The clothes you wear speak loudly about who you are as a person. Bright colors can show off your bubbly personality, your vast collection of concert T-shirts can inform people about your righteous taste in music, and your Chacos say, “Hey, I like to go on adventures and eat a lot of kale.” But what many don’t know is how the fashion you choose says how aware you may or may not be.
I think that we have all fallen victim at least once, to the trendy styles that Forever 21 exhibits in their pretty little windows each and every season. But, have you ever stopped to ask yourself -- why am I buying these high-waisted shorts when I know that they will be socially frowned upon next year? And have you ever really wondered why trends change quicker than the seasons do? Well, it’s not exactly because we humans are forever searching for a more beautiful, beautiful.
The real underlying intention of the Western world’s fashion industry is to simply create more capital (money). This constant increase in capital is created through the changing trends each and every season, which can also be labeled as planned obsolescence. This term is defined as “a policy of planning or designing a product with an artificially limited useful life, so it will become obsolete, that is, unfashionable or no longer functional after a certain period of time.”
This strategy is the very driving force of the fashion industry and is ingrained in our brains from an early age. As consumers, we were always taught that we need new “back to school” clothes, we need a new bathing suit for summer, or we need a new dress for our first date. These messages are delivered to us through TV commercials or magazine ads and all are attempting to get consumers to forgo the old and embrace the new. However, this continuous consumption is both socially unjust and environmentally unsound.
Why is the fashion industry socially unjust?
As members of a Western society, we are fully aware that we are a part of a capitalistic society. Naturally, in capitalism the markets search for the cheapest source of labor in order to produce the greatest profit -- so in the fashion industry, most manufacturing is outsourced to sweat shops in developing countries. In these sweat shops, people are paid close to nothing so that our maxi skirts or our Nike shoes can be as cheap as they are. These workers are also not given the basic working rights that workers in the developed world take for granted on a daily basis.
Along with the excessive hours, garment factory workers face forced overtime, lack of job security, poverty wages, denial of trade union rights, poor health conditions, exhaustion, sexual harassment, and hazardous working places (Clean Clothes Campaign). If my words do not make you second guess your shopping habits, then I hope you watch this five-minute documentary produced by the New York Times, this past year, in the wake of the deadly Rana Plaza collapse in Bangladesh.
Why is the fashion industry environmentally unsound?
You wear clothing every single day of your life, but do you ever stop to appreciate how these fibers that have been carefully crafted to fit your body, were once living organisms? I will admit that it is not the first thing that comes to my mind on a regular basis, but it is very important that we recognize the amount of resources we are extracting when we add to our wardrobe.
"Today, the average woman buys 60 new items of clothing each year. With a shelf life of about 3.5 years for each item, that amounts to over 200 items per woman at any given time" (Lynes). This indicates that every year, we use a massive amount of water and coal, in order to keep ourselves up to date and in style. "Based on estimated annual global textile production of 60 billion kilograms (KG) of fabric, the estimated energy and water needed to produce that 60 billion KG of fabrics is: 1,074 billion KWh of electricity (or 132 million metric tons of coal) and between six to nine trillion liters of water" (EcoTextiles).
The fashion industry, obviously, places a massive strain on the Earth and its precious resources, while also contributing to the warming of the planet with its excessive use of greenhouse gases.
How can you refashion the fashion industry?
In Jennifer Lynes' fabulous article, "Strut Lightly," she created the 6 Rs of fashion, which will drastically help you to reduce your ecological footprint.
1. Repurpose.
Turn old t-shirts into cleaning cloths, make head bands, re-usable grocery bags, or a t-shirt blanket. You can get really creative and it's always fun to brag about how crafty you are.
2. Restyle.
Your jeans are now high waters? Make yourself some sick shorts!
3. Reclaim.
Clothing swaps, thrift shops, and consignment stores galore!
4. Repair.
Channel your inner Grandma and stitch up that shirt you haven't had the heart to throw out.
5. Replace.
Whenever you find a piece that is a 'must have,' donate or sell another piece of your wardrobe that is just an 'eh maybe I'll wear it for Halloween one year.' By using this strategy you will tend to buy nicer quality items that are guaranteed to last for years.
6. Rent.
Going to a masquerade ball? You should probably rent that sparkly dress that would other wise never see the light of day again.
Now I want to add a seventh R to this brilliant list:
7. Raise awareness.
Please do not choose to be apathetic towards the treacheries of the Fashion Industry, simply because you want to continue to follow the latest trends. Act on it, talk about it, and choose your next piece of fashion carefully and consciously. If we all chose to step forward with awareness in mind, I think that we can truly refashion fashion.
Vote with your dollar, my friends!
Sources:
"Carbon Footprint of the Textile Industry." O ECOTEXTILES. N.p., 25 May 2009. Web. 23 Aug. 2015. .
Chua, Jasmin M. "Vanessa Friedman: “Driving Force of Fashion Is Planned Obsolescence”." Ecouterre Vanessa Friedman Driving Force of Fashion Is Planned Obsolescence Comments. Ecouterre, 2 May 2014. Web. 23 Aug. 2015. .
Weber, Sabine, and Samantha Hui. "Designing A Better World: Fashion Finds Its Soul In Social And Ecological Justice." Alternatives Journal 3 (2015): 46. Academic OneFile. Web. 23 Aug. 2015.
"Issues." Clean Clothes Campaign. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Aug. 2015. .
