Sustainability Final Anne P Rebekkah C 1 (3)
- 1. Fashion Fast: The Six Items Challenge BY REBEKKAH COLCLASURE A N D ANNE PREIS DEC. 15, 2015 Bangladeshi garment workers on strike for workers’ protection rights, after the collapse of Rana Plaza.10 The fashion industry is an alluring stranger to the modern consumer. We are intoxicated by her beauty and addicted to her company. However, we only allow ourselves to see her physical charm, leaving us blind and unaware to her deadly secrets that lie within. After all, why would we want to taint something so beautiful with an ugly truth when we could live blissfully in ignorance forever? The reality is that there is no forever, and what we don’t know does hurt us. The fashion industry may seem glamorous, but it is limited. While the availability of luxurious styles for shockingly low prices is assumed by many to be the result of supply and demand, it is really a matter of cutting costs to meet the demand. While purchasing costs for the consumer shrink regularly, the costs on our environment and on the lives of our garment workers grow exponentially with each purchase. Blind to these daily realities, and pressured by our dwindling wallets, we, as humans, have developed an unwitting disregard for humanity and the environment. In fact, National Geographic’s Greendex has measured that after surveying consumers of seventeen countries, the United States actually ranks last in regards to behaving sustainably. However, while we are among the least likely consumers to feel guilty about our impact on the world, we are simultaneously among the top believers in the strength of individual choices to affect change.1 Unfortunately, the average consumer knows very little about the results of our individual actions, i.e. the effects of buying one t-shirt from Forever 21, and how each of our purchases negatively contribute
- 2. to global health issues. Thus, are we really winning if we don’t count our losses? Are we truly profiting without factoring in our costs? These are questions we must consider each time we feed our addiction to frivolity and excess through the continual purchasing of fast fashion. Take a moment to look at the outfit you are wearing today. Have you ever thought about the many processes it took to create your t-shirt, sweater, or jeans? On average, in order to produce just one textile, the usage of over 2,000 chemicals and 2,700 liters of water are required.2 , 3 Have you ever thought about how these chemicals are disposed of after they are used on our garments? Many reports all over the world have documented the extent to which manufacturing plants are dumping chemicals and dyes into rivers, thus polluting and reducing our world’s fresh water supply. Some countries have even been forced to import their fresh water in order to survive, due to poor regulations and health codes regarding the treatment of fresh waterways. In example, an estimated 40 percent of China’s surface water today is considered polluted on behalf of the harmful neglect of the fashion and agricultural industries.4 Next, think about how long you keep an article of clothing. Perhaps you keep your favorite jeans for a couple of years. Then, maybe you only keep some of your clothing for a few weeks or months. Have you ever thought about where your clothing goes after you dispose of it? Studies indicate that the average American throws away 68 pounds of clothing and textiles each year. Let’s think about that… The current U.S. population is 318.9 million people. Sixty-eight pounds of garments multiplied by over three hundred million people accumulates to 21,685,200,000 (yes, that says billion) pounds of clothing/textiles, converted into trash each year in this country alone—85 percent of which is destined for toxic landfills.2 Toxic landfills packed with thrown-away garments.11 Water pollution due to improper handling & disposal of dye in factories. 8
- 3. We understand that buying sustainable clothing can seem costly and superfluous, especially for low-budget college students. Therefore, it seems only rational to purchase larger quantities of clothing for less, right? While this mode of thinking is economically efficient for the consumer, it’s important to consider its economic efficiency on a grander scale as well. Hence, we must consider why fashionable clothing can be so accessible and cheap in stores, such as Zara and Forever 21, than it has ever been before. Where is the true cost lying if not in our pockets? Garment workers overseas are expected to suffer through unsafe working conditions while working unreasonably long hours for an unlivable working wage in order for you to buy your t-shirt for the cheapest price. Of the half-million garment workers in Cambodia, 90 percent are women living on only $3 a day, which is not enough to support oneself, nonetheless a family.5 Furthermore, all garment workers in Southeast Asia are subject to the increased susceptibility of skin diseases, breathing complications, and other medical hazards due to exposure and handling of harmful dyes, chemicals, and fibers in garment factories each day.6 Who knew that the t-shirt you bought for $5 could alter someone’s entire life in such a way? Garment workers in Southern Asia working on assembly line.9 It is time for us rethink the way we support fashion in society today. Perhaps this will require of us to completely dissect and change our buying habits and values. Imagine a world where you are only allowed to wear six items of clothing-- and that’s it. Labour Behind the Label created a challenge that brings this very idea to life. The concept is simple: select six items from your wardrobe, and pledge to only wear these garments for six weeks. Of course, you can have unlimited access to underwear, accessories, athletic wear, outerwear and footwear. However, your main items of clothing – dresses, trousers, tops, skirts, jumpers, shirts or cardigans – must remain the same throughout the course of the challenge. Think you can do it?
- 4. It is common for many people to consider living sustainably a hassle. However, the Six Items Challenge works to demonstrate that living sustainably is really an opportunity for more creativity, particularly in fashion, rather than a hindrance to our lives. In fact, ideas involving the recycle, reuse, and redesign of clothing are providing for a rich source of innovative creation, with a range of designers already working with recycled fabrics, garments, hardware and more. Thus, the aim is to divert post- consumer waste from landfills and reinvigorate these used materials with new life and value. Even luxury designers such as Raf Simons, creative director for Christian Dior, and Alber Elbaz, creative director for Lanvin, are beginning to step away from the idea of ‘fast fashion’ and seek other opportunities for fashion production.7 Overall, big designers and even companies are beginning to realize that they have a choice of stepping off the hamster wheel, and of finding success in slow fashion; the question is, can we change as well? Sustainable-education programs around the world are rising to foster opportunities for students to rethink the future of fashion. For example, the University of the Arts in London has an entire major dedicated to mixing design practices and innovative thinking. The university has even developed its own research center called the Centre for Sustainable Fashion that explores using fashion as a means to drive global change. Furthermore, multiple organizations have been formed worldwide to raise awareness for sustainable fashion, including Fashion Revolution, Labor Behind the Label, The Ethical Fashion Forum, Ecouterre, Cradle to Cradle, and more, that need as much student support and broadcasting as they can get. Just as much as it is time for our world’s businesses to step up and join the movement, it is time for us to support these new ventures. Our generation must become the ‘fashion activists’ of the world. New fashion leaders will be expected to create fashion that is respectful and beneficial to overall global wellness, and inspire consumers to foster connections with their clothing, thus changing the way that clothing serves us, and the world. Instead of buying cheap goods that we know won’t last for more than a month, we will make greater investments in our apparel; this means buying higher quality goods made with sustainable materials, repairing the goods we currently have, and perhaps even learning to share our goods with one another. Labor Behind the Label’s Six Items Challenge begins on February 10th, 2016 and ends on March 24th, 2016. We know that you are able to make a difference but the real question is, are you willing? Read more about Labour Behind The Label and the Six Items Challenge at: http://labourbehindthelabel.net/
- 5. 1 "Use It and Lose It: The Outsize Effect of U.S. Consumption on the Environment." Scientific American. Scientific American, a 2 Brown, Sass, and Natalie Chanin. "Designers Working With Used Materials." ReFashioned: Cutting-Edge Clothing from Upcycled Materials. London: Laurence King, 2013. 8. Print. 3 "Water Pollution." Eco 360. Institute for Sustainable Communication, 2012. Web. 9 Dec. 2015. <http://www.sustainablecommunication.org/eco360/what-is-eco360s-causes/water-pollution>. 4 Tidjani, Adda. "15 Fashion Industry Water Facts for World Water Day." Brooklyn Fashion Design Accelerator. Pratt Institute, 20 Mar. 2014. Web. 9 Dec. 2015. <https://bkaccelerator.com/15-fashion-industry-water-facts-recognize-world-water-day/>. 5 Tolson, Michelle. "Made in Cambodia: Garment Workers Fight Gap, H&M and Others for a Minimum Wage." RH Reality Check. Disqus, 20 Feb. 2014. Web. 9 Dec. 2015. <http://rhrealitycheck.org/article/2014/02/20/made-cambodia-multi-fiber- thread-tears/>. 6 Islam, Laila Noor, Razia Sultana, and Kazi J. Ferdous. "Occupational Health of the Garment Workers in Bangladesh." Journal of Environments. Journal of Environments, 2014. Web. 9 Dec. 2015. <http://www.asianonlinejournals.com/index.php/JOEN/article/view/24>. 7 Stansfield, Ted. "Balenciaga's New Designer Questions Fashion's Need for Speed." Dazed. Dazed Digital, 19 Nov. 2015. Web. 9 Dec. 2015. <http://www.dazeddigital.com/fashion/article/28482/1/balenciaga-s-new-designer-questions-fashion-s- need-for-speed>. 8 "The 6 Biggest Issues with Overseas Manufacturing." Two Birds Apparel. 13 Nov. 2013. Web. 16 Dec. 2015. <http://www.twobirdsapparel.com/blogs/lifestyle/10132417-the-6-biggest-issues-with-overseas-manufacturing>. 9 Trepanier, Dan. "The True Cost of Cheap Clothing." Articles of Style. 7 July. 2015. Web. 16 Dec. 2015. <http://articlesofstyle.com/62475/the-true-cost-of-disposable-clothing/>. 10 Adams, Erika. "New Documentary Confirms Everything You Feared About Fast Fashion." Racked. Vox Media, 29 May 2015. Web. 16 Dec. 2015. 11 Dean, Christina. "A Conversation with Christina Dean | The True Cost." The True Cost. Untold Creative, LLC., 12 May 2015. Web. 16 Dec. 2015. <http://truecostmovie.com/christina-dean-interview/>.