New Clothes Are Hot! But So Is Our
Climate WRITTEN BY CHARLIE VIGNE
ILLUSTRATED BY KAITLYN CAFARELLI
P
icture this: You open both your closet doors and spot your argyle sweater vests, collection of neutral-toned tennis skirts, and beige chunky loafers. So last year. Suddenly you’re surrounded by a heaping pile of your clothes like Cher from Clueless, shouting, “I have nothing to wear!” Evidently, fast fashion trends have a detrimental impact on our environment and what’s on the menu for today’s trends, won’t be à la mode tomorrow. Without a doubt, our generation does have concern for environmental issues caused by past generations, but our consumerism habits perpetuate fashion cycles at the expense of the climate. This ushers in the question: What may lie in the future? Our society’s obsession with purchasing clothes off-therack is a result of a combination of factors: wanting people to like us or wanting to be trendy. However, it becomes a problem when it takes a toll on the environment. Sometimes, the clothes we don’t want anymore even end up in the trash. We simply don’t see ourselves wearing it anymore due to an impulse buy of a micro-trend or our style has outgrown
51 ALIGN
DESIGNER ADIA BAINES
it. According to By the Numbers: The Economic, Social and Environmental Impacts of ‘Fast Fashion,” The average consumer bought 60% more clothes in 2014 than in 2000, but kept each garment half as long” (Reichart). Truthfully, we’re getting bored of our clothes faster than we used to. In turn, this causes businesses to produce more apparel that harms the climate further. While the waste of old clothes has an impact on our world, so does the production of them. If you picked up your Align magazine copy on campus, chances are you may be wearing jeans and a hoodie right now. According to the same source above, manufacturing one single pair of jeans produces the same amount of greenhouse gasses as driving a car 80 miles! (Reichart). Because of supply and demand, businesses feel pressured to use intensive production techniques to make a profit. With a plethora of other statistics that prove that ‘fast fashion’ industries are hurting the environment and aren’t beneficial, it makes it hard to believe there is a positive side to this issue.
