The Cost of Your Cute Outfit? It’s More Than the Price Tag.

By Christine Na

A stroll down Broadway in Soho, one of Manhattan's busiest and top shopping destinations, will take you past Forever 21, Mango, and Nike on the north side and Zara, NC Outlet, and Necessary Clothing on the other, each window begging you to buy that latest trendy t-shirt at a good price. And why wouldn't a shopper want a good deal? That's part of the fun of shopping. But those cheap clothes are coming at a cost: the harm to the environment and the unethical use of cheap labor.

The fashion industry is bigger than ever before but all that growth comes with a cost. With the tremendous amounts of short-lived trends coming out of social media, clothing retailers have been producing 100 billion clothing items each year. What’s the outcome of producing a mass amount of clothing? Mass amounts of waste. Just in the US, the Environmental Protection Agency reported that 12-16 million tons of textile waste are generated annually.

The amount of landfills being produced by the fashion industry is alarming but it makes you ask, who is creating these clothes? You might automatically think, obviously, machines due to how technologically advanced we have gotten over the years but the sad, horrible truth is that a lot of our clothes are created by workers treated unethically.

Sweatshops may sound like a thing of the past with many companies pledging to take action and stop the use of sweatshops. But very popular brands like Adidas, Nike, Old Navy, and H&M all use sweatshops in some way to produce their clothes today. Sweatshops are illegal in the US, as they go against labor laws but it very much still exists in America. Companies can obscure their production practices and this predominantly takes place in Los Angeles and New York. These unethical practices are finally being noticed by the government to take action and here’s how.

It was revolutionary news in January 2022 when The New York State Senate introduced a bill called the Fashion Sustainability and Social Accountability Act (or Fashion Act). The Fashion Act:

“Requires fashion retail sellers and manufacturers [with more than $100 million in revenue worldwide] to disclose environmental and social due diligence policies; establishes a community benefit fund”

If this bill gets passed, New York will be the first state in the US to have a law that holds fashion companies accountable. What does this mean for clothing brands? Transparency. Or at least a little bit of it. This is an incredible step towards getting the fashion industry to be held more accountable for how their clothes are made and who is making them.

What's at Stake?

It might just feel like the only thing hurting is your bank account after purchasing that new hoodie that’s gone viral but there is a lot more at stake than your money.

Fashion

With the rise of social media with platforms like TikTok and Instagram, the push of advertisements and trends has been at its all-time high. Constant changes in style can be highly pushed through these platforms, increasing the consumer’s desire for the newest clothes to stay on-trend.

Fashion can simply be considered being trendy and modern. But when consumers start to fall into trends and are only interested in purchasing trendy clothes, this affects a lot more than you think. Lily Pan, a visual artist, and designer, shared how “it's also impacting creativity because people are just trying to hop onto the next trend. That's another problem with fast fashion. It is that these companies are just following trends. They don't really have their own creative direction.” If fast fashion keeps continuing at this fast rate, designers’ creativity will suffer burnout especially more, and will not be able to reach its full potential. Companies like Shein, produce 10,000 new products daily and even have a page called #DailyDrops where new styles of garments get released every day. This absurd amount of new products should be considered unnecessary and should be prevented to be considered our new norm.

Noemi Florea, designer and author of The Public’s Guide to Climate Change Mitigation, speaks on the business aspect of these companies:

“But I think what people don't realize when they opt into those patterns of conscious consumerism is that in the end, you are still contributing to what's called the gross economy. The gross economy is a capitalist economy that's based on eternal growth. Companies, specifically public companies, which are traded on the stock market need to continue growing by around 3% every quarter in order to meet their shareholder demands. What that means is that even if a company is using sustainable materials and they're treating their workers well, at the end of the day they're still aiming for basically unlimited growth on a planet that has limited resources.”

What Really is Sustainability?

Many know what sustainability is but not everyone knows how to implement it into their lives and what it really means to be sustainable. Let’s get into it.

Sustainability is a concept that underlines the importance of the environment and how it should be treated. The environment does not have an unlimited amount of space and its resources won't last forever.

“Sustainable development is the development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”

- Gro Harlem Brundtland

Greenwashing

Before you start deciding to purchase anything labeled as sustainable, you first need to know what greenwashing is. Greenwashing is when a company promotes its products or initiatives as being "green" or "environmentally friendly" but is truly operating in a manner that is damaging to the environment or in direct opposition to the stated goals of the initiatives. Due to the lack of data and government-funded research, phrases like "ethical" and "eco-friendly" have no legal significance, therefore businesses can't be held liable for their activities.

Abby Gaskin, Assistant Designer of Uniqlo, gave an analogy to better understand greenwashing in the fashion industry: “It's just like when you buy vegetables, there's a lot of terms that different farms and different companies use that make people think it's organic or non-GMO, by saying something is fresh, more ethically sourced, things like that. But there's no legitimate breakdown unless it's certified organic.

In terms of fashion and greenwashing, sustainable fashion is not the biggest trend right now. But people sort of see it as a cool factor for a lot of brands. So brands that don't have sustainable practices, can sort of finesse any little thing. Whether that's like, ‘Oh, we're now using cotton in our garment’, even though the cotton might not be produced in the most humane, even human rights ethical way depending on where the cotton source is. Just because of the fact that they're using a natural material, they could turn it into being like, ‘Oh, we're sustainable because it's not polyester, it's cotton so it can biodegrade’. But it is tricky to really understand what companies are doing, even sustainable companies.”

To avoid greenwashing tactics businesses use, there’s a few things you can do. The first thing is to remember that clothing that is natural does not necessarily imply it is 100% eco-friendly and that vegan does not always imply it is made cruelty-free. Notice how a company is marketing their products because if they are using words to convince you without any facts or numbers, it can all be a marketing ploy. Concrete data and proof will be hard to discover as a lot of fashion companies keep a lot of information disclosed so just try your best to make note of the brand’s approach to sustainability.

What Can You Do?

After talking with fashion designers and sustainable fashion specialists, here are a few tips and bits of advice to get one step closer to being more sustainable with your clothes:

Find Your Own Personal Style

Isabella Kostrzewa, Fashion Designer and Owner of Isaboko, shares a crucial tip to be sustainable: “One of the best ways that individual people can combat fast fashion is by developing a strong sense of personal style. Not following trends that are happening on social media, but how you still want to be stylish and fashionable. Everyone sees style and fashion, but understanding what that means for you and how your personal style has nothing to do with a trend cycle because then you'll always have these pieces that you love.”

Be a Conscious Consumer

You hold a lot of power as a consumer. With a lot of power comes a lot of responsibility. We all have to make the conscious decision of only purchasing what is needed. Remember, businesses are producing mass amounts of clothing because people are purchasing it. The less consumers are interested in fast fashion, businesses will do what the consumers want.

Quality over Quantity

The quality of your clothes is so important as they will feel better on your skin and body, last longer, and serve more and a better purpose. Lili Anna Sipeki, designer and founder of SIPEKI, shares how, "We have to work together. Everyone, including consumers, should spend a bit more on something rather than buy the cheapest product because then they’ll throw it out because it breaks.” It is also recommended to own clothing that is multifunctional where it can be styled with multiple different outfits.

One Man's Trash is Another Man's Treasure

For your next closet cleanout, before you throw away your clothes, consider if a second use can come out of it! If so, always consider donating, selling, or giving away your clothes to friends and family.

Here are some great online thrifting and reselling sites:

Do a Little Extra Research

There are tons of resources to help on your journey to sustainability! Here are a few links you should check out to learn more about sustainability in the fashion industry and what you can do to help:

Good On You - This site rates the most popular clothing brands on how ethical and sustainable they are. They also provide amazing articles on the newest fashion sustainability updates and news!
Sustain Your Style - To learn more about the in-depth impact the fashion industry has, this site provides you with all the research. They also have a shop that gathers sustainable fashion brands so the next time you do need a specific garment, you can find sustainable clothing options here!
Fashion Revolution - Fashion Revolution provides multiple digital guides that are free to download and read on how to get involved and how to bring fashion sustainability into your community. You can also donate to help.

Author's Note Personally, I love shopping and retail therapy is one of my true joys in life. I own way more clothes than I need and I am a careless consumer who would buy things without a second thought of where it came from or who. My purpose in researching and finding out more about fast fashion and sustainability was to educate myself and to bring awareness to anyone who reads this so that maybe the next time they go shopping for clothes, they can stop and ask themselves if they really need it. To be able to stop and think about how this was made. To stop and think about what company would this be supporting and who are they supporting, if any. To be able to stop and consider other alternatives before making the final decision of purchasing. I still have so much to learn and practice. Nothing can happen overnight but sharing awareness, encouraging, and teaching one another about how to be a little more sustainable than they were the day before is truly the goal. One person’s actions may not seem like an impact but when many make that one decision before shopping to be a little more sustainable, so much can change. It can change the world.