“Fashion fades, style is eternal.”, bold words by Yves Saint Laurent, have a quite an ironic meaning in today’s fast paced fashion world where exquisite pieces right off of the catwalk are brought onto the shelves of commercial high street fashion stores in the very despicable form of Fast Fashion. Fast fashion giants like H&M, Zara, Forever 21 and many more, do not design their clothing to last, they are made for a commercially consumptive era which dictates you to change your wardrobe with the changing seasons.
I plan to discuss how these commercially produced goods for the masses pose a serious hazard for the Earth. Firstly, the clothing is mostly made out of synthetic fibers that are derived from fossil fuels, meaning they shall not decay for the next 200 years, at least. Imagine this, 300 years from now at an archaeological site, some scientist digging up for historical relics and artifacts comes across your H&M dungaree.
Sure, that may have some historic significance that might tell a story behind our current era of consumerism, but that’s only even possible if we leave the Earth fertile enough to pave the way for our future generations. Secondly, the factory workers of these companies (their factories mostly being in third world countries with cheap labor like Vietnam, Bangladesh, China, India, Pakistan)are made to work in absolutely abominable work environment.
There is an increasing amount of post-consumer textile waste what is generated in India with an estimated population of above 1.33 billion. Results showed that almost half of the respondents of the survey in India would like to discard the clothes that are no more in use.
The recent article in Vogue states and I quote – as voracious consumers of fashion, we are quick in purchasing clothes that catch our fancy and equally swift in discarding them. But have we ever given a thought to where these clothes are ending up?
The statistics of quantity of clothes that end up in landfills is not news infact what is new information is that landfills are brimming with so much urban waste, that by 2050, India is reportedly going to need a landfill that’s the size of New Delhi!
The telling numbers and warning signs cannot be ignored anymore by consumers and companies alike. Which is why Designers and brands are stepping forward to intervene. Kriti Tula is one such name, who’s contemporary label Doodlage is upcycling factory waste into innovative designs. “In a linear fashion model, its estimated that 73% of all our clothes end up in a landfill for various reasons like the lack of collection systems and ineffective redistribution. There are no large scale solutions available to recycle blended yarns at the moment” explains Tula. “In India, the end of the line of our garments is limited to charity which eventually fill up local landfills” she states.
Only so many words for the disaster indication, so less collective or individuated actions for prevention of it. As the good old saying goes “Actions speak louder than words”, we have identified the threat globally, it is time for awareness infliction and starting from self actions for the good deed. Because we as humans tend to dream and day dream having a family we can provide the world for, a world of health and healing and everything danger free.