SUSTAINABLE FASHION

CHANGES TO FASHION, CHANGES TO THE ENVIRONMENT

Do you think about where you buy your clothes from and the process of how they get to you?

Sustainable fashion is a movement and process of fostering change to fashion products and the fashion system towards greater ecological integrity and social justice. Sustainable fashion concerns more than just addressing fashion textiles products. It addresses the whole system of how clothing is produced, who produced it how long the life span of a product is before it reaches landfill. This means dealing with interdependent social, cultural, ecological, and financial systems.

Put simply, it's an approach towards sourcing, manufacturing and designing clothes which maximizes the benefits to the fashion industry and society at large, while at the same time minimizing its impact on the environment.

Sustainable fashion is the recommended and preferred alternative to fast fashion as it has less negative implications and consequences. Fast fashion describes the process whereby inexpensive clothing is produced rapidly by mass-market retailers in the response to the latest trends.

The cycle is fuelled by clothes becoming cheaper, as their price drops so does their quality, and while prices are dropping, fashion trends are accelerating... creating an incentive for more people to buy clothes to keep up with the trends. But because they aren't built to last or go quickly out of style, when disposed of in this system, clothes are neither recycled or donated, but instead go to landfill or get incinerated. 

Just a few repercussions of the system and production include untreated wastewater, microfibres (microplastics that shed with every wash), greenhouse gases, deforestation, toxins and human rights. It's extremely unethical. Long working hours paired with terrible pay and hazardous working conditions. 

When we buy our clothes online or in the shops, we often forget to consider the production process and how these clothes came to be. It's a cheap price and their accessibility that we're lured in and persuaded by. Consumer habits have slightly changed over the last year, particularly due to the impact of Lockdown, but as restrictions are eased it's important we remain aware of our behaviours and what we choose to invest in. 

Some tips to support sustainable fashion and reducing the impact of fast:

- Quality over quantity.
- Timelessness over trendiness
- Purchase from manufacturers that use sustainable and fair labour practices
- Buy clothes from charity shops, some even have online shops now
- Repairing, caring and donating. Donate old clothes to charity shops or online websites. 
- Use apps like Vinted and Depop. Both can be used to purchase second hand or unwanted new clothes as well as to sell your unwanted clothes. They're useful to reuse and recycle belongings, but come with the bonus of being able to make a bit of money back at the same time. You simply upload pictures of any items you wish to sell with a description of size, colour, style etc and others can purchase from there and the money comes back to you. Either to your bank account or to your balance on the app, to then purchase items you wish to that others may be selling. It's a useful and beneficial way of being sustainable, clearing out your wardrobe or restocking it.
- Wash clothes only when necessary
- Use this location finder from the Council for Textile Recycling to find a donation/recycling centre near you.

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