by Esther Kute
Following closely after the fossil oil industry, fashion is the second largest polluter of the environment. (ASI 2020) Global consumption stands at above 80 billion new pieces of clothing every year; 400% more than the amount of clothing we were consuming only two decades ago. Fast fashion creates ethical issues in the production of cheap fashion items to 5ake to market at rapid speed, use of large amounts of dwindling natural resources like freshwater, large emissions of greenhouse gasses and toxic chemicals, and the use of materials made from petroleum; like nylons and polyesters which biodegrade after thousands of years and increase microplastics in our water sources. Tonnes of unused and unsold fast fashion items each calendar season contribute to solid wastes dumped into the environment, especially our water sources.
As a social practice, most consumers are unaware of their individual contribution to fast fashion. The biggest driver of the fast fashion phenomenon is infact large corporations from raw material producers, manufacturers, retailers, financial funders and media houses amongst others, who benefit from the capitalistic cycles that provide huge financial turnover each fashion season. Planned obsolescence as an industrial design policy also plays a huge role in fast fashion; fashion items that were once designed to last for decades are now designed to be produced at lower costs and last for shorter periods of time to encourage more consumption of the same product and increase profits.
As a designer working in the manufacturing industry, it became important for me to recognize the effect of fast fashion in the anthropocene and start implementing systemic corrective measures on a large scale to reduce the negative impacts of fast fashion on the environment including; prescribing use of eco friendly raw materials for as many products produced as possible, reusing and recycling almost all materials within production processes, educating consumers on importance of buying more costly but longer lasting products to increase sustainability, conducting and implementing research on innovations that increase sustainability within manufacturing processes and collaborating with communities on sustainable practices within mass production.