Sustainable Fashion: An Overview

Sustainable fashion has been an overarching theme in the gen-z era. Sustainable fashion is described as a movement that is producing change to the fashion industry and fashion system in order to better its ecological footprint and aims to improve social justice. It grows beyond the stereotype of fabric and textiles, and extends to inclusivity. Seeming like a very clear definition, what actually is the solution. Can there be an actual solution with impacts that better our planet?

The myth of sustainable fashion starts with how much the over 25 years of solutions has been implemented and the correlation of the planetary impact. Let’s look at some statistics of how fashion has impacted our planet. According to Insider, fashion production is 10% of human carbon emissions, it dries up water sources, and it pollutes rivers and streams. Nearly 85% each year goes to the dump. Fashion also affects our oceans, when plastic from washing clothes gets dumped into the ocean affecting marine life. This equals nearly 50 billion plastic water bottles. Beyond these statistics the issue with the fashion world is how fast fashion seems intriguing to those because of how it allows them to buy more and have more all for a cheaper price. Over the past eight years people have bought nearly double the amount of clothes on a yearly basis, but have only kept the clothes for half as long. Therefore, people then buy more and more clothing items, then get rid of them which leads to the environmental impact of waste. The waste in the dumps nearly adds up to a garbage truck of clothes every second in a landfill. So why do we still shop in the same ways? The answer is simple, people don't want to change the way they have shopped in the past, this causes people to have to engage in extra research and go extra lengths to get the clothes they want. Not only do the consumers not want to change, but the producers don't want to change either.

Puker (2022), notes that:

Like all industries, fashion is nested in a broader system. It is a system premised on growth. While serving as an executive in the industry, never once did a CFO ask me if the business could contract to yield a more durable customer base. Nor did I ever hear from a Wall Street analyst making a pitch for Timberland to prioritize resilience ahead of revenue growth. This unyielding pursuit of growth, of “more,” drives strategies that are specific to the fashion industry. Because it is hard to make a better performing or more efficient blouse, handbag, or pair of socks, to motivate consumption, the industry pushes change. Not better — just different, cheaper, or faster.

Puker identifies the issue with our fashion industry. As described, we are not seeing change in order to make things more sustainable or better for our environment, we are encouraging change to make things cheaper. So how can you make an impact? Shop Sustainable! It can be very hard for everyone to engage in sustainable fashion, but you can make a difference one step at a time. Donate your used clothes you don't want anymore. Instead of throwing them out, go to your local goodwill or thrift store and donate your clothes. Or you can sell them on sites like Depop and Poshmark. You can repurpose your old clothes. Make a quilt or pillows out of old fabrics you have, instead of throwing them away to land in dumps. Buy more expensive clothes that will have a longer wear life, instead of going through tons of new clothes a year. Shop sustainable brands by paying attention to where you buy your clothes. At the end of the day, making more conscious decisions with where you buy clothes can help. A quick google search can lead you to hundreds of sustainable brands to start browsing at.

A list of a few places to start: Brøgger, Asket, Sézane, Omnes!

Here are some links to help you out!