QUIT Fast Fashion

This blog is going against fast fashion and promotes slow fashion and why it should be commited to. I pick out some articles in the news and explain it to you.

[quitthefastfashionlines]

Fast Fashion: SDG's and Us

Welcome to the final blog post of the quit fast fashion campaign. The sustainable development goals is something most of us IB students hear about. The SDG's are all about helping the world to become a better place so it makes sense that stopping fast fashion will help achieve an SDG right? Well though it doesn't say literally that, the answer is basically yes. Analyse this article together with me to understand this better.

Sustainable development goals: How fashion plays its part | Weavabel

What are the sustainable development goals? And how do they impact the fashion industry? We take a look.

The sustainable development goals, more commonly known as the SDG's are goals set by the UN to improve the planet and make our planet a better place in both the environmental and social aspects.

The SDG goals that are being worked towards while fighting against fast fashion include:

Goal 8: Decent work and economic growth. We know from previous blogs that fast fashion clothing makers/workers are severely underpaid and work in horrible conditions. Working against fast fashion will provide workers with better financial stability (economic growth) and better conditions to work in (making it decent work.)

Goal 12: Responsible Consumption and production. Something that fast fashion as you surely know does absolutely not abide to whatsoever. Working against it will limit the amount of fibres consumed and the production will also decrease, wasting less materials, extracting less resources and releasing less methane in the air. That is much more responsible for our environment.

Goals 14 & 15: Life below water and on land. As we know, the fast fashion industry causes millions and millions of microplastics to end up in the ocean, hurting a lot of ocean life. Also as seen in the long term consequences of fast fashion, drought and famine can also hurt all life on land (including us).

Working against fast fashion brings us closer to reaching the SDG goals. Actively going against the industry will also make sure that the governments get involved. So I encourage you to rise up, the future is waiting!

[quitthefastfashionlines]

Fast Fashion: Who's stopping this?

Welcome back to the fifth post of the blog series everybody! Today we will be going through an article and finding out about slow fashion brands, clothing companies which are working against fast fashion. Keep in mind this is less about the actual brands but more on their takes on slow fashion, how they are keeping their companies sustainable.

15 sustainable clothing brands to help you feel better about your closet | CNN Underscored

We talked to fashion experts to determine what brands are actually sustainable and what to look for when making the switch to sustainable fa

Now firstly, what counts as sustainable and slow fashion? Well according to these companies, they use organic cotton (better quality cotton, more durable) and have different certifications for safe working environments and good environmental impacts (low negative impacts.). The best companies include certifications from Bluesign, the GRS, the GOTS and the LEED certificate. The LEED certificate in particular observes the companies energy consumption and if the LEED certificate is awarded, it means that it is very low.

The brands that are truly campaigning against fast fashion include:

Outerknown

People's tree

Paka

Everlane

Organic Basics

Allbirds

There are many more but these are the primarily successful and most certified slow fashion clothing brands used. The most commonly element between them that they used to work against fast fashion is other than the obvious advertising of sustainability, They used recycled fibres from nearby area and use very good quality items, all organic and/or biodegradable so that the clothes would never have to be burnt.

Some of the brand's profits also go to organisations that plant trees or take away ocean plastics (from the plastic soup of the ocean).

I recommend you all that the next time you really need new clothes, to check the brands mentioned in this post and see if you can/would buy something from there. It is slightly more expensive to Primark, but again, it truly is worth it.

See you in the next blog!

[quitthefastfashionlines]

Fast Fashion; The Long Term Dooms

Welcome back to the blog everybody. This is the fourth post of my blog series of quitting fast fashion. Today we will be looking into a scientific article which discusses the long term dangers of fast fashion and I will be letting you (students) know what action could be taken against it.

What's the problem with fast fashion?

In the United States, we generate enough textile waste to fill the Mall of America-- the largest shopping mall in the country-- every six da

We are on the 4th blog post and it's obvious, fast fashion is horrible. But there are some horrible long term affects that we can't even fathom and that scientists have written about. These include;

Plastic pollution that is killing all sea life. According to scientists, if we dont take any action against the fast fashion industry (even if we stopped washing clothes completely), 22 million metric tons of microplastic will end up in the ocean by 2050.

Destroying and burning all the remainder clothes which are not used any more by people and/or garment companies releases so much methane that if continued, by 2050, we would be going through horrible conditions such as increased floods, irregular weather patterns, famine and droughts.

So much water is used to dye, wash process and transport all the garments before we even buy and wash them. This is done so often and in such large quantities that 20% of the earths water that we could use is instead wasted (because of the large masses of clothes). As mentioned in the first post, this industry produces too many clothes for people to buy, leading to most clothes being unused and burnt. These clothes are wasted which makes the water used wasted as well.

Today I encourage all of you guys to take out all the old clothes you dont use anymore and find someway to use them. Don't donate it to charity if it's in bad condition, else it will end up in a landfill. Instead see if you can make something new from it, at the very least just make some new tea towels!

See you in the next blog!

[quitthefastfashionlines]

Fast Fashion; Quick Consequences?

Hello readers, welcome to the third part of the blog series. Now you might be wondering what the consequences are and whether it will affect YOU personally. And the answer is yes due to fast fashions short term consequences. This post and article summary will help you understand it.

Fast Fashion: Its Detrimental Effect on the Environment

Fast fashion has a massive environmental impact, it is the second-biggest consumer of water and is responsible for nearly 10% of global carb

According to the article every year, whenever we wash our clothes, over 500,000 tons of microplastics are released in the oceans. Thats equivalent to 50 billion plastic bottles! While we thought that literally throwing plastic directly in the ocean was the cause of ocean pollution, it turns our just washing clothes from toxic industries like this can influence pollution.

Another direct and fast consequence from the fast fashion industry is the amount of energy used in just processing the fibres to yarns and then into cloth.

The biggest consequence of fast fashion is the social impacts that happen. For example this article mentions about a building in Pakistan that collapsed due to the lack of money spent on infrastructure and workers (for more profits in the companies.). Those buildings belonged to fast fashion brands and due to their carelessness, over 2500 people died in the accident.

So today I urge you all to make a promise and reduce your buying of clothing. Try to reuse clothing as much as possible and avoid washing clothes multiple times. Handwash if possible and reuse and rags as cloths or search up DIY projects to do with leftovers- be more sustainable!

See you in the next blog!

[quitthefastfashionlines]

Fast Fashion or Fast Doom; How are my clothes made?

Welcome to the second part of the blog series. Today we will be trying to understand what exactly goes into the making of our clothing and I will be analysing this article and informing you on how (un)sustainable these processes are.

From fibre to garment: the technical 'make-up' of your clothing

Fabrics, yarns, fibres and pre- and post-finishing processes - everything you need to know about the technical construction of your garment.

The beginning of your clothings starts from the fibres. There are two categories of fibres, natural and artificial and within natural there are 2 subcategories; animal and plant based fibres.

Plant based fibres include cotton, linen, hemp and bamboo. Linen in particular is a more expensive one and advised by fast fashion companies due to its higher price. Plant based fibres aren't usually found in your clothing due to its lack of durability. However some fast fashion companies use cotton due to its temporary strength and it's cheap price.

Animal based fibres include wool and silk. While wool is kept at the average fibre price, silks can cost a lot of money. This is for good reason as silk is a very strong fibre, in fact the strongest fibre in the world is spider silk.

Artificial fibres are less favoured in fast fashion because despite its cheap price it requires high conditioning when making the clothes and need to be in proper temperatures. This increases costs which is why they aren't used.

The fast fashion industry however leaves many fibre waste concerns as microfibres are found in the ocean, too many chemicals are used to process fibres and too many pesticides are used to create cotton.

Therefore I urge you readers to take a look at your clothing label and see what is the clothing made of. There is a high chance that your clothes left behind high CO2 emissions.

See you in the next blog!

[quitthefastfashionlines]

Fast Fashion or Fast Doom; What is Fast Fashion?

The first part of a 5 part series in which we will together study and analyse all about the fast fashion industry, today's blog being: what is fast fashion?

What is fast fashion, and why is it so controversial? | CNN

The fast fashion market is popular for its cheap and convenient options, but its impacts on the environment may be enough to move consumers

In the news article above it explains what is fast fashion, but I'm going to summarise it for you real quick and explain what it means for you:

Fast fashion is the process of making a seemingly endless amount of wardrobe pieces and selling it for cheap prices to the public. Sounds amazing and something you've seen before? Well makes sense, almost all of us, especially teenagers love to shop for aesthetics and comfy clothes and definitely at low prices. Trouble is that the amount of clothing produced is on a scale so large that not even shoppers can keep up with it, leaded to wasted materials that can't be used.

There are not only environmental concerns about the fast fashion industry but as Beth Osnes puts it: 'quick designs, quick manufacturing, quick marketing, quick retailing.. doesnt' leave time to think about the ethical setbacks into this.' And she is right as apparently 86% of clothing workers of fast fashion are severely underpaid and can't afford the basic daily wage.

Well if it is such a harmful industry you may ask why you use it. Well according to CNN's article, an entire clothing line is designed and arrives in the store in just 15 days. This makes clothing incredibly accessible to us the public and gives us new trends so quick that consumers of the product don't even have time to think about where to clothes come from. Also the transparency of clothing brands in general are low so it is very difficult to figure out if the clothes have been made using fast fashion or not. However there is still a lot of hope as action is being taken against the industry (more to come on that later..). In the mean time, I urge all of you readers to start looking at the transparency of your clothing brands and check their environmental and social impacts around the globe.

See you in the next blog!