Blog Post 4: The Importance of Sustainable Fashion

I recently watched the documentary Stacey Dooley Investigates Fashion’s Dirty Secrets. This documentary, available here, gave an insight into fast fashion and consumerism, highlighting the ‘dirty secrets’ that high street fashion brands try to hide underneath savvy advertising and production loopholes in developing countries. 

I like to think I live an ethically conscious life - but I had never really given it much thought about where my clothes come from. I have to admit, most of the time when shopping, I would go for the cheapest option without considering how something can be so inexpensive; or I would go for the branded item that I definitely don’t need, to satisfy my consumer habits. But with the fashion industry being in the top five most polluting industries, it is clear that some light needs to be shone on the mass production of ‘fast fashion’ garments - and to ask ourselves - do we really need to keep buying new clothes?

fast fashion marketing,  Missguided website

With the rise of social media influencers, a relentless consumer culture has emerged. On billboards, online and in shop windows, we are bombarded every day with new trends, new ‘wardrobe essentials’ and discounts that seem impossible to say no to. Lured in by this engaging marketing, using lexis that fades the line between wanting something and needing it, customers are disconnected between the process of fashion production and the items that appear on the shop shelves. 

In the documentary, Stacey Dooley set up a street side experiment which demonstrates that it is not that the public do not care; it is that they simply do not know the extent of environmental damage that the fashion industry causes. In the experiment, passersby were asked to unpack their shopping. Huge water tanks were used to visually demonstrate the amount of water that was used to make the clothes they had just bought. Every one of them was shocked at how much water is actually used in textile manufacturing, and many were emotional about the result. One woman talks about how she knows people who struggle to have clean water to drink, but has never considered the copious amounts needed to produce just one pair of jeans. 

According to the UN, three in ten people do not have access to clean drinking water, with nearly 1000 children dying each day due to preventable water and sanitation related diseases. With water scarcity affecting more than 40% of the global population, it is clear that something has to change in order to reach Sustainable Development Goal 6; ‘Ensure access to water and sanitation for all’. But with water consumption in the fashion industry already a staggering 79 billion cubic meters today, and set to rise by 50% by 2030, it seems unlikely that water scarcity will be eradicated unless change is implemented on a huge scale. (Global Fashion Agenda and The Boston Consulting group, 2017:11)

It is not just water consumption that has a huge environmental impact. The industry’s carbon dioxide emissions are set to increase by more than 60% by 2030 to nearly 2.8 billion tonnes annually. The biochemical flows of phosphorus from fertilisers to exceeds safe levels by 220%, with cotton using 4% of nitrogen and phosphorus fertilisers globally (11). As discussed in the documentary, factories in developing countries such as Indonesia bypass regulations and often dump chemical waste directly into waterways, like the Citarum River. According to the documentary, 28 million people rely on this river for drinking water, for irrigation and for washing, which is described as the most polluted river in the world. The water sampled contained mercury, cadmium, arsenic and lead, which can cause severe neurological damage.

Socially, as well as the impacts of toxic chemical waste, the factory workers themselves are often marginalised. In countries like India where clothes manufacturing for multinational brands makes up one of the major export markets, levels of non-compliance in regard to minimum wage laws is 51%. If nothing is done to change this, one third of Indian textiles workers could be earning less than the legal minimum wage by 2030. (16) 

Not only do these workers not get paid enough, but according to War On Want's 2011 report entitled Stitched Up, 75% of women workers had been verbally abused, and half beaten. The factories themselves are often unsafe and without building regulation or any form of health and safety. An example of the severity of this problem is the 2013 Rana Plaza factory collapse in Bangladesh, which killed 1135 people. Despite this disaster, factory workers in Bangladesh and beyond are still vulnerable.

Documentaries like Fashion’s Dirty Secrets help to spread awareness about the unsustainable footprint that fast fashion creates. As consumers, it is up to us to make informed choices in what we buy and who we buy from. Here are a few simple changes that individuals can make to be more sustainable:

Buy less 

According to a 2017 survey conducted by WeightWatchers, the UK alone has £10.5 billion of clothes in wardrobes that are unworn. Instead of buying new clothes, perhaps try and ‘Shop your Stash’; a scheme where instead of buying new, you go through your own collection and you may not need to buy anything else.

Buy second hand and donate clothes you no longer want 

According to the pulse report, only 20% of clothing is reused or recycled, with most ending up in landfill. Sites such as ebay and depop give clothes a second chance, and Oxfam alone saves 7000 tonnes of clothes from ending up in landfill every year.

Buy sustainably 

The positive news is that many brands are becoming more conscious about their ethical and environmental impact. 

For example, Levis has developed a ‘Wellthread Collection’ which uses a ‘water<less’ fabric that saves 65% of water than in the traditional dying process.

Their ‘Authorised Vintage’ collection takes archived denim pieces and ‘upcycles’ them into new styles to reduce waist.

Here is a list of some other brands with sustainable policies.

Educate yourself

Once sustainable fashion is on your radar, there are plenty of books, websites and documentaries with valuable information for consumers. Watch Stacey Dooley’s documentary today and read this 2017 report by Global Fashion Agenda and The Boston Consulting Group, which contains a detailed analysis of the impacts of fast fashion. 

According to the report mentioned above, apparel consumption is predicted to rise by 63% before 2030. It is therefore so important to make simple lifestyle changes would could instil social change on a wider level and dramatically reduce widespread environmental degradation that the fashion industry causes.