As part of my Sustainability Up Close project I test eco friendly clothing collections and give inspiration for little changes that can make a more sustainable lifestyle.
Today I checked out a Zara Join Life Knit jacket. Keep reading if you want to learn a little more about the Zara Join Life clothing line in general or just jump right down to find my thoughts about the knitwear!
About Zara Join Life
Join Life is the name of the eco friendlier clothing line of Inditex daughter Zara.
But just as with the H&M underwear the other day I am wondering wether Join Life actually is a more sustainable option with actual nice clothing.
Let’s jump in and find out!
How sustainable is it really?
2016 the new Zara clothing line Join Life was born. With it the target of reducing clothing waste and Fast Fashion more sustainable. All that about 5 years after another fashion giant H&M already turned all these ideas into reality.
So on that page Zara gets a ‘better late than never’ I guess. Unfortunately are the targets not very transparent to the end consumer. As little as wether they are getting hit or not. This and more is a reason for the Good On You Team to only rate Zara Join Life with a ‘Not Good Enough’
Fashion United also points out further that while steps are being taken into the right directions there could be ,much ,ore done by a company the size of Inditex (mother company behind Zara).
Abandoning the fast fashion operation system altogether would be a start, right?!
The Knit Jacket
Alright so Zara isn’t really top notch on the overall sustainability scale. But how was the overall experience shopping, wearing and closely inspecting one single garment of the Zara Join Life fashion line?
Joining Life (I guess?)
Finding Zara Join Life products in store is even more frustrating than hunting H&M Conscious wear.
The little white tag melts in with every other tag. At some times I looked at a garment thinking it was Join Life but it ended up being 100 % wool or so, solely because the tags are 100 % the same.
As if that wasn’t enough: Clothes that aren’t Join Life at all were smartly placed right next to the ‘sustainable’ garments. I assume to lure the shopper in opening their shopping bags for some ‘Leave Life’ (sorry, I had to) pieces.
I find it quite irritating to be confused and sidetracked like that.
As I said in the previous post I already dislike in store shopping quite a lot. But Zara made me hate it even more!
What Joining Feels Like
So joining the Zara Life was no fun whatsoever.
Maybe the knit jacket itself was decent at least?
I honestly have to say: Yes!
I really liked the color and touch of the fabric. The little sweater piece was also very warm which I absolutely did not expect. The only thing I am not quite satisfied with is that the piece is only made out of 25 % recycled fabric.
There are products out of more recycled or organic material in the Zara Join Life Collection. But since the Join Life pieces were already really hard to find. I ended up just taking what I could get.
The knit jacket cost me 39,95 € which I believe is in a normal Zara price range.
What I liked.
- nice texture
- really warm knitwear
What annoyed me.
- The whole shopping experience!
- Only 25 % recycled material used in the jacket
- Lack of ‘real’ transparency
