A guide to sustainable fashion and how to spend wisely
We’ve heard so many times about the significance of recycling to help our environment. While of course, environmental issues like global warming, deforestation, and water pollution remain the biggest problems of our society today, we need to recognise other problems, that are not talked about enough in my opinion. Fast fashion is one of the major issues in our constantly consuming lifestyle and I find that many people are unaware of it.
What is fast fashion?
It’s a model that many companies use to produce an enormous amount of garments for an affordable or even cheap price. This motivates consumers to continue consuming, purchasing and ordering more and more clothes, and in the end, we find ourselves in an unending cycle of this major ecological problem. Moreover, with trends changing almost every month, companies and brands are running after them, trying to attract customers again and again: “In the BBC’s ‘Breaking Fashion’ show we see Manchester-based fast fashion company, In the Style, reproducing a bodysuit worn by Kylie Jenner. The company manages to have the piece designed, manufactured and on sale within 10 days of the piece first being worn publicly by the celebrity”.
What are the problems of it?
First of all, the price range - the cheaper the item, the cheaper it is to manufacture it, and the cheaper the labor is. For example, Zara produces their garments in Turkey, Morocco and Bangladesh; H&M in China, Bangladesh and India. One of the biggest fashion retailers in the world right now is Shein, which “produces its clothes in generic wholesale factories to keep its costs at a minimum. While this allows you to buy clothes at dirt-cheap prices, it poses an ethical dilemma. The working standards of Shein seamstresses are controversial, to say the least. According to the BBC, some Shein warehouse workers work upwards of 75 hours a week.
The company pays workers significantly lower wages and offers fewer benefits compared to domestic workers, if any at all”.
Secondly, and again, the biggest issue is excessive consumption of clothing: “It’s estimated that the average item of clothing is worn just 14 times, and in 2019 The Guardian reported that one in three young women considered an item worn just once or twice to be old. Due to super-fast production, designs are generally not well stress-tested before sale, and cheap synthetic fabrics are used in order to keep costs low. Much of it will end up in landfill after only being worn a handful of times”.
And thirdly, fast fashion leads to using excessive amount of water and cheap fabrics. It takes 10,000 liters of water to produce one kilogram of cotton or approximately 3,000 liters of water for one cotton shirt. And in result of many factories being located in countries without strict environmental regulations, “resulting in untreated water to enter the oceans. Regrettably, the wastewater created is extremely toxic and in many cases, cannot be treated to become safe again”.
What can we do?
As hard as it is, try to consume less. Be mindful of what clothes you buy, if you really need the new top or not, because we’ve all been there. At least I have. I still got a shirt I got more than a year ago that I haven’t worn, but I never returned it. As hard as it is to avoid fast fashion, because yes, our clothes from mass markets tend to lose their quality very fast, it’s better to at least look for garments made out of organic materials, like cotton. And they will definitely last forever.
Another idea, that I stand by, is buying timeless pieces and “reusing” them. It’s a blessing if our mothers, or sisters, or grandmothers, or anyone, keep old items like bags. Choosing vintage over new is the new trendy and it will always be, because nowadays, we have to care for our Earth.
If you are looking for boots, especially if they are leather, try looking online for them. Sometimes someone gets a pair of shoes and they don’t fit, or they wear them once and never again.
There are many options and opportunities to choose sustainability. And we should aim for that. Fast fashion will definitely stay, but we need to try and make a slight difference in our buying behavior to help solve this environmental issue.
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