THE EXACT COST OF FASHION IN OUR LIFE
Sustainable
fashion can be defined as “Clothing, shoes and accessories that are
manufactured, marketed and used in the most sustainable manner possible, taking
into account both environmental and socio-economic aspects.” This has now
become a major concern for every fashion conscious as we hurtle towards
breaching the limits of our planet. Fashion industries churn out products which
meets the desire of its consumer. The term “fast fashion” has been in lime
light recently, which means throwing the cloth as soon as it seems cheap or out
of trend, that is, not re-wearing them.
Being
a designer student, we must know and follow certain methods to achieve our
consumer’s demand by keeping its impact on environment in mind. Sustainable is
partly about the process of producing fashion items but more about pattern of
consumption and use. Here, the aim should be to minimize any undesirable
products from the environment. Following are the ways we can ensure a sustainable
fashion on every product’s life cycle:
1. By ensuring efficient and careful use
of natural resources
2. Selecting renewable resources at
every stage
3. Maximizing repair, remake, reuse and recycling of the product and its components.
One of the greatest example we can see, through movie is through True Cost, True cost
a 2015 directory
film directed by Andrew Morgan that focuses on fast fashion. This is
a story about clothing. It's about the clothes we wear, the people who make
them, and the impact the industry is having on our world. The price of clothing
has been decreasing for decades, while the human and environmental costs have
grown dramatically. The True Cost is a ground breaking documentary film that
pulls back the curtain on the untold story and asks us to consider, who really
pays the price for our clothing?
The True Cost is an unprecedented project that invites us
on an eye opening journey around the world and into the lives of the many
people and places behind our clothes. It discusses several aspects of the garment
industry from production—mainly exploring the life of
low-wage workers in developing countries—to its after-effects such as river and soil
pollution, pesticide contamination, disease and death. Using an approach
that looks at environmental, social and psychological aspects, it also
examines consumerism and mass media, ultimately linking them
to global capitalism.
facts from The True Cost, that will
completely change the way you look at fashion
The Fashion Industry is the second largest
polluting industry, only after oil. At every stage of production,
excessive amounts of natural resources are used up or adulterated.
Fast fashion has made clothing cheaper, but someone
somewhere in the supply chain is paying the price for it. Garment manufacturing
workers in sweatshops are barely paid living wages, let alone
worker safety.
Clothing is a deflationary product.
While most products are appreciated in value, clothing is now cheaper than ever
before.
Cotton is excessively used in the fashion industry, largely
cultivated in India and is a cash crop. Over 250,000 Indian cotton
farmers have killed themselves in the last 15 years, mostly as a
result of going into debt to buy GMO cotton seeds, courtesy of Monsanto.
From my point of
perspective ,Objective behind the making of the
film is that Morgan was not trying to blame just a single company nor the
fast fashion industry as "it did not invent a very irresponsible way of
manufacturing, it did not invent over marketing the consumption of things.The film
was intended to be a caution on the "incessant consumption of mediocre
stuff" and an incentive to view shopping as something more than a hobby,
adding that buying is "a moral act and there is a chain reaction of
consequences".] He
was not trying to be "anti-business or anti-market" but was just
reaffirming basic human rights and showing the limits of natural resources.
In short, the power is in your hand. If you want to reduce
the impact of your fashion choice- show the corporations you care about what
your clothes are made of, by consciously choosing what you wear because fashion
has always been a way to indicate who you are to the world so now is the time
to think about what you want your clothes to say about the kind of world and
future that we aim for.
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