"FAST FASHION ISN'T FREE. SOMEONE, SOMEWHERE IS PAYING" - Lucy Siegle from the documentary The True Cost
As our school has no uniform policy we see lots of fashionable brands pass through our corridors each day. However, have you ever stopped to think what goes into the clothes you are wearing? (at this point probably)
One major contributor to climate change, the waste of water and the exploitation of laborers is what we call 'Fast Fashion'. Fast Fashion is clothes that are made quickly and at an extremely low cost in sweatshops. Sweatshops are filled with below the minimum wage workers that are in there for long hours in inhumane conditions. Some large brands that are notable for their Fast Fashion image are Primark, Fashion Nova and more. Topshop gets around 400 new styles delivered per week. Although we do see sustainable changes being made by brands like Primark with their 'Sustainability Teams' we do need to be aware of 'Green-washing' - where a brand promotes products that are falsely branded to be sustainably produced.
A website I would recommend for checking if your fashion is environmentally friendly is: https://goodonyou.eco/
It helps rate brands by their real sustainability and has lots of articles about your carbon footprint and vegan fashion.
Our current society has a thirst for the newest style at the cheaper price, although that s o u n d s great, the impact behind the low quality buys are disastrous for our planet. Famous brands that we all know like Forever21 have been found to use dangerous chemicals and dyes to create their 'staple' garments. This toxic waste normally ends up in water sources and the waste ends up in landfills. The production of cheap, low quality clothing also majorly contributes to increasing carbon emissions and the usage of water.
This image from https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-45745242 shows us how much the UK solely creates when it comes to high street fast fashion.
To lower your impact of fashion fashion, we need to take small steps. A great first step is to know that repeating outfits is a great way to stop the need for more clothes. Its better to save up and invest on one high quality, long lasting product than 5 different cheap products that you would have to buy again and again due to low quality.
Another way of helping out the environment is shopping at second hand stores and vintage stores like Oxfam and really any local vintage store.
Some great second hand clothes stores you could support in Toulouse are:
So the next time you want to treat yourself on a shopping spree, take a moment to think about why its so cheap or what brand it comes from.
Here's a great quiz you could try to find out your fashion footprint! https://www.thredup.com/fashionfootprint
To finish I would really recommend watching The True Cost to learn more about Fast Fashion and how you can help :) http://www.documentarymania.com/player.php?title=The%20True%20Cost
Thank you for this article. I usually try to not buy clothes in shops that are known for fast fashion but this article really helped me to understand even more why I do it. I really appreciated the part of the article where you're talking about greenwashing because that is something that should be said more.
I had no idea that there was such thing as ‘Green-washing’ and that many companies get away with doing this, I looked at the link to see whether my clothes was environmentally friendly and will take that into consideration when next buying clothes, as well as looking at some of the second hand stores locally.
I'm always shocked by the number of pieces of clothing people leave Primark in Toulouse with. It's throw away shopping.
I know some of the places on your map and many are really cool (I'm told by cool people ;) )
A really good write up Anna. I was pleased that this article wasn't completely aimed at sweatshops (often what the mainstream media do). A very interesting alternative take on this was covered by the excellent BBC Inquiry Podcast recently and is available here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3cswqtw
Further than this, it's great to see the reduce and reuse part of the famous "reduce, reuse, recycle' slogan being investigated further. Reuse of clothing (especially baby & childrens clothing) is vital to try to reduce our addiction to fast fashion.
I can feel a bring and swap fashion show coming on!