Reporters looked at the low wages of garment workers; interviewed young women who covet inexpensive clothing; detailed efforts by the retailer H&M to become more transparent about its supply chain; and profiled a designer making “trashion:” new clothing from used fabrics.

Vanessa Friedman, the fashion director and chief fashion critic for The Times, discussed the special section and what she hoped readers would take away from it. This conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity.

What made this a topic you wanted to address right now?

We’ve been talking about sustainability and fashion for a very long time. Clearly, it’s a topic that has become more pressing for people, whether they are consumers, or just people who like fashion, or people who are interested in the environment. This seemed like a good moment to pull the threads together and really look at it.

What changes have we seen in sustainable fashion over the last decade?

In 2009, Copenhagen held the first really recognized sustainable fashion conference. At that time, no one in the industry was thinking about this question at all.

In fashion, just in the last year, brands and consumers and designers have really woken up to the need to act more responsibly about their designs and their manufacturing costs. They have begun to talk about it in a way they never had before.