The Fate Of Fashion

Insights from the Copenhagen Fashion Summit 2018 reveal how we can do better in an industry with a frightening human cost.

- Stephanie Boey

The fashion industry is reportedly one of the most polluting industries in the world. Extraction of raw materials, textile production, dyeing processes use up high quantities of energy and water that release physical and chemical waste into our environment — just some of the scary, often unseen, truths about this industry. Entreprenuer David Roberts from Singularity University (a NASA and Google-funded venture created to help solve global grand challenges), calls fashion the “second dirtiest industry after oil”. Let ’s not forget the fast-paced industry’s impact on society with its garment factories. The Rana Plaza disaster where a building collapsed in the Dhaka District, Bangladesh in 2013 rings loudest with a death toll of 1,134 due to improper management and lack of transparency. A silver lining? The industry is fully aware and have taken steps to initiate change within their systems. In 2013 Swedish retail giant H&M introduced a garment collecting initiative with hopes to produce new clothes from old, discarded scraps. This same awakening has also given birth to ecofriendly and slow fashion brands, but is it enough?

WHERE FAST FASHION IS AT NOW