Clothing is more than just the material we put on our backs - it keeps us warm, makes
a statement about our personality and can be a status symbol.
Clothing is something we have to think about every day, but we don’t always think about
how our clothes impact the planet.
From growing or making textiles, to sewing and transporting garments across the world,
clothing production overall releases more than a billion tons of carbon dioxide every
year – contributing around 5% of global greenhouse gas emissions.
That’s about as much as the aviation industry or roughly all of Russia’s emissions.
That’s bad - but, there are ways to be fashionable and climate friendly at the same time.
The ways we make clothes and how quickly we throw them away ends up having a massive impact
on our planet’s climate.
Take, synthetic materials, for example, because, well, we’re essentially making plastic.
Polyester – the most commonly used clothing fabric – is made by combining a petroleum
by-product with an alcohol and an acid at high temperatures.
Basically, cooking some fossil fuels with some more fossil fuels.
In 2015, polyester production created as many greenhouse gases as 185 coal-fired power plants.
But other materials also have a big impact on the environment.
Leather means methane emissions from cows.
Rayon means cutting down trees.
And, growing cotton uses a ton of water.
We also burn a lot of fossil fuels moving clothes around the world, from where they’re
woven to where they’re dyed to where they’re sewn together to the person who eventually
wears them.
Or, doesn’t wear them.
In the US, 66 pounds of clothes per person get tossed in a landfill each year, and a
bunch of that happens before anyone buys them.
So, what can be done to make fashion more climate friendly?
Here’s the thing, I know a lot about the fashion industry’s impact, but I don’t
really know how to make something that is sustainable and also fashionable.
But I know someone who does - Justine Leconte - let’s go talk to her.
I sell and design women's wear that is sourced and made exclusively in Europe.
This way, I make sure that the workers are paid properly, that the fabrics are super
high quality, and I also avoid all the transportation and the pollution from outsourcing overseas.
Justine and fashion designers and brands like hers are trying to redefine what it means
to be a successful clothing business - not just one based on churning out mountains of
new clothes year round but one that considers people and the planet.
The ethical labor aspect is important, too.
Environmental friendly shipping is important, too.There are so many factors.
It's not just, like, getting organic cotton, it's also paying the person right, saving
on labor, not throwing away the rest of the inventory and so on and so on.
Sustainable and ethical clothing is not new.
For most of human history having a closet full of clothing wasn’t really a thing.
Before the 18th century, textiles were woven, cut, and sewn by hand - an incredibly slow
and expensive process.
Clothes were a major purchase, and people didn’t buy that many of them.
Even well into the twentieth century, long after we invented machines that could weave
and stitch fabrics, the average person was still spending between 13 and 15 percent of
their yearly budget on clothing.
But today we spend just 3.5 percent.
So why’d we start spending so much less on our clothes?
In the 1960s clothing started costing less thanks to more advanced manufacturing technologies
and synthetic materials.
Also, around this time, outsourcing clothing production to countries and regions with lower
labor costs became popular.
Since then, clothes have just kept getting cheaper.
You can buy a pair of jeans from H&M for 10 dollars.
10 Dollars!
I’ve had sandwiches more expensive than that.
And all these cheap clothes have led to us making and buying more clothes than ever before.
In 2014 we made more than 100 billion new clothes which is enough to give every single
person on the planet 14 new pieces of clothing.
Today, we’re buying, on average 60 percent more clothing than we did 20 years ago, but
we're only wearing it for half as long.
As a consumer if you decide to buy from a fast fashion label, a cheap garment, it seems
like a good deal.
But, A - It won't look good for long and B - The person who made it, who sewed it somewhere
far away overseas is not getting paid or treated properly.
So you can change that by consciously deciding to purchase style instead of trends.
And by only choosing pieces that go with what you already have in your closet.
It's the concept of capsule wardrobe.
You buy less pieces, but they're more combinable and so you get more wear out of each garment.
So it's about prioritizing quality before quantity.
So what we need is more options - more brands that are in between that eco-hippy side and
that mass market super cheap production side.
Because the demand is there.
Take Spanish company Ecoalf, they make swimming trunks from recycled fishing nets, backpacks
from coffee grounds and flip flops from old tires.
I hate flip flops, but it’s still cool.
Yea, they’re a smaller business than the Zaras and Forever 21s of the world, but they’re
making their mark on the fashion scene by partnering with big players.
And excitingly, many manufacturers have also gotten on board the sustainability train.
Knitted sneakers like the Nike Flyknit and Adidas Ultraboost are lighter and use fewer
materials than the average sneaker - a lighter shoe is easier and cheaper to transport, requiring
less fossil fuels to get from point A to B. And fewer materials in the production process
means less waste.
Plus, much of Nike’s Flyknit line is made of recycled plastic rather than directly from
petroleum.
Of course, looking good and what’s fashionable is all relative but it doesn't have to mean
cycling through dozens of items every season.
It also doesn't mean wearing a potato sack.
There are lots of stylish and sustainable options out there.
If you buy fabric that is sustainable or high quality, it's not necessarily more expensive.
It's a question of choice and of the options you get.
So far, sustainable fabrics tend to be a bit more rough, they're - not feel as good on
the skin, or you just have less colors.
It's not as stable when you wash it.
So there are limitations to it.
So the question is - how much skin feeling you want, how much sustainability do you want?
Ideally you are somewhere in the middle.
Ideally, you get both.
None of these solutions are perfect.
Sustainable clothing still has some impact on the planet, and a lot of it is really expensive.
But the trends are moving in the right direction.
The thing is, people are more and more aware of what's going on in the fashion industry
and they are more informed to make better purchase decisions.
So the thing is, changing.
It's evolving - slowly but surely.
And the demand for ethical and sustainable clothing is growing and there is space for
many many more brands.
It's pretty inspiring stuff!
And as more and more people and companies start considering how clothes are made, the
more fashionable this whole idea will become.
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