By Meleeza
Thanks to social media, people are becoming more aware of issues that have been poisonous to our world and society for the longest time. One of those many issues is fast fashion.
What is “fast fashion”?
It is a completely unsustainable model of the fashion industry that preys on us consumers by spitting thousands of on-trend pieces in our faces for lovely, low prices. Then it forces us to continue to go back for more as hot, new trends come out every week. To add, the low-quality products get easily damaged, which in turn also gives us no choice other than to go back for more. Do not get me wrong, Ally and I are absolute suckers for those fast fashion brands, like Shein, Fashion Nova, Zara, Akira, and so on. Those prices are so affordable for our broke selves, and the looks are on point! Then when those pieces hit that sales rack? Steals on steals, man! It’s the definition of too good to be true.
Our eyes have really been opened to the detrimental effects this industry has on our planet as well as the life on it, including human beings. Because of the current Covid-19 situation, we miraculously haven’t been shopping for any clothes these past four months. With all the clothes already in our closets and not going anywhere, there’s just really no need for us too. These long, past few weeks honestly had us thinking of where we want to spend our money from now on when it comes to fashion. As part of our minimalist journey that values “quality over quantity”, The Class of Never has decided to make the switch over to conscious, sustainable fashion.
Why the switch?
Reading how inhumane and environmentally damaging fast fashion is was all it took. To put it simply, fast fashion does not contribute to the movement of “going green”. The tasks within the garment supply chain and textile manufacturing inflict disastrous amounts of energy use, water use, waste production, and toxic chemical use. In China and other developing countries, coal-based energy is just one of the forms of energy used for textile manufacturing that results in huge carbon footprints. However, it is the process of recycling garments and textiles- especially of synthetic material- that causes the most energy use and CO2 emission. To top it off, all the clothing that ends up being thrown out ends up in landfills only to decompose and contribute to extreme air pollution we know as greenhouse gases. Not to mention microfibres end up polluting our oceans and bodies of water.
“Approximately 85 percent of the clothing Americans consume, nearly 3.8 billion pounds annually, is sent to landfills as solid waste, amounting to nearly 80 pounds per American per year.” –Neil Schoenherr
When it comes to fast fashion being inhumane, all we needed to know was worker exploitation. It treads into the ugly world of unethical and even racism. Next time you see these trending clothes for awesome prices, just know people- including children- in sweatshops have spent overworked, underpaid hours in most likely crippling conditions to get those clothes in your hands for practically nothing in return. Sweatshops not only exist in the third world countries we hear about all the time, but they occur right here in our beloved United States of America as well.
So what do we want to do about it?
We are deciding to transition into and introduce conscious, sustainable, and ethical fashion into our lifestyle, which is slow fashion. We want to do our parts as consumers in the sustainability of fashion to preserve the future of our planet and support fair treatment for all workers involved in the supply chain. This requires us to extend product usage, be conscious of our consumption, and overall slow our consumption down.
We are taking these following steps to begin our journey in conscious fashion:
- First of all, we’ll keep the clothes that we already have (no need to clear out or closets and spend more money to replace it all), and donate or sell the rest for secondhand.
- We’ll purchase secondhand or from sustainable, conscious brands that are more durable for longer usage from here on out.
- If we MUST buy from stores like H&M or Uniqlo, we’ll make sure to do so from their sustainable or conscious lines.
- If a brand we want to support is not completely sustainable, it would be a brand we know for sure stands for ethical or moral values.
- Lastly, we will keep ourselves informed and updated as best we can on this issue through social media and our research.
CON is excited to embark on this new journey, and we hope to inspire you all to take the same steps toward conscious fashion as well. We understand the change is a process, it doesn’t happen overnight, and we aren’t at all perfect. However, this shouldn’t stop us from trying to do the right thing. Imagine what we can do if we all make these small revamps and revisions to just our consumer habits.
