For A Better Future

Three homegrown labels at the forefront of circular and ethical fashion.

- RIA SINGH

The sale season is upon us, and everything in my life currently reminds me of that—be it my colleagues, my Instagram feed, or YouTube ads; you never miss the big and bold “SALE” signs. And why not? After all, we all love a good deal. But amid these constant reminders, I can’t help but wonder what happens to all the clothes we buy but hardly wear and end up tossing away.

An article in The Guardian recently points out that the Atacama Desert in Chile is now dubbed as a “global sacrifice zone” for discarded fast fashion. Heaps of clothes are dumped there, totalling 60,000 tonnes, and shockingly, none of them are defective. A similar problem exists in Kenya, which is one of the main destinations for secondhand clothes exported from the US, as reported by The Washington Post.

It’s undeniable that fashion holds immense value in our lives, and that probably explains why the global fashion industry today is worth a staggering $2.5 trillion (`2.5 lakh crore, approximately), because no one wants to go “out of fashion.”

However, this obsession comes at a high cost. The United Nations (UN) reports that the fashion industry is responsible for 8 per cent to 10 per cent of global emissions, more than aviation and shipping combined. Cotton alone uses 2.5 per cent of the world’s farmland while synthetics like polyester consume 342 million barrels of oil annually, according to a report in BBC. Dyeing processes use 43 million tonnes of chemicals per year, and this industry is one of the largest water consumers globally, contributing to environmental crises like the drying of the Aral Sea in Central Asia.