the damage of fashion
As quick-consuming shoppers, we are happily satisfied when we see high-street stores doing what they do best - supplying us with fashion which meets the latest trends, at affordable prices and at the right moments in the fashion calendar. It's up to the big brands to decide whether they believe in ethical fashion, but it's primarily up to us, the consumer, as to just how quick we want the clothes that the brands pleasure us with.
Fast fashion, aka disposable fashion, is what drives the industry. Annually, buyers throw away clothes in order to make way for new clothes which fit the new 'in' trends. Can fast fashion ever be ethical though? Its procedures require a lot of pesticides which are sprayed on flax plants which produce cotton for example, which despite being the most popular fibre, is the most damaging due to high levels of pollutant involved with the sourcing of the fibre. Likewise, fur is another contributor to a change in our environment. Animals are hunted for or bred purely for their fur and this has resulted in statistics such as 75 million animals being killed yearly for their fur, as well as 1 billion rabbits being killed according to cryoftheinnocent.com.
Ultimately however, one of the biggest consequences of our demand for fast fashion is the use of sweatshops, typically found in Bangladesh and China, however BBC 'Dispatches' documented a programme in 2010 which followed the life of a worker in a sweatshop in Leicester, right on our doors step. Workers were forced to live in unventilated rooms and fire exits were blocked.
One high-street store in particular, H&M has attempted to make a stand against unethical fashion and have recently cast Hollywood actress Olivia Wilde as the face of its new Conscious Exclusive collection. The line is made up of ethical materials such as organic silk, organic cotton, organic linen, Tencel®, recycled polyester and conscious leather. Let’s hope people buy into the concept of ethical fashion, literally. ▪
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FASHION
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