A thought-provoking exploration of fast fashion. Some excerpts as food for thought about our consumption habits and how we talk about ethical and sustainable options:
“With this one pithy comment, Virgil Abloh – the brains behind lauded street style brand, Off-White – inadvertently touches on an issue that haunts every panel discussion and every magazine article about fast fashion and price points: are ethically produced clothes a privilege for the wealthy? Should people with limited disposable income really be expected to pay more for clothes just to avoid buying cheap stuff that’s bad for the planet? And after all of these questions, are we left with one unavoidable one: is fast fashion a class issue?”
“Hypotheses aside, though, the statistics that illustrate how we consume clothes now are really rather grim. They don’t point to a nation of empowered shoppers; quite the opposite. According to a report by sustainable thinking charity the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, British people are hoarding £46.7 billion of unworn clothing in their wardrobes at any one time. Last year, a survey by M&S and Oxfam, found that our nation's wardrobes hold 3.6 billion unworn clothes – that’s an average of 57 items per person – with an average of 16 items worn only once, and 11 still with the tags on. And one in 20 people has over 50 items in their wardrobe with the tags still on. At the rate that we are consuming fashion globally, fashion will account for one quarter of the world’s annual carbon budget by 2050.”
