Planet

“Buy less, choose well, make it last” – Vivienne Westwood

The fashion industry is the second biggest contributor to climate change and pollution globally. Of the 15 million tonnes of textiles produced every year, over 75 per cent is discarded, in the production phase and post-consumer level (Castro, 2021). To make a cotton t-shirt, 2,700 litres of water are required, which is approximately enough to meet one person’s drinking needs for 2.5 years (Weonsel & Lipp, 2020). Modern day fast fashion, over consumption, and clothing trends are increasingly damaging to the environment. Social media is littered with trends that “constantly come and go and fashion is largely ever changing” (McCarthy, 2013). With fast fashion, the lack of sentimental value results in items that are easily discarded (Castro, 2021). Research based closely on enclothed cognition and essentialism found the two processes together can “influence cognition, benefit wellbeing, and improve sustainability in fashion” (Mair, 2018).

To improve sustainability, brands need contemplate circularity. A circular fashion industry is defined as “a regenerative system in which garments are used for as long as their maximum value is retained, and then returned safely to the biosphere when they are no longer of use” (Black, 2012). This design starts in the production stage, where clothes should be made using renewable and safe materials. After this consumers are responsible for getting as much wear as possible out of the garments, but also to not overconsume. Creating clothes from sustainable backgrounds, and being fully traceable, builds the consumers relationship with the garments and reduces overconsumption in the industry (Mair, 2018).

In regards to circularity, the United Nations established 17 Sustainability Development Goals to be applied in every industry. Number 12, Responsible Consumption and Production, focuses on the misuse of finite resources in nature (UN, 2015). The Fashion industry’s second major material is cotton (European Parliament News, 2023). To keep up with the growing demands of fast fashion, farmers use pesticides, harming the environment and consumer health. Pesticides are responsible for 200,000 acute poisoning deaths each year, and chronic exposure to pesticides has been linked to cancer, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases (Elver & Tuncak, 2017). Therefore, overconsumption and fast fashion are the foundations of the unsustainability in the Fashion industry.

References

Castro, O. (2021, February 11). Loved clothes last. Penguin Books Ltd.

Black, S. (2012, October 1). The sustainable fashion handbook. London. Thames and Hudson

Elver, H., Tuncak, B. (2017, March 7). UN human rights experts call for global treaty to regulate

dangerous pesticides. https://news.un.org/en/story/2017/03/552872

European Parliament News. (2023, June 5). The impact of textile production and waste on the

environment (infographics). https://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/headlines/society/20201208STO93327/the-impact-of-textile-production-and-waste-on-the-environment-infographics

Mair, C. (2018). The psychology of fashion. Taylor & Francis Group.

McCarthy, Sydney. (2013). The effects of social media on fashion consumption. Oxford.

https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/148694812.pdf

United Nations. (2015). Sustainable development goals.

https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/sustainable-consumption-production/

Woensel, L., Lipp, S. (2020, September). What if fashion were good for the planet?. European

Parliamentary Research Service.

https://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/ATAG/2020/656296/EPRS_ATA(2020)656296_EN.pdf