The apparel manufacturing world is an appealing one, yet it shall be feared!
In sequence to the Fashion Week 19/20 that is happening in the world's most iconic cities New York, Paris, London and Milan! we shall give a reminder regarding what is happening inside the world of fashion behind the scenes! I love fashion, I love the idea of putting ideas into clothes and wearing them in order to express yourself in such artistic way, we all love fashion, Fashion is for everybody!! But what about the engines that are moving this particular world ahead!
The massive amount of fabrics produced for clothing is making fashion industry so destructive.
Many textile factories dump untreated chemicals into rivers and are responsible for polluted rivers, leaving us with serious water pollution disaster, along with high rates of cancer and other diseases in communities living near those rivers, particularly near textile factory outlets, such as China. In addition to Cotton; the most water intensive plant used in mostly all of our clothes!
Moreover, Polyster and Nylon are found in a percentage that reaches up to 72% in the clothing industry, which have their serious ecological impact. This industry dangerously impacts the ecosystem with unreasonable amounts of chemicals, water pollution, consumption and energy in processing, which in turn drains our planet! For example, when “Burberry” started destroying unsold clothes and accessories worth $36.24m, in order to protect them from being sold cheaply, it harmed the nature with this act. Although it has announced that the process was environment friendly, however environmental activists were very angry about it. “Burberry shows no respect for their own products and the hard work and natural resources that are used to make them," said Lu Yen Roloff of Greenpeace.
Such industry also affects many sides of our planet, like animals and plants. The animal welfare in fashion industry; is a lost case that fashion creators try their best not to be declared to the press. And the finished products of various skins and fur coming from painfully treated animals are beautifully hidden under the chic embellishments we touch and grace in every time we shop. Such access to those animals, obviously lead into the extinction of cattle, bad confinement, deprivation and painful treatment. An animal abuse that never seem to cease!
With regard to plants’ side of story, those factories are excessively draining forests through logging 150 million trees annually for producing fabrics, which slowly deprive us from the oxygen we breathe.
So, what about the humanity point of view?!
Over the years, the fashion industry has caused several incidents called “Fashion Disasters”. First; it was caused by fire In Pakistan textile factory in 2012, leaving 300 workers dead. Followed by the famous Rana Plaza disaster in 2013; the collapse of a textile factory leaving thousands of workers injured and killed. Those cases included people working very long hours with little wage and living in poverty.
Accordingly, fashion was one of five key industries responsible for using slave labour.
In 2018, a report by the Walk Free Foundation, estimated 40 million people worldwide were trapped in modern slavery, including forced labour, with 71% of women and girls.
These issues led to the urgent emergence of humanity calls, such as Fashion Revolution Week, Sustainable Apparel Coalition (SAC); joined by many shiny names in the world of fashion, such as H&M, Stella Mccartney and more, not to mention the actress and activist, Emma Watson; giving speeches and encouraging sustainable fashion, when she wore a dress at the Met Gala 2016, designed with recycled plastic bottles by Calvin Klein. She pointed out that “The fashion industry is the second highest pollutant of fresh water on the planet…It has such a huge environmental impact…It’s not enough for me anymore that it’s a beautiful item or a beautiful piece, I want to know that it’s not leaving a negative mark.”
Thus, “Sustainable Fashion” is the one answer to all questions. It brings the ecological and social justice into all of these dramatic cases caused by fashion.
So, It is important that if fashion gathers people of style, it shall not separate them by harming the place they are living in!
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