5 tips to sustainable fashion that won’t break the bank
5 tips to sustainable fashion that won’t break the bank
When fashionable clothes can be so cheap, it can be easy to fill up virtual shopping carts just for the rush of the purchase. But this attitude of excess has led to mass over production and a clothing waste crisis.
Less than 1% of all clothing material is ever recycled back into new clothes. And of the clothes we donate to charity, only a fraction gets resold in stores. Much of what doesn’t sell gets shipped in bulk and sold internationally.
The costs of fast fashion are huge to the environment and to the people making clothes. Each year the fashion industry consumes approximately 79 trillion liters of water and then throws out 92 million tons of waste. To make clothes so quickly and affordably, factory workers are often underpaid and operate in unsafe working conditions.
It can make us feel powerless, as individuals, to do something about it. But there are ways to shop smarter and to curate a more eco and ethically conscious closet. Here are some takeaways the experts recommend:
1. Don’t think of your clothes as disposable. Symphony Clarke, known as the Thrift Guru on social media, has noticed that a lot of her peers feel pressure to keep up with trends online. Some even feel like they can’t post a picture in the same outfit twice. “That’s the lifespan of their clothing. Once a picture is taken, it’s done,” she says.
To abandon that attitude of excess, change your mindset! Buy with the notion that what you purchase should stay with you. Clarke recommends a 30 wear test: When shopping, ask yourself if you’d wear that item 30 times or more.
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Learn to look out for greenwashing and campaigns for a fairer, more sustainable fashion industry.
“Greenwashing is when companies either intentionally mislead consumers or just oversell and embellish the efforts they’re making to be more sustainable,” Cline explains.
To learn more, she recommends a site called Good On You and a nonprofit called Remake. Remake’s transparency reports give brands sustainability scores. And once you’re educated, consider getting more involved.
“We can’t forget that the problems in the fashion industry are systemic and that we have to have systemic solutions to these issues as well,” Cline says.
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PayUp Fashion, a campaign Cline co founded, pushes against exploitative practices in the fashion industry. It’s supporting California’s Garment Worker Protection Act, which will hold fashion brands legally and financially accountable for what happens in their garment factories. A reminder there’s strength in numbers.
“This is the ultimate intersectional issue. It is the combination of race and gender and class and exploitation that [cuts] so many different ways,” Cline says.
But the potential for change is possible. It could lead us to a fashion future that’s better for workers, the planet, and potentially even your wardrobe.