Transcriber: Piyada Chainares Reviewer: Jeong-Lan Kinser
Hello
A few years ago,
I bought this dress
for fifteen dollars.
Bargain! (Laughter)
I was going out to meet up with some friends.
I thought, my friends, they know all my other dresses.
I'm gonna need something new.
And naturally, I went and picked up something new.
Before I continue,
I’d like to ask you all to consider what you're wearing today.
Where it’s from,
and if you remember what was on the tag.
Because little did I know,
that there were seven sneaky facts about the dress that I just bought.
This dress is made of cotton and polyester.
To grow enough cotton to create this dress,
you need 10,000 liters of water.
That’s a small swimming pool.
To bleach and dye this dress,
toxins are run off into Chinese ecosystems, killing wildlife.
The design process of this dress created waste.
This waste is called “off-cuts”.
And usually it’s traded as rubbish and sent straight to land field.
This dress was made in China, in a sweatshop.
It was most likely made by someone, who works 16 hours a day
with less than minimum pay.
Last year, there was a factory collapse in Bangladesh,
which killed a thousand people
because the health and safety standards
weren't up to scratch.
The distribution of this dress, the carbon footprint, I should say,
is huge.
Often a dress will start in Europe,
it will then source material from India, will then flight to China
to be manufactured,
well then often come back to Europe
to have hand-made or more finer details added to it.
And then, it's shipped around the world for retail.
Collectively,
Australians purchase one billion items of clothing per year.
There is 22 million of us,
which makes it nearly an item per week.
Do we really need that many clothes?
Did I need to buy this particular dress?
The company I bought this dress from doesn't have a recycling scheme.
Unfortunately, 5 % of our land field
is made up of an unwanted clothing and textiles.
My name is Edda.
I am the director of
a sustainable fashion show here in Brisbane,
and now Melbourne.
I discovered sustainable fashion four years ago
when I saw our local designers were doing great things
with very little support.
We curate sustainable daywear, evening wear, lingerie, and swimwear
from around the world.
We bring these clothes together
to one location
on one night
once a year
Think organic fibers,
garments dyed with turmeric and red wine,
zero-waste collections,
ethically produced garments,
bamboo underwear,
and much more.
At
we started off
by taking it off.
And we began to think more sustainably
about the way
we create our clothes
and shop.
If you don’t know where it was made,
where it came from, or where it will end up,
take it off.
What I'm wearing now
is what we call "sustainable fashion".
It is made from bamboo,
which only requires rain water to grow.
It is treated with a low water-dying process.
and the waste water is recycled to preserve our ecosystems.
It is made of off-cuts.
These three sections are actually off-cuts from another collection.
And the off-cuts of the off-cuts
are then used in the rest of the collection.
It is made in Australia.
in a place that has healthy working conditions
and with fair pay.
It came from Melbourne.
They're off-cuts from a designer in Melbourne
and it was made here in Brisbane.
So the carbon footprint was much lower.
The use phase:
I always wash this on cold
and it use non-toxic laundry detergent
to conserve water and the environment.
Actually, I borrowed this dress from a friend.
So, I will be returning it to her later today.
Borrowing clothes is actually a very sustainable way to pick your next outfit.
I'm passionate about changing the fashion industry,
about providing sustainable clothing options,
and supporting designers who are doing the right thing.
Everything you are wearing today
has a story
with contributors.
And change comes from people like you,
the everyday consumers of clothing.
And together,
we can change the fashion industry.
Sustainable fashion is like turning the lights off when you leave your room.
It's like turning the tap off when you’re brushing your teeth.
And it’s like using chemist bags when you go shopping.
It is an easy choice we can all make.
Next time you go shopping,
have a look at the tag.
And think about where this piece of clothing came from.
My Australian dream
is to create a world where we, the consumers of fashion,
use our dollar
to vote for a sustainable fashion industry.
An industry where we treat our fellow human beings
as worthy individuals
and take care of our Earth
because we've only got one.
So remember,
you’ve always got the option
to take it off.
[Applause]