion industry
A form of sustainable innovation which transfers and adapts to humans, solutions already found in nature.

Reference: Larousse
See: bio-based, bio-based plastic
Quality mark that guarantees a product is made from organic cotton and non-chemical dyes, and that workers and growers benefit from decent working conditions. It also encourages cotton farmers to diversify crops and move away from monoculture which depletes soil nutrients.

References:
bioRe
Ademe
The part of the Earth system comprising all ecosystems and living organisms, in the atmosphere, on land (terrestrial biosphere), or in the oceans (marine biosphere), including derived dead organic matter, such as litter, soil organic matter, and oceanic detritus.

Find out more

The biosphere comprises all the ecosystems and living organisms in:

• the hydrosphere (water on, under and above Earth’s surface)
• the lithosphere (the outer layer of Earth)
• the atmosphere (the layer of gas around Earth)

References:
IPCC (2018) Glossary
Actu Environnement
The formation of an organic substance (protein, hormone, mucus) by a living organism, either internally or in excretions such as mucus, the shells of eggs or molluscs, and bark.

Reference: Wikipedia
Synthetic fibre comprising polymers sourced wholly or partially from renewable resources as an alternative to conventional synthetic fibres derived from fossil resources.

The majority of currently available biopolymers are produced from first-generation bio-feedstock such as maize, sugar cane, sugar beet and vegetable oils which are grown as monocrops, depleting the soil and monopolising land to the detriment of food crops.

These negative impacts could be reduced by developing biosynthetic materials made from second-, third- and even fourth-generation bio-feedstocks, such as agricultural and sylvicultural waste (second-generation), algae, fungi and bacteria (third-generation) and carbon (fourth-generation).

See: Bio-feedstock, First-generation bio-feedstock, Second-generation bio-feedstock, Third-generation bio-feedstock, Fourth-generation bio-feedstock

References:
Kering Standards
Biofabricate and Fashion for Good (2021) Understanding "Bio" Material Innovations
Textile Exchange
The application of science and technology to living organisms as well as parts, products and models thereof, to alter living or non-living materials for the production of knowledge, goods and services.

Reference: OECD
Materials which combine the properties of several fibres for improved performance. Some of the most common blends are cotton/polyester (polycotton), cotton/elastane and wool/polyamide.

Materials can be blended in various ways:

• Fibres are combined prior to spinning (intimate blending)
• Two threads with different components are combined into one
• Several yarns with different components are woven or knitted together.

Blended materials are currently difficult to recycle as the different fibres must first be identified and separated.

Reference: Refashion
ISO 22739:2020 defines blockchain as a “distributed ledger with confirmed blocks organised in an append-only sequential chain using cryptographic links.”

Blockchain has developed in the fashion industry for traceability and transparency in the supply chain and to combat counterfeit materials and products.

Reference: ISO 22739:2020 Blockchain and distributed ledger technologies
Certification scheme that evaluates the use of chemicals, materials, processes and finished textile products against five sustainability criteria: resource efficiency; consumer safety; air emissions; water emissions and occupational health and safety. bluesign® certification is currently considered one of the most stringent worldwide, because it requires holistic measuring of social and environmental performance, including the elimination of all hazardous and polluting substances across the supply chain.

References:
bluesign
Condenast - The Sustainable Fashion Glossary
International Trade Centre (2018) Standards map: bluesign
European Commission (2019) Support report mapping sustainable fashion opportunities for SMEs
Formed in 1983, the British Fashion Council non-profit aims to further the interests of the British fashion industry and its designer businesses by harnessing and sharing the collective knowledge, experience and resources of the sector.

Reference: British Fashion Council
A subsidiary of Bureau Veritas and a leader in management system audits and certification for quality, health and safety, sustainability and the environment.

Reference: Bureau Veritas
Certification devised by Positive Luxury and awarded to companies in the luxury sector that meet standards of environmental, social, governance and innovation performance. Positive Luxury awards the Butterfly Mark on an assessment tailored for each individual segment of the luxury market (Fashion & Accessories, Beauty & Fragrance, Jewellery & Watches, Living, Premium Drinks and Travel & Leisure). Companies are required to provide supporting documents such as codes of conduct and audits.

Reference: Positive Luxury