Six drawers stuffed with clothing and somehow, there is still nothing to wear that is just right. The obvious solution is to go out and find the perfect item that will complete the collection. That is, until this happens again next week, and that perfect item is no longer in style.
You’ve been here before, haven’t you?
Except now when you get dressed for your day in quarantine, your closet is final. Unless you want to wait a few weeks for an online order, you’re working with what you’ve got because a new t-shirt isn’t worth risking your health.
“The more you learn where your clothes are sourced from,” said Zoe Tucker-Borrut, an advocate for sustainability at Ramapo College, “the scarier it gets.”
What you’re never told is fast fashion clothes are always a risk to your health. Clothing made through “fast fashion” are often produced with fabrics either made from materials which require heavy pesticides or are infused with plastic fibers. They are also made in factories with few restrictions on coal emissions, which is unsafe for both the employees and the residue for the consumer.
Experts say there could be serious health risks associated with fast fashion clothing. Pesticides on cotton have proven to be carcinogenic, chemicals related to cancer, and plastic fibers end up in water when we wash them. The fibers are consumed by fish, and then by us.
The consumer culture of today is polluted by trends, especially in clothing. The speed at which these trends turn over means that production rates need to be high and costs need to be low. However, fast fashion has environmental repercussions that can’t be reversed, and the more clothing made, the more that ends up in landfills.
Fashion has been heading in this direction for decades because of its low costs and quick turnover, experts say. It is only in recent years producers are becoming aware of their environmental impact, and attempting to remedy it.
It isn’t worth the risk, and yet America constantly places advertisements, sales and commercials convincing you to buy something new. According to Forbes and the Bureau of Labor Statistics, “The U.S. apparel industry today is a $12 billion business and the average American family spends $1,700 on clothes annually.” This makes fashion one of the biggest markets in the world, and such a big market of production can create a carbon footprint it might never be able to reverse.
Chasing the cheap needle
Fast fashion is defined by items of clothing made at a constant high speed for low costs, which results in cost-efficient items made only to last the season before they are thrown out and replaced with new ones.
Nancy Spaulding, the department head of the fashion program at Pima Community College in Arizona, has studied textiles and design throughout her whole career in fashion. She worked with brands like Victoria’s Secret, and has seen first hand what fast fashion looks like.
“The speed to market is key,” said Spaulding.
Spaulding said fast fashion is the result of the development of easy to care for textiles, made with polymer fibers. Common fabrics like polyester and rayon use these fibers blended with natural ones to create the fabrics of most of American clothing.
But these fibers are made from plastic, which requires them to use fossil fuels. They’re then produced in low income countries which bear the environmental burden of those emissions, all so that Americans can buy new clothes every week.
The Environmental Health journal states that “The fast fashion model encourages consumers to view clothing as disposable.”
Which is exactly what it does, because the quickly made clothing easily rips at the seams and are tossed away. They go into landfills across the country, becoming part of the waste stream with the rest of the excess clothing.
The EPA estimated in 2017 that America had produced 8,900,000 tons of waste in landfills from clothing and footwear alone.
Aligning your purchases with your values
Tucker-Borrut, 21, is the secretary of sustainability in Ramapo College’s student government association. She says she always learned about sustainability about growing up in Vancouver, Canada. Vancouver set a goal to become the greenest city in the world by 2020, so sustainability has always been a concern for her.
“You can’t have a conversation about sustainability without having fashion in the picture,” she said.
Sustainability has become a popular trend as of late, which Tucker-Borrut says she is excited about. Environmental issues have been being caused by massive industries for years now, but consumers are just beginning to see the reality.
“Fashion is second only to oil,” said Spaulding. “In pollution, oil is number one, and fashion is number two.”
While more studies and reports on the negative impacts of fast fashion have become abundant, consumers still don’t seem to understand what it means or how to remove themselves from the cycle.
“Fashion starts getting into the picture when you start to learn where the problems come from,” said Tucker-Borrut. “Fashion by itself it an art, but when you start getting into who made my clothes, how are those fabrics made, with what materials…”
Tucker-Borrut said when she became aware of the way products were produced in countries with low regulations for factories, she removed herself from purchasing new and non-sustainable items.
“Approximately 90% of clothing sold in the United States is made with cotton or polyester,” stated a 2018 article from the Environmental Health Journal. “Both associated with significant health impacts from the manufacturing and production processes.”
To Tucker-Borrut, it’s important not only that the things she owns are made ethically and sustainably, but that she is not buying brand new clothing when so much already exists. With the constant production of clothing created in mostly low to middle income countries, Spaulding says there is an excess throughout the world. It’s filling secondhand stores, third world countries and landfills across the globe.
“You vote with your wallet,” said Tucker-Borrut. “You vote for what products you want to see on shelves.”
Tucker-Borrut has made buying a purposeful action in her goal of living a sustainable lifestyle. She takes a critical eye to companies by using resources like The Good Trade and B Corporation to make sure her purchases align with her values.
Buying into “slow fashion”
As sustainable fashion is on the rise, consumers are looking toward not only up-cycled clothing, but slow fashion designers who have a commitment to transparency and ethical products.
East Rutherford designer Todd Shelton created his brand based on made to order, carefully created clothing. Each item is made only by request, and their factory is available to be visited anytime as long as it’s scheduled.
“Made-to-order is the most responsible form of environmentally friendly manufacturing,” the Todd Shelton website states. “So we always fill a need, not a landfill.”
Todd Shelton himself, the founder of the brand, is one of 10 employees for the company. By keeping their company small, they allow themselves to pay their employees a living wage, including the seamstresses who in other parts of the world make cents an hour.
Responsibility and transparency are two of the most important things to look for in a brand to determine if it’s worth your dollar. Companies who hold themselves to a high standard set an example for the consumer, and show a respect for their product and buyer.
“Fabrics are sourced from countries that enforce similar labor and environmental standards as the United States,” their website states. “Countries like England, Japan, and Portugal with high standards and long histories of fair practices.”
While small businesses with sustainable mission statements are a great way to find slow-fashion and support independent producers leading the way, it is possible to find big brands, too. Companies like Patagonia and Reformation have been leaders in the sustainable fashion movement by being transparent and accountable with their products.
These brands and brands like them offer their buyer full pages about their dedication to sustainability and how they practice it. Reformation, for example, puts using sustainable fabrics as a top priority because of the environmental and medical impacts cheap fabrics can have.
A quick look onto Forever 21's website lists this item at the top of their "best sellers."
Here, it’s easy to spot the difference in fast and slow fashion products. The price reflects the quality of the items, not only in long term wear but also the message wearing that item stands for.
It’s brands like these that Spaulding sees the fashion industry turning more towards in the future, as they see that fast fashion brands like Forever 21 are not only not environmentally sustainable, but not economically sustainable either.
How can we change?
The era of COVID-19 is changing life as we all know it and making everyone re-examine what they consider a necessity. Spaulding wonders if this attention to ownership will have an effect on fast fashion after it resumes production when factories reopen.
“We have to think about fair trade,” she said. “We have to think about the environment, we have to think about how we treat our employees.”
Conscious buying is easier than it’s made out to be, and its benefits far out way the cons. Shopping sustainably can be as easy as only purchasing secondhand clothing, which is as accessible and inexpensive as fast fashion. It can also be an investment, says Spaulding, spending more money on less items that will last years longer.
What you wear can show what you stand for, start conversations about how you buy and be stylish while still being ethical. With the resources to learn where your clothing comes from and what the real cost is, its time to ask yourself: “What am I going to wear today?”
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