the
Style fileS
by Marilyn Thompson
Fast Fashion demands that the highly integrated global supply chain never stops.
I
t must constantly hurtle onwards at top speed, until the unthinkable happens.... It has taken a pandemic to truly make us realise that our insatiable desire for new clothes and with that, the negative affect fast fashion brings to our planet, is now something we can no longer avoid confronting. The worldwide lockdown has forced us all to focus on the things that really matter. Clothes and the fashion industry are hugely, massively important and completely necessary. The global fashion workforce consists of more than 300 million people but the industry has known for a long time that change had to happen, and now that Coronavirus has put the wheels of change in motion, it must now act quickly and effectively to alter its destructive practises. Fashion is a polluting, dirty industry and behind the glamorous end-products, the models, magazines, fashion shows, frivolity and the fleeting thrill of purchase, lies a trail of environmental destruction. The Aral Sea was the fourth largest lake in the world, until unsustainable cotton farming resulted in it drying up. The cotton plant is incredibly thirsty, and to give you an example of just how thirsty it really is consider this: to produce just one cotton tee-shirt, 2,700 litres of water is required. That equates to three year’s drinking water for one person. To produce one pair of jeans requires the equivalent
12
of five-and-a-half years worth of water! A sobering thought I’m sure you will agree. Also take into account the estimated 8,000 different chemicals used in fabric production and the polluting dyes that colour them, all of which are then pumped from the factories straight into waterways and fashion really starts to show its true colours. Sadly, the textile industry emits more greenhouse gasses than both the shipping and aviation industries combined! Another problematic fabric worth quickly noting is polyester, as it is one of the world’s most common fabrics and will feature highly in almost everyone’s wardrobe. Each time polyester clothes are washed, thousands of micro plastic fibres are released into our water sources, destroying crucial eco-systems and ultimately ending up in our food chain. We are only just scraping the surface of such an important, complex and incredibly farreaching topic and unfortunately space does not permit more in depth information. Hopefully, it may encourage you to learn more, allowing you to make informed, ethical choices. Even little, mindful, changes such as buying less impulsively, only buying certiffed organic cotton, (not great, but better than nonorganic) reducing your polyester usage and seeking out alternative, more sustainable fabrics (check the labels) will all make a difference.
