In a recent Geminate podcast episode, Sherri and I spent some time talking about the problems with Fast Fashion and why Slow Fashion is important. I enjoyed our conversation about this. And I’ve been thinking a lot about the issue. I’m sharing some of what I’ve learned here.
Fast Fashion and the waste it causes is becoming a bigger conversation these days for good reason. I’ve been reading Fashionopolis: The Price of Fast Fashion and the Future of Clothes by Dana Thomas to learn more about the issue. Near the beginning of the book she says, — “In 2018, [shoppers] averaged [purchasing] sixty-eight garments a year….adding up to 80 billion apparel items acquired annually worldwide,” (page 3). I was not shocked to realize that this is by design – companies want to offer us clothing at a low enough price that we can click buy without much thought and then not feel bad about discarding it in the not-too-distant future. On average, each garment is worn 7ish times and then thrown away. Here is where I started to feel some shock – the of waste clothing and fabric going almost directly to landfills is also by design. And that amount of clothing waste is not sustainable. It takes a toll on the environment due to chemical waste, water usage, and the sheer amount being shipped to landfills. It also takes a toll on the workers by making a system that is full of problems like cutting costs by cutting corners on labor standards and environmental standards. And the amount of waste that fills our landfills is staggering. “The EPA reported that Americans sent 10.5 million tons of textiles, the majority of which were clothes, to landfill in 2015,” (Fashionopolis, page 8). That’s a lot.
One part of the solution can be Slow Fashion. I was hoping to find an easy list of clothing sellers that I could safely purchase from without doing any research. I have not had luck with that. But I have found lots of good advice about how I can slow down the cycle and not add to the problem:
- Purchase less.
- Purchase used.
- Repair clothing I already have instead of sending them to the landfill.
- Sell my old clothes through online services or vintage shops instead of donating them (large portions of donated clothes get bound into refrigerator-sized bails and sold to wholesalers or shipped to third-world countries to be sold….or just fill their landfills or beaches…this one should not have shocked me since I bought some of these second-hand clothes in markets in West Africa when we lived there in the late 1990s).
- Make my own clothes. (This is where handmade garments like knitted or crocheted items or sewn garments come in…..knitting parts of my wardrobe is one way I can help be part of the solution while doing something I love. Sewing and I do not get along so I’ll leave that for others.)
- If I am going to purchase new clothing, purchase from companies that are transparent about their sourcing and practices and who seem to care about the same things I do. (This one can be tricky since it is popular now to talk about how a brand is “green” or “sustainable” or “ethically made”…..but without transparency, it is hard to know if any of that is actually true.)
I encourage listeners and readers to do your own research. Be sure you feel good about the companies you chose to support with your dollars. As always, your mileage may vary and your choices may change over time as more information becomes available. All any of us can do is follow Maya Angelou’s advice — “Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.”
As always, if you’d like to hear more – listen to us talk about it on the Geminate Podcast (Episode 13 of Season 4).
