The most effective thing we can do to help reduce the impact of fast fashion on the planet is simply to buy less. Instead of owning ten pairs of jeans, we might consider only choosing one or two pairs. Instead of throwing clothing away as soon as it goes ‘out of style’ we could try finding different ways to style our outfits and adapt the clothes we already own to create different looks.
Learning to mend clothes that have small faults can help prolong their lives, as can passing them along to someone else, or donating them to a charity shop when we have grown out of them. Buying second hand clothes also reduces the demand for the new garments being churned out each year.
Although they are more expensive than the cheapest fast fashion items, there are a number of brands working to produce more sustainable clothing that has been produced in environmentally friendly ways, without exploiting workers. Instead of rushing to buy lots of new pieces of clothing from ‘trendy’ cheap shops, it might be time to consider saving up for a longer lasting item that has been made in a more sustainable way.
It’s also worth thinking about the way that we view and judge people who aren’t dressed in the latest fashions. Perhaps they are wearing something that has been mended a few times, or that they bought from a charity shop. Your first thought might be that the outfit isn’t ‘fashionable’ but perhaps it has been chosen to help protect the planet and the people who live and work on it - and what could be cooler than that?
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