FAST FASHION? Think Again.

I fell down a virtual rabbit hole this week that agitated an oft ignored niggle at the back of my mind. Researching for a piece, I skidded to an abrupt halt into the behemoth that is fast fashion when I saw pictures and a short video of the Atacama desert in Chile which has become fast fashion’s graveyard. Mountains of discarded synthetic polymers are dumped here and left to intertwine intact (clearly, not to rot) in the hottest place on Earth for years on end. An immobile gargantuan blob waiting for the next big ‘season’ of discards to tip on top once the overproduction of our high street and online stores has been ‘recycled’ and foisted on a boat overseas for dumping here. And collectively they’ve moved onto the next batch of ‘relevant’ and ‘on trend’ garments. Occasionally Atacama flicks a match on the lot and watches as the locals choke on the smoke of this primitive overindulgence.

So big is this pile of gluttonous waste, it is visible from space. This reality is absolutely unsustainable and totally out of control. I am actually part of this gaggle and I’m allowing my children to tag along too as without an eco-conscience we’re snapping up ‘bargains’ in places like Primark and Shein at the touch of a button and I’m not questioning this behaviour. Indeed some of fashion’s highest elite are also complicit (the fashion editor of the FT luxury magazine recently admitted to a £6 Primark bra being the best fit ever).

I mean, how much do we really need? Zara alone produces 450 million garments a year and that is only one retailer and one year. There’s a long line behind them - SHEIN (valued at circa +$100 billion in 2022) , BooHoo, H&M etc all pumping out the latest ‘must have’ garments by their bucket load on loop per season, pre season, on trend, mid-season, post-season. Pedalling (and succeeding) with this ludicrous idea that outfit repetition is a fashion faux pas and that if you want to stay relevant, you have to sport the latest looks and buy something new.

Today, we are in the midst of Paris Fashion Week the last for autumn showcasing SS24, after New York, Milan, London and that long dirty line of a noxious carbon trail that fashion weeks’ leave behind them before handing over to the marketeers and advertisers to remind us that we must surely want more, need more and buy more to stay relevant and be ‘seen.’.

Yet, for who?

And so when the catwalk lights dim, the enormously extractive fast fashion monster thrusts into renewed action once again, hastily (and badly) cutting and carving out shapes for us to step into. Casually assuming in this habitual behaviour that the inevitable overproduction problem will be dealt with by someone else or somewhere else beyond the glitz and glamour of the front row.

But back in the fairly unglamorous real world, in this cost of living crisis (with everything basic already so expensive), it is hard to resist the temptation of a cheap t-shirt or a coat for us and for small people that are growing quickly. It is simply not feasible for many to fork out £40 or more for an eco-cotton t-shirt or something else basic let alone clothe an entire family on that cost per unit basis. Moreover, the idea to be told not to buy any new stuff or throw away anything you already have is unrealistic.

But perhaps we could start with buying a little less. Do we really need all of it? Could we spend a little bit more and shop less? Surely if we paid £25 for a t-shirt or £20 for a pair of flip flops (rather than say £2.50 and £1 respectively) would we be so cavalier about how many we would snap up in store and would we simply care more and look after it? Surely the answer is yes. Could we borrow, hire or repurpose a garment? Shop in charity shops or on other sites that champion second hand? Being simply more mindful about the effects of the choices we make - the implications to the environment, the working conditions that people have to sit in each day to physically produce these new garments, is surely an impactful first step?

Mostly though the onus is on the manufacturers and on legislation of fashion production. We have almost gone so far into being presented with cheap fashion that the retract back will be more difficult.

But there is also hope on the horizon in the shape of bioscience. Behind all of this FF horror, some amazing innovations are being carved out to help reduce the impact of manufacturing and the hazardous process of dyeing textiles (which is responsible for one fifth of the world’s water pollution alone using 5 trillion litres per year).

A company, Colorifix (a finalist in the Earth Shot prize), based in Kings Cross London has developed a biological way to fix pigment onto textiles using no harsh chemicals, just nature. By pinpointing a pigment in the natural world, they translate that DNA into a microorganism that then produces the colour; the clever scientists then transfer this natural dye to textiles. Fascinating and mind blowing stuff. Read more here. As Tiffanie Darke of It’s Not Sustainable reported only yesterday ‘it is science that seems to be driving the magic in fashion right now.’

We find ourselves slowly waking up to a major crisis here; we are not going to get it absolutely right 100% all of the time and it won’t be solved overnight but, being even just a little more mindful of it, bringing a deeper consciousness and awareness to our actions in the realm of fast fashion is surely the foray into a collective and fixable improvement.

Let’s dispense with this eco-anxiety and march into this confrontation equipped with innovation and faith.