THE TRUE COST OF FAST FASHION

There’s no such thing as fast fashion. It’s the constant stream of stimulating images, styles, purchasing and delivery options that makes fashion look like the greatest magic trick ever. But as with all illusions, the truth is quite different. For every floral, polycotton chiffon sundress out there, the journey started millions of years ago, when fossils that were to become crude oil that eventually became polyester began to form. Even the cotton element takes six months to grow from seed to crop before it gets picked, processed, spun, dyed, woven, cut and sewn into a style. What has never been so rapid is the designing, making, selling and tiring of fashion pieces.

While fashion is far cheaper than it was decades ago, we are buying four times as much as we did in the Eighties. But this excessive consumption isn’t making us happier and doesn’t sustain our sense of style, our wallets or our only home – the planet on which we all reside.

Fashion is about expression, connection, distinction and identity. What you wear says something about you, your tastes, choices and values. Fashion’s practices are out of step; the choices we make can get us back in step.

That doesn’t mean spending more money or creating fashion that is more exclusive, it means aligning our own values with the pieces we wear. We can do that by delving back into our own wardrobes, rediscovering pieces, either for ourselves or to give or sell on. The re-sale market of fashion is set to be the most buoyant element of fashion retail over the next ten years.

So choose wisely where you shop, and put your money towards a designer or small brand that is being brave and vocal about what really matters. Celebrate the elements of fashion that you don’t see everywhere, that don’t cost a fortune or the earth. Mix things up and make it personal. By doing this, you encourage others to change, and from that a whole new culture begins.

“FASHION’S PRACTICES are OUT of STEP; the CHOICES WE MAKE CAN GET US BACK in STEP ”