“Sustainability is the conservation of life through ecological balance-human, animal, vegetable, and planetary. A self-sustaining system is a system that does not take more from the environment than it gives back; it does not deplete resources, but sustains itself…. So what is sustainable design? In clothing, it means sourcing and production that do not pollute through the process of manufacture and do not deplete non renewable resources, whether those are planetary or human. It refers to clothing that can be absorbed back into the environment when it has reached the end of its life. Very few products, let alone garments, fulfill the concept of sustainability it its entirety.
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The clothing and textile industry is one of the largest industries in the world,employing one sixth of the world’s population. It uses more water than any other industry apart from agriculture. It discharges toxic chemicals into the environment, uses huge amounts of energy and is a major contributor to global warming. As a design community, we share the collective guilt of sweatshops, environmental pollution and child labor. As an industry, we lag behind the rest of the art and design community, where significant number of architects, interior designers and cosmetic and fragrance companies base their business practices in ethical design. The industry traditionally satisfies itself with high-profile, red carpet events that raise enormous amounts of cash and which allow us as a community to collectively wash our hands of our responsibility to society and the sustainability of our planet, on an annual basis. The bleak concerns of The Wall Street Journal’s Bob Ortega were quoted in his 1998 book, In Sun We Trust: ‘In truth, the entire apparel industry was one continuing and under-reported scandal’.
-excerpts from “Eco-fashion” by Sass Brown
I am working my way towards a degree in Textiles and Merchandising with a minor in Interior Design. And more often then not, when I tell people my major they get a bit confused and wonder what the heck a textile degree even is. One of my more enlightening classes in the department was “Textiles and the Environment” but it was also one of my more depressing classes. The textile industry is huge and employeesa sixth of the World’s population (as mentioned above) and yet it is one of the most environmentally detrimental industries in the World. According to the Huffington post, it takes 1,800 gallons of water to grow enough cotton to make a pair of jeans and it takes 400 gallons of water to grow the cotton for a cotton t-shirt. And that’s just the amount of water it takes for growing the products! The manufacturing process requires even more and throw in some chemicals that probably aren’t so great for the environment and ta-da! You’ve got our clothes.
And yet somehow the fashion industry has managed to not improve their ways. Some companies are and are really trying to improve their processes. Every 4 years I believe, there is a conference where some of the big honcho’s in textile manufacturing machines get together, kind of like a machine fair, and show off their new environmentally friendly machines. We’re getting there. But as a whole the industry is far behind. But I think a lot of this can be attributed to the way fashion works. It’s constantly changing and constantly trying to be different. So boom! We have fast fashions and places like forever 21 that sell things for $5 but it’s only going to hold up to be worn a few times.
“Fast fashion, planned obsolescent, ignorance and waste rule. In the UK last year, people threw away over two million tonnes of fast-fashion clothing that was worn an average of just six times.”
-Geoffrey B. Small
Not only is the manufacturing process of textiles horrible but the end of life cycle of textiles is horrible. Fast fashions are filling our landfills and are not biodegradable. Which is why I think my major is so important. I didn’t go into this degree looking for a environmental cause, I’ve always wanted to study Interior Design and this was the easiest way for me to go about it. But once you even take a little glimpse into the industry it’s very disheartening. I think it’s the job and responsibility for the entire industry to get off it’s butt and start figuring out ways to make fashion more sustainable. I’m not sure how I can help out yet, but I really feel like I need to. A lot of the eco-friendly clothes that have been designed are just bland and boring. But it doesn’t have to be that way and the industry needs to step it up.
And there are lots of ways that people outside of the industry are starting to do this.Vintage has become a major fashion “do”, which is great because it’s keeping pieces out of the landfills. Likewise, thrift store shopping is also a great way to keep the life cycle of an article of clothing going. I will forever treasure my sewing skills because it allows me to take something that wasn’t cute and make it a new style (old t-shirts into skirts, re-fitting dresses, turning old jeans into lace shorts). I realize not everyone has the time or skills to re-do some thrift store clothes but it’s a great way to help out our environment. (I highly suggest checking out this blog: http://www.newdressaday.com/ She spends $1 a day at a thrift store and remakes the clothes into new things) Being conscious consumers is important more than ever in this day and age, so even if you don’t want to buy thrift store clothes at least do some research on the companies you buy from. Quality over quantity is always a better choice.
(p.s. i've been quite horrible about blogging lately. must work on this!)
