However, things weren’t always this way. Before the 2000s you largely had four seasons within the domain of mainstream fashion. You had Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter. But international fashion brands — especially the likes of Zara and H&M rubbished this idea. They didn’t think clothes remained in style for 3–4 months. They believed styles change every week. And so they drove home this idea, quite well actually. So, we now have 52 “micro seasons” a year. And fashion brands can pad their bottom line by selling more apparel each year. (View Highlight)
Between 2000 and 2014, we doubled clothing production — we now churn out a staggering 100 billion items of clothing every year! Also, the average person today buys 60% more clothes compared to 15 years ago. And you know what’s even worse? We dump them in half the time. (View Highlight)
The dress you bought today will likely remain on the planet till at least the year 2222!!! And it takes that long because most apparel today is made using synthetic, petroleum-based fibres. It’s not natural. (View Highlight)
Then there’s water consumption. The fashion industry consumes about 100 trillion litres of water annually. Mostly because of cotton farming. Cotton is the most widely used natural fabric for clothing and it needs a lot of water. Higher demand for apparel also means we’re using excess fertilizers to keep up with demand. So as is, cotton thirsts for water, which means we’re depleting fresh and groundwater resources along with contaminating soil quality by bombarding them with fertilizers. For context, that cotton t-shirt you’re wearing needed 2,700 litres of water. (View Highlight)
Then, there’s dyeing and treating fabric that ends up generating 20% of the world’s wastewater. Wastewater that contains phenol and heavy metals like copper, mercury and chromium. This polluted water seeps into streams and groundwater. Which we then use to irrigate crops. This contaminates the food and yeah, we fall sick sometimes. (View Highlight)
