Today's trend, tomorrow's trash

By Sofía Mendoza (undergraduate Business Management student, level 6 English)

Fashion has always been part of our culture. It is a way of expressing ourselves. Getting dressed is part of our lives, but is this reason enough to end the entire planet? The textile industry is the second most polluting on the planet after the oil industry. Despite this, our consumer society led us to change the trend model of the textile industry. Nowadays, the textile industry has a fast fashion instead of the four seasonal trends previously used. Today you don't buy clothes, you buy garbage.

Keeping up with fashion these days is very difficult, irresponsible and useless. It is expected that every two weeks new clothes are bought, and tons of garbage are thrown away. On the other hand, having excessive amounts of clothing has never been essential to humans. In fact, on average 20 pieces of clothing are produced per year for every person on the planet. This fast fashion model makes us believe we are buying clothes at low prices, but the truth is that we are buying disposable clothes which will soon become garbage for us and the world.

Fast fashion companies produce at the expenses of the destruction of the planet, inhuman treatment and violation of their worker’s rights. For example, the 85% of micro plastic contamination in the oceans comes from the domestic washing of synthetic garments, as simple as washing polyester clothes can send 1900 microfibers directly to the ocean. Also, most of this companies prefer to have their factories in underdeveloped countries where they are not forced to have good conditions for the people who work for them. All this proves the damage that can be caused by buying more with less.

All in all, fast fashion shows that the only thing that can do quick is to end up the planet’s resources and landscapes. The humanity should start thinking about our excessive consumer mentality, because buying what we really need allows us to save money, help the planet and feel good about ourselves. There are some practices that as individuals we can carry out to reduce our environmental impact with the rational use of fashion: buy national clothes, buy clothes from companies with sustainable production processes and fairly treatment to their employees, buy second-hand clothes, rent or borrow clothes if it is for single use, take care of the washing cycles, repair our clothes before thinking of throwing them away… Remember, there is no more sustainable garment than what already exists.