Take The No New Clothes Pledge
In recent years, we’ve accepted the breakneck speed of fashion trends. What’s hip today is not tomorrow. The high fashion knockoff market rakes in profits, and we get access to the changing fads for cheap. Unfortunately, this comes at a price—the destruction of our planet. Let’s take time out from the fashion industry and join the Remake community and Take The No New Clothes Pledge 2022 #NoNewClothes Pledge
From June 1st to September 1st, we’ll pause new clothes purchases. For 90 days, we’ll take time to reflect on our consumption habits and how we can play a role in shaping the future of the fashion industry and the future of the planet.
Whether you commit to buying nothing at all or only secondhand, you’ll reduce your carbon footprint, limit the waste you send to landfills. You will also keep your hard-earned dollars away from companies that don’t provide their garment workers with living wages and safe working conditions.
Still not convinced? Consider these harrowing facts—
The clothing industry is the third-largest polluter globally and second in water use.
Up to 2,000 harmful chemicals are used to produce textiles, like formaldehyde, chlorine, lead, and mercury. Most of these chemicals are used in the dyeing process. Did you know that making one pair of stonewashed jeans requires 500 gallons of water? On top of this, cotton is being used as one of its major raw materials, and cotton production relies on lots of pesticides that pollute our soil, water and planet.
Regrettably, most old clothes and textiles end up in landfills. In the US alone, we throw away nearly 11.1 million tons of textiles such as t-shirts, pants, blankets, tablecloths, sheets, and baby clothes each year.
Are you ready to take the pledge? Join me today!
So what is the answer if you like fashion but still want to live sustainable? The answer is slow fashion!
There is a growing slow fashion movement, which is about knowing the process of making clothes, and knowing by whom they are made and where they are made. So, slow fashion means slowing down to make sure clothes are made with care and with less impact on the planet. Believe it or not, fast clothing trends come with mass production that uses lots of chemicals and pesticides, and creates waste. For example, water reservoirs are increasingly diminished for cotton crop irrigation, and other precious natural resources are being wasted. Sounds like factory food production, right? The slow fashion movement is steadily gaining momentum, and I believe it is here to stay, as people are getting more into eco-friendly and ethical fashion trends.
Instead of supporting the damaging effect of fast fashion, we should look for production that is local, sustainable, high quality, and … slow. Why should we look to buy locally produced clothes? Just as fast and cheap foods come from factory farms where the animals are being treated badly, fast fashion usually is manufactured overseas in sweatshops and factories with unfair working conditions in business. In 2013, for example, 2,000 people in Bangladesh were making clothes for a large western brand when the factory collapsed and more than 1,100 people were killed. So, not only does locally manufactured clothing in general assure a better work environment, but it also reduces our carbon footprint caused by fossil fuels that are used, for example, in textile and garment production, and transportation.
While you’re taking a time-out from shopping for new clothes maybe learn more about how to create a minimalist take on clothes which is a capsule wardrobe. You can read my post about that here.
Learn about the 5 Rs of fashion here
Zero waste fashion is becoming a movement and here you can learn more about that.
