Planet: A critique of the modern fashion industry.
Whilst there is a ‘greater acceptance within the industry of the need to tackle the impacts of fashion’, (Gwilt, 2020a), the fashion industry holds the title of one of the most environmentally destructive systems, second only to the oil market. With this comes concerning statistics, such as 85% of textiles (21 billion tonnes) being sent to landfills, and within these 120 billion garments produced annually, 68% are created with oil based textiles. These oil based textiles require finite resources for temporary, disposable garments that will most likely end up in a landfill in Ghana, and is highly energy intensive, releasing high CO2 emissions, devasting for the planet.
‘This industry must embrace the circular economy.’ (Moran, 2022); a circular economy is defined as ‘more radical approaches to the design and production process in relation to how garments will be used, maintained, reused and eventually recycled’ (Gwilt, 2020b). In order for the planet to survive the impacts created by the fashion industry, more brands need to adapt to conform to the more sustainable option of the circularly economy, rather than the currently adopted linear economy.
Sustainability, in the fashion industry, is not legislated, and therefore can be defined in any way a brand sees fit, whether this truly be sustainable or not. However, sustainability is more widely defined to contain garments with greater ‘reparability and durability’ (Mitterfellner, 2023) more so than the mass produced textiles and garments presented in fast fashion. Sustainability relies on slow fashion business models, more often found within luxury brands, as ‘sustainable fashion’ is an option for the privileged, the people who can afford to spend a grand amount of money on more ethical garments. Sustainable fashion cannot truly be achieved within a poverty stricken world, meaning the planet must suffer environmental damage that matches the current economic crisis. This crisis gears people toward fast fashion, due to the affordability.
The UN’s ‘Sustainable Development Goals’ aim to create a shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for the people and the planet. Their first goal, no poverty, is directly proportional to the impacts of fast fashion and the damage these unethical unsustainable practices cause for the environment. Without poverty, it could be argued that the effects of fast fashion would decrease significantly, and the harsher impacts of the fashion industry would slow to meet the UN’s 2030 goal.
References:
Gwilt, A. (2020). A practical guide to sustainable fashion. Bloomsbury Publishing.
Moran, G. (2022) Drapers, Collaborating for Change: Sustainability Report 2022
Mitterfellner, O. (2023) Luxury Fashion Brand Management and sustainability: Unifying fashion
with sustainability. New York: Routledge