The problem with fast fashion – and how to fix it

I stopped buying new clothes last year, increasingly worried by the impact of cheap fashion. It’s been really stimulating – so I decided to step it up a bit and over the course of a month create a whole new outfit from my wardrobe without buying anything new, that would fit in with the latest fashions. I didn’t plan to buy new things, I just wanted to modify or embellish things that I already had.

At the beginning of the month, I got creative with some curtain edging. Then I was asked to attend the Observer Ethical awards so I decided that I had to make myself a dungarees dress as my attempt to be in fashion using things I already owned (I’m not really sure if dungarees dresses are in fashion, but I quite like the dress). I wasn’t planning on doing much more than that as I didn’t have much time, but towards the end of the month I wore the same dress for around seven days in a row. No one commented or seemed to notice at all.

(Photo: sexy homecoming dresses)

Very cheap fashion items are now readily available. Why mend, repair or embellish something, when it is so cheap to just buy something new? But there are problems with constantly buying new clothes at such low quality. For example, many clothes contain cotton, the production of which involves a large volume of pesticides. Cotton soaks up 11-12% of the world’s pesticides, which as we know are damaging to the environment and to those that work with them. On top of this tremendous pressure is being placed on factory workers, and we only need look at Rana Plaza to know the potential tragedy of this situation.

In addition a large proportion of clothes that are chucked out end up in landfill. According to Wrap, around £140m (350,000 tonnes) worth of used clothing goes to landfill in the UK every year – that’s around 30% of our unwanted clothing. A large proportion of our clothes is recycled, but this puts pressure on the environment too.

When I stopped buying new things and started shopping in charity shops, although it is a more eco-friendly way to shop, I had the same attitude. The clothes were so cheap I felt that I could buy as much as I liked and I didn’t take quality into account at all. Last November I decided to take things further and haven’t bought any clothes new or secondhand for myself since. But this month’s challenge really stepped things up and has been great fun.

Also Read: junior plus size homecoming dresses