The retail fashion industry has become more and more competitive over the years and in order to keep up, many companies are now resorting to highly questionable business practices that many of their consumers are unaware of.
Let’s change that today, shall we?
Here are 3 good reasons to shift to sustainable fashion :
- Supporting sustainable fashion means advocating for the environment.
Unfortunately, the market is currently dominated by fast fashion. This means that the majority of the garments found in the stores are specifically designed to be consumed quickly, cheaply, and discarded immediately so that the us — the consumers, have space to fill in our wardrobes as soon as the next trend becomes available.
But what happens to the clothes that we simply throw away?
Textile is responsible for one-fifth of the world’s industrial water pollution. It is also one of the leading contributors in the mountains of garbage located in countless landfills all over the globe. To top all of that, chemicals from textile production and waste also produce billions of tons of soot that pollutes the air which causes respiratory and heart disease.
Think about it. A mere act of purchasing a t-shirt in a fast fashion brand may seem harmless, yes, but wouldn’t it be so much better to know the clothes you are wearing are not harmful to the environment?
- Supporting sustainable fashion means advocating for rightful wages.
While the fashion retail industry has a total market value of over 35 billion dollars, this incredible profit is heavily dependent on the back of miserable, underpaid, and overworked employees in the factories.
Since fast fashion brands require mass production and release of cheap items, brands have turned to hiring factory workers in third world countries in order to reduce cost and maximize profit. But what’s truly disheartening is that these employees are subjected to inhumane and dangerous working conditions.
For example, an Indian factory worker for a fast fashion brand is required to work 60 hours a week at a rate of 58 cents an hour without proper safety equipment and little ventilation.
Imagine, this is the condition that sparkly fast fashion clothes are made. By making the decision to avoid these companies, it would be as if you are making a stand against these unfair working conditions that they allow the employees to operate in.
- Supporting sustainable fashion means advocating for fashion designers.
Fast fashion brands are notoriously known for stealing designs from fashion designers and creative whether big or small. Since they make similar looking clothes, shoes, bags, and accessories at a lower cost, many consumer opts to buy from these brands instead.
While the bigger brands are able to withstand this due to the loyalty of their customers, unfortunately, the same cannot be said with small designers who are left with no choice but to simply turn the other cheek, create a social media buzz until it fizzles out, or file a lawsuit that rarely goes anywhere.
We get it. At times like this, it is totally normal to want to purchase the same thing for a cheaper price and this is how fast fashion brands trick us. But keep in mind that designers — whether big or small deserve to be properly compensated and credited, too. After all, they have poured out their heart and creativity to these designs.
Which leads us to the question: what are the alternatives? One of them is definitely sustainable fashion.
Sustainable fashion is everything that goes against everything that is mentioned above. It means taking the personal responsibility to ensure that as a consumer, we only support and fund the brands that ethically produce each product.
It means making the effort to not let our fashion choices destroy the environment, exploit workers, and steal from other designers.
The good thing is, we have the capacity to stop the wheel that capitalistic fast fashion brands have put as all in. And hopefully, we make that decision the next time we shop.
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