Does Fashion Really Equal Waste?

by Ilene Krall

“Waste is at the heart of fashion.” At least that’s what Common Objective, a self proclaimed ‘ethical fashion group’ based in London claims in their shocking article, “Fashion and Waste: An Uneasy Relationship.” But how true is that statement really? Can we generalise the entire industry, which spans all levels of fashion from local to international, in such a damning way? 

    When looking at the numbers, the simple and guttural response is, yes. The fact is, though society has normalised the recycling of materials such as plastic, glass, and so on, clothing and textiles are overwhelmingly forgotten, resulting in, according to Imogen Benson’s article “Putting Waste out of Fashion,” a staggering 336,000 tonnes of discarded clothes yearly in the UK alone. In a 2017 report by The Guardian, research predicted that the thrown away clothes equate to about £140 million worth of still wearable items.

    Arguably more appalling are the statistics regarding the production of clothing. The Ellen McArthur Foundation (EMF), a group which “promotes the idea of a circular economy,” predicted that the textiles industry alone uses 98 million tonnes of non-renewable resources yearly, compounded with the fact that the use of these resources results in 1.2 billion, yes billion, tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions. These numbers are practically unfathomable, and the fact that the vast majority of the world, including you and I, contribute to these numbers on a daily basis is hard to stomach.

    As the years pass, more and more clothes are being thrown away at a faster and faster rate. People simply don’t keep the same clothes around for as long as they used to. If you look at YouTube's influencers, for example, this phenomenon becomes blatantly obvious. Creators such as Georgia May post new videos weekly showing off massive hauls of clothes primarily from fast fashion companies, which not only play a part in the already overwhelming contribution of the fashion industry to greenhouse gas emissions, but also commonly subject employees to unethical work conditions.

    There are, however, YouTubers and influencers across other forms of social media who advocate for thrifting, thrift flips, and upcycling. Thrift flips and upcycling, in particular, are helpful as they revitalise clothes already in your closet.

    So what can you and I do at home to do our best to help lower these heart-wrenching statistics? Following in the lead of many before me, one of my favourite things to do with old, broken, or out of fashion clothes is to re-style or revamp them. Despite my incredibly limited ability in arts and crafts, upcycling clothes comes not only with the fun of spending time doing something creative with your own two hands but also with the satisfaction that you have saved just one more piece of clothing from a landfill.

    Examples of personal projects I have taken on in the past include this pair of shorts.

What started as a pair of baggy, unflattering jeans turned into a fun piece for the summer, simply by cutting off the legs to the desired length, roughing up the hems for that ‘distressed look,’ and taking some fabric paint to paint on a design of my choice. While I decided to paint a sub-par rendition of cowhide, you could paint flowers, stars, or a duplicate of Leonardo’s Mona Lisa, if you so desire.

    Recently, I rediscovered a denim skirt in my closet I had adored in my early teenage years that I had not worn in a while due to the zipper being broken. Instead of throwing it away, however, I tore away the back panel using scissors and a lot of diligence, tore holes in the back using a wine bottle opener, and used an old shoelace to create a tie back denim top. Not ideal for the impending Scottish winter but extremely ideal if you're looking to recreate Britney Spears’ 2001 full denim red carpet look (if you know, you know). 

    Though the project resulted in a failure too embarrassing to reveal in this article, the sentiment remains: you can really do whatever you please with your outdated or out-of-commission clothes, and the fabric serves as a blank canvas to alter something maybe the old you loved, into something today’s you will cherish again. Just have better planning and craft skills than me, which is not a tall order, and you’re set. 

       So maybe fashion doesn’t need to be defined by wastefulness, so long as we, the consumers, continue to come up with fun and creative new ways to make use and reuse of the precious textiles and clothes we so often take for granted.