Fanisi – Fashion Fantastic

Heather Kaye’s presentation was an insightful and very honest discussion about the unsustainability of fashion. Before the session I only knew that nylon as a synthetic fiber that was made of plastic, so it was quite surprising to learn about polyester as a fabric material. I was actually a bit skeptical of this until Heather showed as a video of how synthetic fabrics can be generated from shredded plastic. Another key takeaway for me was that amount of waste produced in every step of production in the fashion industry. Until now, when I use to thing fashion waste, I would think about clothes not being reuses and ending up in dumpsites. But after Heathers discussion of pre-consumer, shipping and post-consumer waster (as well as the inefficiency of recycling), I realised how much more wasteful the fashion industry is. I also realised that I had fallen for the marketing tricks of these big brands like H&M / Zara who advertise their ‘recycling’ initiatives when recycling is the least effective thing that they could be doing. Today’s session taught me that these businesses chose to do the bare minimum (and they don’t even do it well) rather than redesigning their business model in order to reduce waste at every step of garment production.

Again, as a consumer a lot of what I can do revolves around being selective about my shopping which has limited impact at an individual level. It would make much more of a difference if fast fashion brands were more committed to redesigning their supply chains or at the very least were held accountable for the waste that they put into the environment. Nonetheless, one of the things I appreciated about Heather’s presentation was the wide list of alternative fashion movements that I could support or join. For me, one of the most practical next steps is to use bespoke platforms like Etsy more often to buy clothes/accessories from smaller and more local businesses and cut down on some of the pre-consumer fashion waste. If I do shop at one of larger fast fashion chains, I would focus on brands that make the most durable clothing because I already tend to keep clothes for a long time or they are often handed down to my 17-year old sister – so it is inherently better for me to spend more upfront on more durable garments.