In Fashion, Hope And Change

From the bio-revolution to new legislation, there are signs that a change for good is underway.

- DANA THOMAS

When COVID-19 struck, and the world came to a standstill, the fashion business underwent a very public environmental and social re-evaluation—one that was, and still is, greatly needed. The fashion industry produces between 100 and 150 billion items a year—nobody really knows the real number, because no one has to keep count—and only 80 per cent are sold; the remaining 20 per cent are destroyed or dumped in landfills before ever hitting the retail floor. Only one per cent of fashion that is sold is recycled.

Hearing designers and executives call for change was heartening. I have reported on the fashion industry for 35 years, starting at The Washington Post in the late ’80s, and thought I knew the business—how our clothes were made, who made them, and what the factories were like.

Then I started researching for my book, Fashionopolis: The Price of Fast Fashion and the Future of Clothes, and saw a completely different side of the industry: filthy sweatshops in Bangladesh and downtown Los Angeles; a “dead” river in Vietnam, turned toxic from denim factory runoff. And the statistics gathered by NGOs and the United Nations on fashion’s environmental impact—now that was mind-boggling.

The business is believed to be responsible for two to eight per cent of global carbon emissions—again, a broad range because no one has to report their carbon impact figures. Much of those emissions come from coal-powered factories. Two-thirds of our clothes are made with petroleum-based materials, such as polyester, nylon, neoprene, and elastane, which gives Lycra and spandex their stretch.