The Conway Clean Up

As previously mentioned, there are many benefits to thrifting as a sustainable alternative to buying from fast fashion retailers. With thrifting, you’re not supporting the fast fashion industry and cycle, which means you aren’t contributing to the mistreatment of workers or the wastefulness of the industry. If there’s less demand in fast fashion stores, then less gets made and less people get exploited. By buying second hand, you’re not creating a demand for more materials, because those materials and items already exist. In fact, by thrifting, you’re able to keep items out of landfills. The fashion industry is the second largest polluting industry, with synthetic fabrics taking 100+ years to decompose. Thrifting also leads to greater individuality with clothes. When thrifting, a person has to physically look through all kinds of items to find something they like. In a fast fashion store, things are laid out and organized together based on trends, and the stores are essentially telling you what to like, but in a thrift store, every piece speaks for itself. Thus, you get to find out what you really like, and not just what’s trendy. Also, thrifting is often less expensive than buying an item new, so it’s a cheaper alternative as well.

There’s many benefits to thrifting. However, it’s not without its faults either. Because sustainability itself is trendy, more people have been going to the thrift store in recent years. This has caused a sort of gentrification of the thrift stores, as resellers flock to it for sourcing. With the increase in demand at thrift stores, prices have gone up, especially on heavier items like sweaters and coats. The average coat at a thrift store is between $12.99-$19.99, whereas before they were closer to $10. This especially hurts the people who rely on thrift stores as their only way to get clothes. Resellers will go into thrift stores and buy all the trendy or quality vintage clothing, and then mark it up to sell online. This also perpetuates the trend cycle, as people then feel a need to constantly shop at the thrift store, and constantly buy more to keep up. Thrifting can lead to overconsumption too, which is a problem for everyone. However, if done in moderation, it can be a way to get new items in a more sustainable way.

As previously mentioned, the treatment of fast fashion workers could easily be described as “slave labor”. Workers are given terrible wages (often a fraction of a decent living wage, as much as 5 times less) and will often face abuse from personnel if deadlines aren’t met. What makes it even worse is the horrifying truth that often times to make ends meet, entire families will have to work in terrible conditions, including children. Currently there are over 150 million child workers in the world, and the fashion industry employs many of them. One heartbreaking example is the Sumangali scheme in India, in which young girls are hired and payed a wage to work in a textile factory for 3 to 5 years, after which they receive a lump sum that serves as their dowry. While in this system, the girls are forced to live in compounds and have very little contact with their families. Despite being forbidden, this is still a regular occurrence, and needless to say, should be stopped. This is happening on the other side of the world from those of us in the United States, but we see the results of these injustices in every fast fashion store. Besides the mistreatment by the people in this industry, the conditions of the workplaces themselves are also abysmal. There have been countless instances of garment factory disasters, including the collapse of the Rana Plaza in Bangladesh in 2013, killing 1134 people. Workers are crowded into unstable buildings with little to no ventilation, being forced to breathe in fumes from the dyes of the fabric, as well as fiber dust. Or even non-fabric related fumes, like blasted sand, affects these workers. 50 people have died and thousands are sick from blasted sand inhalation in denim factories in Turkey. These things, coupled with the sheer number of people working in these factories has led to all kinds of accidents and injuries. On top of all these other issues, workers in garment factories often aren’t allowed to form unions. These workers have no representation, and the cycle continues.

This is the devastating reality of fast fashion, but as I’ve mentioned before, it is something so prevalent in our culture that it’s practically unavoidable. So what do we do? The first step is being aware that these problems exist. Reading as much as possible about these issues can create more awareness when the information is shared and more publicly available. Secondly, put pressure on stores to hold them accountable, or shop elsewhere, like secondhand shops. Thirdly, you can make donations to organizations fighting to better the conditions for these workers, and eventually put an end to fast fashion once and for all.

For many people, the process of buying new clothes involves going to a physical store, or going online shopping to find whatever you’re looking for. There are some people who will shop around and try to find the best deal, or an option even more suited to their needs, but even then it’s not the most involved process. One common denominator is that the most readily available clothing producers, the most popular and most accessible, are often the most unethical in their production. It’s practically unavoidable, as nearly all clothing producers rely on foreign manufacturers, but that doesn’t mean that these injustices shouldn’t be discussed. These major corporations are exploiting entire populations of people who have no choice but to work in these terrible conditions. These workers need all the money that they can get, and these businesses know that they’re vulnerable, so they take advantage of that. They’re putting their health and well-being on the line for abysmal payback. Only an estimated 2% of fashion workers around the world are paid a living wage. In fact many official organizations, including the European Parliament, have decided that the term “slave labor” is an accurate description for the treatment of fast fashion workers. We don’t like to think that slavery still exists in our world, but it does. These workers aren’t treated like people. Many report not being allowed to take bathroom breaks, despite many working 14-16 hour days. During the peak season, the hours are even longer, because they can’t refuse the overtime pay. Many will also face verbal or physical abuse if deadlines aren’t met.

Now, this is a lot of information, and it can feel disheartening knowing that this is so prevalent. The route that I’ve taken is shifting to buy pretty much all of my clothes from secondhand sources, or to make my own. But it’s not that simple for everyone. It’s a layered topic, because the reality is that most of the time, fast fashion is the only option for many people. Many sustainable clothing producers make their clothing in small batches which don’t always include plus sizes. Some people simply can’t afford to shop at more sustainable shops, or even at online secondhand shops like Poshmark or Depop. Even in known secondhand stores like Goodwill prices have increased, especially on sought after items like coats. There is no perfect solution, the important thing is to have the information so you can make the decision that’s best for you.

When looking at clothing producers, most are making their clothes in a way that is harmful to the environment. Many consumers are now becoming aware of these practices, and are trying to make more ethical choices. Sustainability has become a trend of sorts, and now clothing producers are trying to get in on it.  Many stores are trying to move towards greener initiatives, or, give the illusion that they are.  One company guilty of this is H&M, who re-launched their “Conscious” collection last year.  The collection has technically been around since 2012, but was reintroduced and advertised again recently, because again, sustainability is trendy right now.  The 2021 line was intended to be a message to other clothing manufacturers, to show that clean and repurposed clothing was possible, as their clothes were made from 100% organic cotton.  However, less than a year later, it’s been found that the claims made by H&M aren’t all that they seemed to be.  In research done by the Changing Markets Foundation, a company dedicated to bringing attention to irresponsible corporate practices, they found that 96% of the claims H&M made about their Conscious collection were false or misleading.  One of the biggest inaccuracies was the fact that their Conscious collection wasn’t in fact made from 100% organic cotton, but rather 20% organic cotton.  The Conscious collection was even found to have a larger percent of harmful synthetic materials than the regular collection, 72% to 65%, respectively.  The company also doesn’t disclose any actual information about their production processes, including where the materials were sourced.  This all goes to say that many companies, not just H&M, use wording and claims in their advertising that make their clothing appear to be sustainably made when it isn’t.   Unfortunately, these are the stores that are often the most accessible, so it’s difficult to avoid.  Thus, it’s important to take company claims of sustainability with a grain of salt, and double check your resources if looking to make sustainable swaps.  Every little bit helps.

What is fast fashion? Fast fashion is a term referring to any article of clothing that is made in a large batch in a short time. The idea behind fast fashion is to take styles from the runway or from major trends and put them into stores quickly and cheaply. Then, because of the low production costs, the clothes are able to be sold at a low price point in stores. Fast fashion exists as a cyclical model, where the clothes are made fast, and also made to fall apart fast. This allows the wearer then to feel the need to replace the clothes at a faster rate, and thus perpetuate the cycle. This also reinforces the trend cycle of clothes, which has also increased exponentially in the past century. When the clothes fall apart, it causes consumers to feel the need to replace their clothes with newer and trendier items. Who are the perpetrators of fast fashion? Any store who subscribes to this model, and sells clothes in large numbers. There are the obvious offenders, mall brand stores like Abercrombie, Hot Topic, American Eagle, etc. Then there are those who take fast fashion to the next level, releasing new styles weekly, or even more extremely, daily. Stores like Shein, Forever 21, Boohoo, Fashion Nova, etc have completely set the precedent for clothing production. There are stores and businesses that are slow-batch fashion, these are stores that often make their items made-to-order to avoid waste, or are made with much more sustainable materials. Many of these stores are online, in order to better control their production numbers. Examples of these stores are Girlfriend Collective, Reformation and CHNGE. Many fast fashion stores have received backlash for their practices, and are now marketing ethical collections and trying to appear more sustainable. Often this is an example of greenwashing, and the clothes are still produced under unethical conditions. However, as previously mentioned, these fast fashion stores do have the major advantage of selling their clothing at lower price points, which is objectively appealing. For some, this is their only option, so completely switching clothing stores isn’t possible. However, it is something worth looking into.

One thing that defines a generation is the major fashion trends it follows. You can always tell what time period a photograph was taken in because of the clothes people are wearing. It’s an important part of culture and individual identity. However, while fashion itself is still an important facet of our lives, there are aspects of it that have changed going into the 21st century. Namely, how much of it there is. Over the last decade, the trend cycle has sped up exponentially, to the point where trends go out of style in a matter of months. This is a huge contrast compared to the 20th century, where we can find trends that lasted an entire decade. This is due to the concept of fast fashion. This is a scheme to make clothes as quickly and cheaply as possible, with styles going from the catwalk to store shelves in a matter of weeks. Starting in the late 20th century, when new poly-combination fabrics became introduced to mainstream fashion, it became possible to create more clothes for less money. This coupled with the hyper-consumerist lifestyle that began in the 90s, people began buying more. Obviously, this has a detrimental impact on the environment. The biggest challenges to sustainability are overconsumption and overproduction. With stores trying to keep up with new trends, they end up using much higher number of materials, and end up creating a lot more waste in the process. Waste that ends up in a landfill, and takes hundreds of years to decompose. Fashion has such an important role in our culture, but it might be killing our world in the process. While there are ways to more sustainably partake in fashion, at its current rate, we’ll be up to our necks in old turtlenecks in no time.