AN EASY GUIDE TO SUSTAINBALE FASHION

BY ADENA DANVERS

Fast fashion can be used to refer to clothes which you wear only a few times, while slow fashion refers to classic clothes such as a plain white t-shirt which you can wear over and over again. Sustainable fashion includes slow fashion. Ethical fashion means that the clothes are made in a moral and ethical way, i.e. neither the buyer nor the maker is cheated.

Environmental impact – The fashion industry contributes over 8 percent of all greenhouse gases and, if things continue as is, by 2050 more than 25 percent of the entire global carbon budget will go to this one industry. Basically, it harms the Earth in a very, very bad way. The mills are the places where the most damage is caused to the 3environment. The carbon footprint reaches a very high level at the mills. Just to be clear, a company is only doing ‘sustainability' if they are lowering their carbon footprint.

This isn’t actually that difficult to do but there are very few companies that are making an effort.

2. Women’s rights / Labor –Garment workers, most of whom are women, are some of the least paid laborers in the world. Think about that super expensive dress you bought to look cool in front of your friends. It was made by taking advantage of somebody’s desperation to earn money. Still can’t wait to wear it??? Just think about that for a few seconds. Many workers also die due to unsafe conditions! In order to address this, fashion companies need to start collecting data on their workers and then take steps. Again, this isn’t that hard, but it still isn’t happening!? A large part of sustainable fashion is ethical fashion, where the workers are treated well and get good wages. 3) Marketing strategies by companies – Make sure you read the next sentence correctly, it is a very important one – WE CAN NOT SHOP OUR WAY TO SUSTAINABILITY. As soon as sustainable fashion started becoming more popular, many companies released new products which they claimed were sustainable. However, the sad truth is, most of those products weren’t sustainable! That was just a marketing strategy to encourage more people to buy their products. Make sure you don’t fall for this. Be a smart shopper. There will always be new trends and new fashion arrivals, but it is up to you to make sure that you buy clothes which you will wear more than a few times. Being sustainable doesn’t mean not shopping at all, it means shopping in a way that is beneficial to everybody, including the environment!