Sustainability in the Fashion Industry

Sustainability in the Fashion Industry

     As Fashion Week comes to an end in New York, many are concerned with a big problem in the Fashion Industry: sustainability... or, lack thereof. Presented on the runway were many different collections made with things like recycled fishnets and reusable water bottles; there was even a show that was entirely inspired by rising sea levels.
     Though raising awareness for pollution and advocating for sustainability is a wonderful thing, advocating for environmental sustainability at Fashion Week couldn't be more ironic. According to an article on Gizmodo.com, "New York Fashion Week alone was responsible for 37 percent of the 241,000 tons of carbon emitted annually." But the events of Fashion Week alone aren't the problem here: it's the fashion industry itself. "It will have to to do more to clean up its act than putting on a few eco-conscious shows and buying some carbon offsets here and there."
     As the fashion industry grows, it changes, and new trends develop. Specifically with fast fashion, as clothes become more popular, production speeds up to meet consumers demands, resulting in brands churning out new collections as fast as possible. With this dilemma, high fashion designers are pressured to speed up their production as well, or else they will be ripped off by fast fashion brands who copy designs from collections shown at Fashion Week. Because of this, the amount of clothing production in the fashion industry has roughly doubled since 2000, now producing 150 billion items a year (that's 20 items per person on Earth). This insane increase in production has put a strain not only on workers who are pressured to make clothes faster than ever, but also on our planet.
     According to the United Nations, the clothing industry is responsible for some 10 percent of the world’s carbon emissions. Producing clothes also pollutes rivers and streams normally used for drinking water or agriculture, and as pollution increases, production of waste increases: worldwide, the equivalent of one garbage truck full of clothes is burned or dumped in a landfill every second, making Fashion Week a veritable drop in the bucket of an industry of waste. 
     Although it's nice to see designers taking steps to combat environmental problems caused by the industry by raising awareness, it isn't going to resolve the real issues. What needs to happen is the lowering of production levels.
https://earther.gizmodo.com/new-york-fashion-week-isnt-sustainable-but-neither-is-1841700190

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