Saving the world, one blouse at a time

I have a funny little daydream in which I’m saving the world, one blouse at a time. In this fantasy life, I’m a handy, thrifty sort of person, scouring junk stores and charity shops, buying up old clothes and repurposing them: cutting, stitching, redesigning, fancifying, then selling them on in my own eco-boutique called Rags to Riches.

Nothing adds to the mountain of new clothes manufactured every day or goes to landfill with all the other cheapo T-shirts and one-season fashion items, because all of it is upcycled to be loved until it falls apart.

If you think this sounds like a good idea, and if you can sew – I’m no good beyond reattaching buttons – then please, be my guest. The world needs you. Because our endless desire for new clothes, for novelty, is … well, a problem. I say this as someone who just bought a new jacket, telling myself I needed it for the northern hemisphere winter. But need and want are not the same.

I have many coats, just none as pleasing as this one. I’m not alone though. The average consumer now buys 60% more clothing than they did 15 years ago, then wears it for less than half the time. Keeping in fashion is our addiction, shopping our therapy – and our desires are well catered for.

Clothing seasons used to last half a year, summer and winter. Now they last a few weeks. We point fingers at the usual climate change suspects, but the clothing and textile industry pumps out a massive amount of the world’s annual carbon dioxide emissions (1 715 million tons), almost double the shipping and aviation industries combined (940 and 895 million respectively).

The textile juggernaut is one of the biggest polluters on a planet, with fabric treatment and dyeing the second biggest contaminant of drinkable water, after agriculture. Our thirst for clothing consumes 79 billion cubic meters of water, and creates 92 million tons of waste.

Over 1 900 chemicals are used in its manufacture: 165 of these are deemed hazardous to either the environment or our health, according to European Union law. Suddenly my new jacket isn’t so lovely anymore. And my little shop looks like less of a fantasy and more of a necessity.

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