The current model for fast fashion is not sustainable.

The fashion industry is currently one of the Top Polluting Industries.

Not only does it harm our environment through pollution and consumption of resources, it also harms the people in the industry itself (in particular, garment workers).

It harms the environment...

During production

2nd largest consumer and polluter of water

Produces 10% of all humanity's carbon emissions

98 million tonnes of non-renewable resources are used per year to make synthetic fibres

Post-production (during consumption)

50 billion plastic bottles of microplastics are released into the ocean per year from washing clothes

85% of textiles go to landfills every year, taking up space and polluting the land

the amount of clothes burnt or sent to landfills is enough to fill 1.5 empire state buildings every day (2,625kg)

...and is unfair towards its workers.

Dangerous work conditions

no ventilation
accident-prone

Exploitation

work 14-16 hours per day, 7 hours a week
physical/ verbal abuse

Unfair wages

garment workers earn as little as 2% of the price of clothing sold in Australia

The current model for fast fashion follows a linear economy.

The linear supply chain is a convenient and fast way for companies to mass produce garments. This system works in companies' favour, as it flows directly from manufacturers, to distributors to consumers. There are hardly any links between the different stages, which expedites the production process.

Due to mass production as well as outsourcing production to developing countries, the perceived cost of fashion has also been lowered. With cheaper clothes, this has led to the democratisation of fashion, where we have access to the latest trends off the runway.

While that sounds beneficial to us, having such a linear system prevents resources from moving between stages in this production cycle, which prevents resources from being reused to their fullest potential. The majority of garments end up wasted in the landfills after single-use.

As we constantly take and waste resources from the earth, this leads to even greater impacts on the environment.

This, alongside labour exploitation, is the TRUE COST OF FAST FASHION.

To protect both the earth and people, we need to move away from the wasteful linear economy, and move towards a more sustainable model.

So, what does sustainability look like?

A proposed model is the circular economy.

KEY PRINCIPLES:

keep resources in use for as long as possible
extract the maximum value from them whilst in use
recover and regenerate products and materials at the end of each service life
generates minimum waste