Becoming an Ethical Consumer

Fast fashion is a terrible thing. You may think it’s the best thing that’s ever happened to you. After all, why wouldn’t you? For the first time ever, you can go out and buy about 10 items of clothes for less than 100 pounds, dollars, or whatever currency you work in. Gone are the days when one item took months or even a year to save for, the days when that item would be treasured forever. Now, an item will be worn twice, maybe three times, and will either fall apart, no longer be in fashion, or you simply don’t want to wear it any more. So what do you do with it?  You will either leave it there in your wardrobe – each woman has at least 20 unworn items in her wardrobe! – or you might put it in the charity bag, or even throw it away. Simply because that item cost the equivalent of two hour’s work, you can throw it away without a thought! Well, I’m sorry to break it to you, but that item was made with blood. One US brand sells T shirts for $50 even though that shirt cost around $5 to make. The woman who made that shirt will be punished if she doesn’t make enough shirts in an hour. She will make 90 cents in that hour. Just think about what you are endorsing! Slave labour. This is not an exaggeration. The conditions these women are forced to work in are beyond your worst nightmare.

If I had my way, every shop would be required to have posters showing the conditions of the factories where their clothes are manufactured at the entrance to their store. How many people would refuse to enter? The fact is, many people simply are not aware of the true implications of fast fashion. We MUST spread the message, we MUST educate people!
To begin this education, I recommend you watch a documentary. The True Cost is a documentary made by Andrew Morgan along with fashion activist Livia Firth, People Tree founder Safia Minney and writer Lucy Siegle. It is widely available on Netflix, Amazon and iTunes or can be bought on DVD from documentary website. You will watch this documentary wide eyed in absolute horror and (if you are anything like me) will shed at least one tear!
Next, you should start a Twitter account if you do not already have one. This sounds strange, but actually, this is where you will learn the most. A few people to follow are:
• Livia Firth, a fashion activist and ethical designer who, while her personal tweets are not always about fashion, retweets many valuable articles about sustainable and ethical fashion. The wife of actor Colin Firth, Livia has made some very valuable inputs to the ethical world. Her 30 wears challenge challenges consumers not to buy an item of clothing unless they will wear it at least 30 times. Another challenge is the Green Carpet Challenge. Obviously as the wife of an acclaimed actor, red carpets are going to be a fairly prominent part of her life. But this challenge encourages celebrities to wear something ethical on the red carpet instead!
• Trusted Clothes, a site dedicated to ethical and sustainable fashion. Retweets many valuable articles and tips along with the many articles posted here on the blog.
• Tortoise and Lady Grey, a great site with a wonderful challenge: 20 days of sustainable fashion. Sign up and for 20 days you’ll get an email educating you, asking you questions and setting you challenges to complete, all on the journey to a sustainable wardrobe!
• Ecouterre, an online magazine focusing on the future of fashion. Ecouterre highlights some great articles which will help you on your journey!
After you have completed the first two steps, stop and think. How far do you want to go with this? Is this just something which doesn’t interest you much but makes you feel better about yourself? Are you passionate about this? What are you going to do about it?
While the ethical market is growing, the interest is small. Last year, there were just 3600 Google searches for “ethical fashion”, even though 3billion searches are made every day! If you are going to be committed to ethical fashion, then you should be prepared to spread awareness. You could volunteer to blog for Trusted Clothes.
The third step is to write down at least 3 things you will do about ethical fashion, then comment below and tell us.
The fourth step is to consider your wardrobe. Here are some steps to follow:
• Only buy what you need. Impulse buys are one of the top reasons for the 11 million tons of textile waste generated every year
• Only buy it if you’ll wear it 30 times. If you need a dress for that office party but you hate dresses, borrow from a friend, don’t buy something for your wardrobe to wear!
• Instead of throwing away, repurpose old clothing.
• Buy items for the whole year round. If that lovely dress will only be worn on the one day the sun comes out in the entire summer, don’t buy it!
• Buy good quality items, from ethical brands
                       
It’s a long journey, but take as long as you want! If, by the end of your life you still have 5 items from the high street in your wardrobe, it’s not a crime! But if you can honestly say you have tried to the best of your ability to become a more ethical consumer, you have succeeded.