Hello everyone, Welcome to my new blog. I have some informative news to share with you all which you might know already but this is something serious that we must change before it is too late. Before getting into my blog, check out this important documentary video from Assefeh Barrat reviewed by BBC World News Persia below.
We are consuming fashion at a rate never before seen on our planet.100 billion garments are manufactured every year and the fashion industry continually tempts us to buy more with new ranges in the shops. But this so-called fast fashion like Zara and H&M is taking a toll on the environment. Clothes production can cause pollution and use lots of precious natural resources, as well as creating mountains of waste that go to landfill.
So what, if anything, is the fashion industry doing about this?
Fashion lover Assefeh Barrat follows every stage of the production process - from cotton growers in the USA, to factory owners in Turkey and designers in the West to see who is leading the way in reducing fashion's environmental impact. And she asks consumers if they are really willing to change their fast fashion habits.
As we can see, cotton uses a hell of a lot of water and pesticides during production. The water used is only used once and not recycled and the pesticides used are full of chemicals that kill wildlife resulting in a knock on effect down the food chain. Isn’t it shocking right? Thus, these pollutants can cause major threats to the emission levels for our world. Therefore, She went to America to visit cotton farmers with the purpose of finding out what farmers are doing in order to make the stages in production more sustainable and environmentally friendly.
Another factor touched on within this documentary was London fashion week, 2018 and these designers who took part in this event were doing their role towards a sustainable future. Designers have been adopting a circular-looped approach within the production of their designs. However, the fashion industry is not geared up to accommodate small designers as it is easier to provide a large batch of materials to bigger companies. Sustainable materials are also difficult to use as it has deadlines and new trends that she needs to keep up with.
Nowadays, even aspiring Fashion Designing Students were also aware of the sustainability. As we can see in London School of Fashion, Professor Dilys Williams is teaching the designers of the future of sustainability. She wants to educate the students which can change the industry for our future generations. She believes the whole idea of Fast Fashion is a misnomer and she is trying to change the way for her students and the customers to think about clothes. These students were challenged to create new women's wear collection using these second hand clothes and these clothes were window displayed in H&M London Stores by running their garment collection scheme across Asia and these collections were created completely in zero waste by Serena Jeffery, one of the winners of the competition stretched his creativity as a designer.
Another interesting news is the 7th edition of the Future Fabrics Expo in London has showcased 5000 sustainable innovative materials for fashion from 150 global textile suppliers. It is a platform to discover more sustainable textiles and innovations for the future of fashion, to learn more about the efforts of global textile mills to design, manufacture, and function more sustainably; and to extend networks in the fashion and textile industries.
There are lots of sustainable fabrics made from natural resources like apple & orange peels, pineapple leaves, sea shells for buttons, biodegradable sequins made from corn starch, leather made from cactus, vegea made from grape wine, photosynthesizing fabrics to produce oxygen absorbing carbon dioxide based on algae, wildly harvesting Himalayan Nettle fiber, and much more.
We believe that sustainability is very doubled as fashion trends go around in circles meaning that it is possible to keep statement pieces in your wardrobe and recycle them when back in fashion. More we recycle the fabrics, Less we reduce the carbon emission and save for our future environment.
Thus, by watching this documentary, it has come to light that many people are doing what they can to help the environment and there are many small changes that everyone can make to move towards a sustainable future. Let’s make the change towards our sustainable future now.
Bibliography: -
Barrat, AA; BBC: The Price of Fast Fashion, 2018 (2021) Youtube.com. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GprVaAVPEI8 (Accessed: 6 October 2021).
BBC: The Price of Fast Fashion (2021). Available at: https://www.documentarytube.com/videos/bbc-the-price-of-fast-fashion (Accessed: 6 October 2021).
Expo 18 | The Sustainable Angle (2018). Available at: https://thesustainableangle.org/future-fabrics/expo-18/ (Accessed: 6 October 2021).
BBC World News - The Price of Fast Fashion (2021). Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/n3ct5bcf (Accessed: 6 October 2021).
Assefeh Baarat • Instagram (2021). Available at: https://www.instagram.com/assefehbarrat/ (Accessed: 6 October 2021).
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