Fashion choices now extend beyond weather, mood or occasion

Who would have thought that deciding what to wear in the morning would turn into an environmental, social and political minefield?

What you choose to wear can no longer be determined only by weather, mood, occasion or hem length. Fast fashion and its detrimental impacts have changed this.

As we doomscroll through our timelines, we are faced with endless shocking facts and figures about the fashion industry.

So, what do we know? The fashion industry is a $2.4 trillion (about R36 trillion) global industry, employing about 300 million people, though many – especially women – earn little.

Fashion is responsible for 8% of greenhouse gas emissions, more than those of all international flights and maritime shipping combined.

Producing one kilogram of textiles uses over half a kilogram of chemicals and consumes huge quantities of water.

Fully one third of textiles are made from polyester (plastic) and fashion accounts for approximately 9% of annual microplastic losses to the oceans.

It is estimated that a dump truck of clothing is discarded every second of every day. Less than 1% of material used to produce clothing is recycled into new clothing. It’s an unsustainable sh*tshow. The most important change we need is the development of a circular economy in fashion.

The current system for producing, distributing, and using clothing operates is almost completely linear – clothes are
produced, sold and discarded – and produces far more clothing than we actually need.

The Ellen MacArthur Foundation argues for four changes.

We need to:

• Phase out the use of many kinds of toxic substances;
• Transform how clothes are designed, sold, and used;
• Radically improve recycling by transforming clothing design, collection, and reprocessing; and
• Make effective use of resources and move to renewable inputs.

The SA government has identified the clothing and textiles industry as a source of up to 160 000 new jobs by 2030 through increased localisation.

Jobs are – and should be – the focus of our collective efforts. But we should not be creating these jobs while destroying the planet.

We can’t allow manufacturers to overproduce garments made from cheap unsustainable fabrics that are treated as disposable items.

Renewable energy must power our manufacturing factories. We must invest in research and innovation of biomaterials and compostable textiles.

We must build a circular clothing and textiles industry that creates green jobs.

This is possible. We don’t have to look far to find solutions-orientated fashion designers. South Africa is home to some of the best and most respected contemporary fashion designers and they are pioneering a new fashion landscape that is inclusive, sustainable and responsible.

It’s designers like these who we need to celebrate and recognise.

It’s for these reasons that we launched the Twyg Sustainable Fashion Awards in 2019. We need to celebrate and recognise the designers, students, shoemakers, weavers and manufacturers who are dressing us, while being mindful of their impact on the planet and on people.

Winners have included Katekani Moreku, Lara Klawikowski, Sealand Gear, Amanda Laird Cherry and Tshepo Jeans.

Celebrating and publicising these amazing designers means that consumers have more information about how to avoid destructive practices, and how to help grow the sustainable fashion ecosystem.

Fashion is a rich medium of communication, expressing the state of the world and the state of our minds. It is also a medium through which we imagine a better future.

What you chose to wear today is critically important.