This week, we celebrated Earth Day, a day to remember that we all have a responsibility to take care of our planet - and there’s plenty of ways to do so.
This year’s theme, ‘Our Power, Our Planet’, highlights the urgent need to embrace more sustainable systems and encourages us all to do our part - and we’d like to remind you that choosing, embracing and advocating for sustainable clothing is one of the best ways to live by conscious values daily.
The problem vs the solution
Problem 1: Fashion waste due to overproduction
Fashion overproduction has been a growing issue for many years now, especially in a world that’s become more fixed on trendy aesthetic and social presentation, that urges everyone to keep up with the popular styles/silhouettes of the moment - many of which don’t hold much longevity.
The result is that, every year, fashion overproduction results in 92 million tonnes of fashion waste being created. There’s many dangers to this including the fact that “textile and fashion waste in cities often end up in landfills, where it takes decades to decompose and releases harmful greenhouse gases” not only affecting human communities, but living creatures in many, if not all ecosystems - scraps of textiles are ingested to fatally effect animals; toxic dyes leech into and pollute waterways; microplastic fibres also pollute ecosystems, particularly our oceans; and so on.
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Solution 1: Choose clothing crafted through slow systems
Choosing your styles from a zero-waste fashion brand or a made to order clothing brand (both of which utilise slow fashion systems) is a great way to ensure you’re helping reduce fashion waste.
These brands will take impactful strides to makes sure either they are not creating excess waste or utilising the waste they create. They will take a strategic approach to pattern making to prevent excess cut-offs; upcycle waste/cut-offs to create separate products; and, if waste absolutely cannot be prevented, they will find a means to discard the materials responsibly, whether that’s through recycling or handing it off to a business who can utilise the fabric.
When it comes to a made to order clothing brands, they partciulary will make sure not to create without need, meaning they won’t have dead stock lying in their storage to eventually be thrown away.
These brands will also be transparent about their systems s it shouldn’t be too hard to find them!
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Problem 2: Rapid excess energy use
Due to demand and consumer habits, fashion production has doubled between the years 2000 and 2015, leaving us in a world where we create more and more at an increasingly rapid rate to supply the masses.
To add more context:
“The fashion industry makes a sizeable contribution to climate change, which is responsible for up to 10% of global carbon emissions (Niinimäki et al., 2020). The climate impact of clothing and footwear consumption rose from 1.0 to 1.3 billion tonnes of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions over the 15 years to 2015 (Peters et al., 2021).”
Because of this, the fashion industry is one of the top 5 most polluting industries in the world.
Solution 2: Slow systems & conscious closets
Once again, investing in zero-waste fashion brands or made to order clothing brands can be very effective in combating this issue.
Another great solution is to make changes at home and create a conscious closet. This means favouring eco friendly women clothing, not just in how it’s crafted but what styles you choose because trends also affect how we buy fashio - and today, there’s more focus on what’s popular than what’s timeless.
“Fast fashion has fundamentally altered how trends are created and consumed. Traditionally, fashion operated on two primary seasons—Spring/Summer and Fall/Winter. However, with brands like Zara and H&M leading the charge, the industry now embraces over 52 “micro-seasons” per year, releasing new collections every week.”
So, evaluating what styles you actually like to wear, helps you choose exactly the pieces you’ll own for years to come, rather than things you’ll end up throwing out within the year.
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Problem 3: Synthetic fabrics
Synthetic fabrics describe textiles made from chemically produced fibres, like polyester and nylon. They are widely used in fast fashion spaces due to their inexpensive, quick production, perfect for a fashion space experiencing multiple micro-seasons throughout the year. However, these fabrics contribute significantly to environmental pollution, from shedding microplastics into our ecosystems to remaining in landfills for years and years due to it’s chemical composition, which further harms our planet.
The use and waste of these fabrics affect animal and human health just by being touched.
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Solution 3: natural fabrics
On the other hand, natural fabrics are the better option.
Not only are they often safer to wear on the skin, especially if they are organic, they would also be biodegradable, more easily recycled/upcycled - all in all, contributing much more positively to the health of our communities and ecosystems.
And once again, we urge you to invest in sustainable clothing brands, like ourselves, who work with these materials, that create things like Tencel fabric clothing or lyocell clothing women - both of which are derived from wood cellulose fibres in sustainably managed plantations, meaning resources are used efficiently and minimal waste is created.
What’s also interesting about Tencel fabric clothing is that it’s a specific trademarked lyocell that is produced under strict sustainability guidelines by the Lenzing Group, so we definitely highly recommend looking out to add the fabric to your closet!
We hope this is helped you understand why choosing slow, from made to order clothing brands to lyocell clothing women, can make all the difference in changing our planet for the better.