What is Sustainable & Ethical Fashion?

sustainable fashion

10/24/2020

Danielle Alvarado

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My name is Danielle and I am a mother of two, wife, CEO, and lover of vintage treasures. I created SKL in 2020 to help our community in their need for well-researched and trust-worthy articles, listicles and guides to live a more sustainable and healthy life. So happy to have you here! (Click to learn more).

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Fast fashion isn’t free. Someone, somewhere, is paying.

It’s time to take the blindfold off.

Every time you spend money, you’re casting a vote for the kind of world you want.

Do you know how powerful you are? Do you know how much power the money in your wallet holds? It can change the World.

As consumers, we hold the power but most of us throw that power away for a 5 dollar t-shirt (I’m not judging, I’ve been there too many times to count). We look at the price and think to ourselves,

“What a STEAL!”

This price tag celebration is exactly what the fast fashion industry wants from us; they want us to only look at the price and forget about the fibers, quality, lifetime, production, labor, environmental factors, and more. They do not want us to find out that this price tag is not only bad for the World but bad for our wallets as well. They do not want us to know that by supporting them, we have ended up supporting everything we are against.

With every ad, influencer, sponsored post, and scroll, we have become absolutely addicted to fashion. Our once 2-4 season wardrobe has turned into 52 micro-seasons by the fast fashion industry; pushing out new “must-have” trends every single day.

You may feel taken advantage of and a bit uncomfortable at this moment, but I have good news for you! I will walk you through how to get out of this chaotic mess, how to get organized, how to build your perfect quality/sustainable/ethical capsule wardrobe, and how to never support the fast fashion industry ever again.

Sustainability?

Over-production and over-consumption are two of the keywords in fast fashion; consumers today are purchasing 60% more today than they did 15 years ago. You would think that we would have closets full of clothing at this point but sadly, our clothes last half as long.

I like to think of fast fashion as I like to think of fast food; it tastes so good in the moment despite the lingering guilt and knowledge that it is “bad”. You know it’s unhealthy but there is this (possibly unspoken of) addiction to the salt/sugar/grease and ease at which it is given to you. You are pulled in by the dollar menu and the bombardment of ads at every turn. You are comforted by the mass of people who are also giving into the cheap price and instant gratification. 

If you look at the statistics, the fast fashion industry creates 60 million tonnes of clothing per year, and 30 million tonnes is thrown out before the year closes. The more clothing the ends up in the landfills, the higher the cost for the economy. It costs the UK nearly 82 million pounds a year just to deal with the huge increase in fast fashion trash.

sustainable fashion

The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any.

It’s quite easy to jump the gun and blame the fashion industry for all of this mess, but the reality is, we are as much to blame as anyone. We have the POWER to stop this. We have absolute power over the fast fashion industry; they would be nothing without the consumers. It is imperative that we realize how much power we hold.

Pollution

The fast fashion industry is the World’s second largest polluter, after oil.

The fast fashion industry is not just taking over our landfills, it has major impacts on the World’s waste, toxic chemicals, water, and energy.

The real kick in the butt is that we, as consumers, have little to no education on how to properly dispose of these textiles when they are no longer wanted. Many simply toss out the ripped and stained items instead of properly recycling them to ensure the “rags” can turn into something new like paper, insulation or even carpeting. 

Need to Recycle Clothing? Click Me To Find a Location Near You!

vetta capsule wardrobe

The Fibers

Man-made, synthetic fibers make up nearly 60% of our clothing today and this is contributing to the seemingly endless pollution to our water systems. These synthetic garments are shedding billions of plastic fibers via our washing machine.

As consumers, we can stop purchasing any clothing made from polyester, nylon, acrylic, and spandex and begin purchasing from fibers like cotton, linen, bamboo, hemp, and various other fibers.

What do you do with all the synthetic garments that you have now?? Not to fear loves, you can keep them! You just need to learn how to WASH them.

The Women

By subcontracting manufacturing overseas to the lowest bidder, fast fashion companies are able to pump out garments for cheaper than ever. Rather than having long-term relationships with the factories, companies are comfortable with abrupt break-ups — so if they want something faster, the factories have to keep up or lose their jobs.

This insane pressure on these factories has led to a horrible chain reaction of human rights violations, safety violations, sexual assault, fires, building collapses and the death of over 1000 workers.

Read More: WHY THE FAST FASHION INDUSTRY IS A FEMINIST ISSUE

The Children

According to UNICEF, a staggering 170 million children work in the garment industry. Many of these child laborers work within the fashion supply chain, making the textiles and garments to satisfy the demand of consumers in Europe, the US, and beyond.

The Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations (SOMO), and the India Committee of the Netherlands (ICN) revealed that recruiters in southern India convince parents in impoverished rural areas to send their daughters to spinning mills with promises of a well-paid job, comfortable accommodation, three nutritious meals a day and opportunities for training and schooling, as well as a lump sum payment at the end of three years. Their field research shows that “in reality, they are working under appalling conditions that amount to modern-day slavery and the worst forms of child labor”.

The Animals

Leather, Down, Wool, Silk, Fur, and Exotic Animal Skins; the fashion industry loves to kill for fashion.

The fur industry alone kills over 30 million animals per year; many of these beautiful creatures are skinned alive and left to die in the trash.

The leather industry is killing over 430 million animals per year; and NO, the leather industry is absolutely not a by-product of the meat industry. They are two totally different demons.

According to PETA, Animals on fur farms spend their entire lives confined to cramped, filthy wire cages. Fur farmers use the cheapest and cruelest killing methods available, including suffocation, electrocution, gassing, and poisoning. More than half the fur in the U.S. comes from China, where millions of dogs and cats are bludgeoned, hanged, bled to death, and sometimes even skinned alive for their fur. Chinese fur is often deliberately mislabeled, so if you wear any fur, there’s no way of knowing whose skin you’re in.

Our Journey Together

Feeling a bit overwhelmed with all of this information? It is a lot to cover!

Do not fear. I will walk you through every step of your new sustainable and ethical fashion journey; from how to build a capsule wardrobe to how to stop buying and start renting. From how to choose the best vegan option to how to throw an amazing clothing swap party. From how to become a professional second-hand shopper to how to repair your clothes properly.

I am so excited you are here and I hope you are ready to change the World.

First Steps to Mindful Consumerism: sustainable and ethical fashion

  1. Buy from companies that are fair trade, sustainable, vegan and organic
  2. Purchase less often
  3. Purchase from high-quality fibers that will biodegrade
  4. Recycle your unwanted clothing
  5. Upcycle and turn your worn out pieces into something new
  6. Swap/rent clothes
  7. Buy second hand
  8. Repair instead of discard

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