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The day Ethical Fashion conquers the world

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We are always saying that one day ‘ethical fashion’ will be just known as ‘fashion’ and ‘fast fashion’ will no longer exist. With the slow fashion movement slowly gaining momentum over the fast fashion world and customers demanding transparency, we can now not only dream of the win, but be sure of it. The day will come and on that special day we shall see the changes we have been fighting for all our lives. Here is a glimpse of what will happen the day ethical fashion finally conquers the world.

  • Animals will no longer live in fear of being murdered for their fur.
  • Local businesses will do a happy dance.
  • You can finally wear Tees with Woman Power quotes without feeling guilty that an enslaved woman made it.
  • Your lungs will breathe cleaner air as the second most polluting industry will no longer exist.
  • Cotton can finally stop drinking all that water and share it with the rest of the world instead.
  • Activists will have to search for a new purpose as slavery will be a thing of the past and everyone will live in fairness and equality.
  • You might find yourself arrested by the Fashion Police if you get caught wearing fast fashion.
  • Children can go back to being troublemakers instead of spending their time working in factories.
  • Your bank account will stay fuller as you’ll have less impulses to buy cheap products that you don’t need.
  • Landfills will get less crowded with low quality clothing that are thrown out after a few wears.
  • Plastic will fear extinction as more natural, organic and sustainable materials will have replaced polyester.
  • The only place you’ll find fast fashion will be in big libraries, in the “horror” and “sci-fi” section.

Love Animals? Then Quit Fast Fashion

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If animals could speak, they would probably say something like “please don’t wear that.” And it’s not because they are activists and want to save the environment or protect human rights, but because they want to save themselves too.

We may not realize it, but our beauty and fashion choices directly affect, harm and endanger animals. In recent years, we’ve all grown more conscious about the dark side of fast fashion and probably heard about its negative effect on the environment and the poor working conditions of the people who make these clothes (if you haven’t yet, we strongly suggest you read more about this issue here). Yet, not enough light has been shed on the animals that suffer at the expense of our fashion habits.

So for all you animal lovers out there, here’s an insight on what fast fashion and beauty does to animals and what you can do to avoid it.

 

Leather, fur and animal skin:

We’ll start with the obvious one that most people already know about but too often ignore. Leather, exotic fur and animal skin fashion products such as shoes, bags, coats and jackets are often associated with superior quality, luxury and an expensive price tag. But as high as we might’ve paid for that ‘luxurious’ item, it’s worth remembering that an animal has had to pay an even higher price for it. In the name of fashion, these animals have to go through forced farming, food deprivation, mistreatment, painful killing methods, and sometimes even being skinned alive. And you probably wouldn’t wish that to even your worst enemy.

What you can do: Buy sustainable leather or vegan leather (mushroom leather and pineapple leather are really making headlines now), opt for faux-fur instead of real fur (although we’re not really enthusiastic about this given that faux-fur is rarely environmentally friendly), or buy recycled, upcycled or secondhand products.

 

Wool:

This one is a little less obvious especially since wool is usually praised for being a sustainable material. And while it is true that this material can be eco-friendly, it is not always produced in the most ethical manner. Sheep are usually sheared once a year for the purpose of using their wool and this process can be quite painful for them. In Australia, where most of the wool comes from, it is common practice to use a painful and inhumane technique called “mulesing” to try to avoid “flystrike” (a common problem in the Australian climate during the hot months where flies attack sheep). “Mulesing” involves cutting flesh from the sheep’s backside and is often carried out without any painkillers.

What you can do: learn more about which type of wool each brands use and opt for brands that use non-mulesed wool.

 

Cosmetics:

Animal cruelty doesn’t just exist in the clothing industry but also in the cosmetics industry. A lot of times, those beauty products that you are putting on your face have first been tried and tested on animals first in the most cruel imaginable settings. So do you really want to wear animal blood on your face?

What you can do: There are a lot of cosmetics brands that do not test their products on animals and sell cruelty-free makeup. Choose to support these brands instead and refuse to buy beauty products from brands that sell animal-tested products.

 

Micro-fibers:

Fashion is the second most polluting industry in the world. And the pollution cycle doesn’t just end after the clothing items have been manufactured and shipped, but carries on every time the item is being washed. When we put our clothes in the washing machine, synthetic microfibers are released while the items are being washed and this debris later ends up in our sea. This directly affects the fish and marine life who end up swallowing those microfibers and therefore disrupting their food chain. The lower the quality of the materials, the more microfibers it shreds while being washed.

What you can do: Skip cheap materials that release more microfibers and instead choose natural and organic material and higher quality products. And this might seem a little odd to you, but wash your clothes less often and only when necessary (denim products for example don’t need to be washed that often).

 

Cotton Pesticides and Textile Dyes:

Synthetic microfibers aren’t the only fashion related pollutants that end up in the water and disrupt the sea life. Pesticides from cotton farming and the dyes used from textile processing also find a way into our rivers and as a result pollute our waters and the entire food chains, causing large amounts of fish to die every year.

What you can do: Buy organic cotton, eco-friendly products and sustainable materials such as bamboo that do not pollute the environment and water.

 

As you can see, fashion really isn’t just about you. It’s not just about what you wear, how great you look, how good it makes you feel or how unique your style is. More than often, there are other living beings involved and some of them don’t have a voice of their own to speak up. So don’t let fashion be something shallow that revolves only around your outer beauty and what’s in fashion this season. Let it instead be a choice that reflects your inner beauty and that considers and protects our little furry friends. As we like to say: be kind to animals, they’re the only friends who’ll never share your secrets.

Posted by Dulce Salerno

“Fast” and “Slow” fashion: A brief understanding of each trend and how they impact our world

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Nowadays, the mainstream fashion industry counts on mass production in which fashion clothes are designed and created in a matter of weeks. The latest fashion trends are sold by retailers at low prices, which causes the public to buy more than they need. Furthermore, this industry comes at a hidden cost, which includes our environment and labor workers. These are human lives we are talking about, and this is the world that we will leave for the future generations to come. Mainstream fashion is also called “Fast Fashion”, and disturbs our world in numerous ways, which include: the deterioration of fossil fuels and fresh water reservoirs being eliminated for cotton crop farming, entering pesticides into our nature, and putting our ecosystems in risk of destruction. In summary, “Fast Fashion” is correlated with negative effects on our ecological and social environment. I’m sure you’ve heard of the quote that say’s “Today’s Treasures, Tomorrow’s Trash”, as it perfectly fits the end consumer of the fast fashion industry. Disposability plays a key role here, laterally with speed and style. Edith, a thirty-five-year-old HONG KONG consultant, said: These companies [referring to H&M] use designers like Stella McCartney to create limited, one-time collections, which get usually sold out the next day. An effective strategy indeed, which also means that consumers are buying more clothes more frequently due to affordable prices. However, that also means that they’re unfortunately disposable. You may keep an item after ten washes, but the item’s shine will surely fade away literally or will no longer be popular the next day in the fashion world.

The business model of Fast Fashion entails that large retailers reduce large volume of seasonal fashion production and avoid inventory that can’t be sold, also called “unsalable inventory” (Silver-Stein and Fisk, 2008). The business model is based on a “quick response” design, to produce, and distribute on demand. The products then end up being in the market as being “fashionable and affordable” (Caro And Albeinz,2014), which increases demand and turnover of the merchandise. There are four factors in this model that result in profitability in this industry: logistics, technology, flexible value chain, and emerging markets. The more the traditional companies are being aware of increased revenues due to the fast fashion Model, the more they are prone to adopt fast fashion elements and integrate them into their own industry.

I’m sure many of you are wondering what slow Fashion is and how it differs from fast Fashion. Slow fashion embodies everything that is “ethical” or “eco” in one integrated movement. Let’s call it a fashion revolution since it demands that the production of garments is done in an eco-friendly way, gives proper value to the product, and be more environment conscience. The beauty of slow Fashion is that the producers are all interconnected, therefore, they all support each other in the social and environmental system. By switching to slow Fashion, we allow our earth to better rejuvenate and allow its heart to beat peacefully and in a healthy rhythm. Earth has hosted and nurtured us, the least we could do in return is to not damage it for our own greed and desires. Earth aside for now, what about us? What about those poor children being forced into minimum wage labor so they could have the privilege of living? Slow Fashion takes part of campaigns to ensure that workers are treated fairly and ethically. Brands that partook in such campaigns include “Dulce Salerno”, “People Tree”, “Everlane”, “Nisolo”, and many more. Ethical brands tell you the exact process of the cycle of how you can make a difference when you purchase an item. There is a story behind every garment and you are free to take part in the design process if needed. “It’s about the consumer becoming aware of the whole process–from design through production through use and through the potential to reuse,” Hazel Clark, research chair of fashion at Parsons said. The business model of slow fashion differs substantially from the fast fashion model, and emerged in reaction to it. The model’s values are hardly seen in large economy of scale companies, it “saves firms that promote localism and equity, and maximizes the product’s lifespan and environmental sustainability” (Jung and Byoungho, 2014). Recently, many slow fashion companies are using online platforms to do business, which facilitated the process for consumers and making the concept more popular. According to Nielson, a large research firm, sustainable fashion consumers are growing globally in enormous numbers,

You know what is even better? ALL profits go to charity! And yes, you read that correctly, 100%. The whole idea is that you are buying an item for yourself and in return giving back to the world. Sounds too good to be true, right? The price of items in slow Fashion is often higher, that is because they are using delicate materials such as organic cotton or bamboo which cost more to make, and labor wages are at an ethical level. However, there is more to Slow Fashion than the materials, “slow fashion encompasses sustainable fashion, but it takes a broader view than just supporting organic T-Shirts,” said Elizabeth Cline, author of Overdressed: The Shockingly High Cost of Cheap Fashion. Furthermore, it is important to note that slow fashion does not only focus on the quality of the product, but rather on the consumer’s quality of life, concepts related to the “slow food movement” (Fletcher, 2014).

Let us be real with each other, till when should we continue with taking the “easy way out”? Join us in our cause and let us heal this world person to person, hand by hand. It all starts with you.

Posted by Dulce Salerno