Fast fashion

A Young Person’s View: The problem of fast fashion and how history can help us fight it

By Ellen Molnar, Look Again Project Volunteer

Fast fashion is a phrase most of us have heard, but did you know that it helped to drain an inland sea? The Aral Sea on the border between Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, once the fourth largest lake in the world, has now almost completely dried up as a result of the water being taken to fuel agriculture, including the mass production of cheap cotton to create cheap, fast fashion clothes.

Aside from drying up seas, the fashion industry, largely as a result of fast fashion, is responsible for 10% of global CO2 emissions and for huge levels of waste as people throw out clothes that have short lifespans. Fast fashion companies also often have terrible labour standards and exploit their workers, as recent news coverage about conditions in a Leicester Boohoo factory highlighted.

Given all of this, it’s clear something needs to change, and one of the things we can all do is take a more historical attitude to how we view clothes. Historically, as many of the items in our collection demonstrate, clothes were repaired as much as possible, or were taken apart and the fabric reused or remade into a new seasons’ style.

Material sources were often very innovative- for example, we have a Crimean War greatcoat which will be on display in the new gallery which may have been made from a blanket! One of the most interesting things when looking at historical garments is seeing the evidence of their previous lives, how they were remade or remodelled to continue being worn. We need to take back some of that make-do-and-mend attitude and consider how to make our wardrobes last longer.

Here are a few tips on how to be more eco-friendly with your fashion choices:

1. Buy less clothes! This is a big way we can all help reduce fashion waste.

2. Mend and recycle the clothes you do have- stitching up a seam doesn’t require any major sewing skill, and if something is too worn to be repaired then there are lots of ways it can be repurposed into something else. Get creative!

3. Avoid synthetic materials- whilst cotton causes big environmental problems, synthetic fibres shed microplastics into the environment and have a big carbon footprint.

4. Check third-party ethical ratings of fashion brands before you buy. Whilst buying completely ethical fashion can be very expensive, some fast fashion brands are worse than others, and some are more committed to developing more ethical practices.

5. Thrift clothes! Buying second-hand can lead to some really unique finds and is a great way to cut down on fashion waste.